Sam and Emmett crowned winners of The Block NZ: Girls Vs Boys

  • 14/08/2016
Sam and Emmett crowned winners of The Block NZ: Girls Vs Boys

After weeks of renovations, Sam and Emmett have been crowned the winners of The Block NZ: Girls Vs Boys for 2016.

Sunday night's live auction finale saw the friends from Palmerston North sell their house for well over the reserve at $1.61 million.

Combined with their first place prize, their total winnings come to $480,000.

As the auctions got underway, each team made more than $150,000 in profit.

Second place went to Dunedin girls Emma and Courtney, whose house sold for $1.51 million.

Dyls and Dylz took away the People's Choice award to drive away with a new car.

The show kicked off with hosts Mark and Shelley complimenting how well each of the contestants had dressed for the evening - rightfully so, as they were all looking great, with Dyls and Dylz even covering their tattooed arms for the first time in the series.

Mark then excitedly announced the Homestar ratings of the teams, which were high thanks to their water restrictions, solar panelling and other eco-friendly features. A normal Kiwi home gets a rating of two or three out of 10, Mark said, but The Block NZ: Girls Vs Boys homes each got six - except for Emma and Courtney, who earned the top rating of seven.

Thousands of screaming fans were seen lined up outside the houses for the open homes in a recap segment, with each of the teams surprised at how far people had travelled and how passionate they were.

The People's Choice Award was then announced, with Dyls and Dylz putting their win down to being "boof heads" and honest Kiwi blokes who say what they mean without sugar-coating anything. The award means the pair will be taking home a brand new Honda HR-V Sport.

Sam and Emmett won the right to choose the auction order and played it up dramatically while announcing each team's turn, citing "people" who "do things" as advising them on strategic choices.

Twitter was shocked they chose to go last.

"House One, the first house on The Block, is the first house ... on the block," Mark said before the ad break, just before Niki and Tiff's house was auctioned.

The opening bid of the evening was $950,000, quickly beaten with a bid of $1 million. The crowd was demure and polite, the auctioneer valiantly encouraging higher bids before finishing at $1.32 million - meaning Niki and Tiff made $150,000 between the two of them.

Emma and Courtney also saw an opening bid of $950,000, with the auctioneer quickly having to show a little sass and refer to the rules as some bidders got a bit overzealous. Bidders were noticeably more nervous and excited in this auction, with a nice mix of smarmy sitters and standing fast-talking phone users staking their claims.

After a fair few bids went well over the minimum next bid, the auctioneer provided lots of advice and tut-tutting: "hesitation is expensive". Excitement grew as the final two bidders egged each other higher and higher, finally settling on a whopping $1.51 million.

Emma and Courtney broke The Block NZ record with that haul, taking home $300,000 from the deal. The previous record was held by 2014's Alex & Corban, with a sale of $1.552 million, earning the pair $227,000.

Tattooed dude bros Dyls and Dylz gave each other a fist pump before their house went up for auction and stood arm in arm as the auctioneer gave a flowery introduction.

The crowd favourites raced past the $1 million mark in seconds, before coming to a halt on $1.341 million - giving the lads a profit of $151,000, which they described as "hissing" while flashing "hang loose" Hawaii signs.

Recapping Sam and Emmett's time on the show, they emphasised how much they wanted to stay in the good books of the other teams, also strongly favouring strategy.

The auctioneer promised they had saved the best for last with Sam and Emmett's home, seemingly reflected in the opening bid going straight to $1 million, and rising to $1.4 million in less than half a minute.

Sam and Emmett were the most entertaining team to watch as their house was auctioned - leaping about and fist-pumping and carrying on, even pelvic-thrusting as the figure kept on rising.

The staggering final price of $1.61 million, with a record total of $480,000 going to the overjoyed pair, saw them jump about even more. They each gave Mark a high-five, Emmett exclaiming disbelief at how "two muppets with no discernible talents" hauled in such a result.

Mark seemed almost as happy as the pair were, thanking them for ensuring a sixth season of the show would go ahead.

The Block NZ has been tuned into by 2.5 million viewers to date this year, with 1.2 million in TV3's core target of viewers aged 25-54.

Last night's show earned a whopping 37 percent share, earning the 2016 show better ratings than it received last season.

Online viewing of The Block NZ has grown, with weekly stream views up 17 percent year-on-year overall. Growth has been most significant in the short form streams of additional content, which are up 45 percent year-on-year, and long form and live stream viewing have also increased.

Casting is open for The Block NZ 2017, MediaWorks chief content officer Andrew Szusterman has confirmed.

Newshub.