MEET THE CONTESTANTS

Everything you need to know about season 21 of the reality favourite

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Grab your hard hat - The Block is back! In its 21st season, the reality renovation show heads to Daylesford, Victoria, with five new contestant couples putting their skills to the test designing and creating homes worthy of multimillion-dollar price tags.

Host Scott Cam returns for his 19th season as friend, sometime parental figure and mentor to the contestants, joined by Shelley Craft, and judges Shaynna Blaze, Darren Palmer and Marty Fox.

In a first for the show, the houses - which are all the same size and layout - will be built from scratch. They'll also require no demolition, with just the frames completed when the contestants arrive.

Rule changes also include a ban on all-nighters, with the site locked every night.

EMMA, 33 & BEN,32 VIC 'PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF!'

It was seventh time's the charm for pole dancing instructor Em and her engineer husband of three years Ben getting on The Block - but they agree it was well worth the wait!

“Definitely,” enthuses Ben. “From what we’ve seen, I reckon this one was the better one to go on. We would have been very young and naive if we’d gotten on the first year we applied.”

With two house renovations under their belt in the years since they first applied, the couple went into the show feeling confident in their ability to tackle the whole-house builds.

“We've done two renos and a house build in the last seven years, so we've learned a lot,” Em says. While the pair thought Ben’s engineering background would give them a slight leg-up, it turns out that because all the steel frames were already up, they were on even footing with their competitors.