House Rules Renovates its Ratings Unexpected Cinderella story ... Johanna Griggs The Cinderella story in reality television is meant to be about the contestants, not the show itself, however House Rules has turned out to be the ultimate television fixer-upper, as its ratings have mimicked the houses it centres on, transforming from eyesore to boasting point in a matter of weeks. Cast your mind back to the middle of May. Seven launched House Rules on the back of a very successful My Kitchen Rules (MKR) season, with hopes that this would be the renovation equivalent of the cooking juggernaut. Of course there was concern it might flop, based in part on the last renovation show cobbled together from a food-based reality show, The Renovators, which rapidly became a lead weight to Ten's ratings in 2011. House Rules finalists Steve and Michelle from NSW and Carly and Leighton from South Australia Nonetheless, Seven sent House Rules out into the world ... and it landed with a thud loud enough to rival the heftiest of cement bags. Craig Mathieson called it a "a predictable and manufactured competition" and the ratings seemed to agree, as a first-night audience of 803,000, which was passable, sank to 687,000 by the end of the first week. The first episode was confused and confusing. Audiences were meant to revel in a panic about sandy foundations before being able to name a single contestant or having any real sense of how the competition worked or what the prize was. House Rules versus The Block Sky High ratings It's easy to laugh at the MasterChef-style repetitive re-introductions inserted after every commercial break to inform the goldfish among us what has transpired in the previous 10 minutes, but House Rules went the other way and paid the price. Reality television was demanding patience and genuine curiosity from an audience seeking escapism, melodrama and schadenfreude. It was almost a fatal flaw. Host Johanna Griggs predicted the lack of drama between couples before the show aired. "I think the first series of any show in this type of format is always the nicest because the contestants don't know how to play it or manipulate it," she said. There is no real nastiness. There is no horrible team that is there just to mix things up and say horrible things about other people. It's just really likeable, everyday Australians. She was right, and it almost killed the show. The numbers were such that there was speculation the show might migrate to 7Mate, the digital channel equivalent of a polite axeing. Instead Seven doubled down, swiftly scheduling repeats of all the episodes over the first weekend after it aired. Receip for confusion: We were told six couples would compete for a "life-changing prize" in House Rules. "We stuck by it basically because we believed in it," says Seven's director of network production Brad Lyons who is also one of the show's creators. So we looked at how we were promoting it and looked at who we were promoting to and changed a little bit. What they promoted was the format. The initial publicity had been mysterious. Even the ultimate prize was a secret, edited out of the episodes sent to the media for preview purposes. Too much mystery, though, made for audience confusion. "Who will win?" became "why am I watching?" Seven knew there was a problem. "MKR started off at around a million," Lyons says of the cooking success story that he also created. In hindsight, they had come up with something new, but skimped on the foundations. When there's a brand new format that has brand new rules, it's a brand new game. People think you just chuck a format up there and away you go, but there's a lot of boxes to tick when you're creating a show from scratch. One of them is making sure the audience can understand what's happening pretty quickly. The promotional advertising changed to focus on explanation. It worked. "Once we changed a bit of tack and once the audience knew they were going to see a result pretty quickly they sort of came in," Lyons admits. We got the message out there that a makeover was coming in a couple of days, that really sort of helped us. Seven also had to reassure those involved in the show. We just said 'look, stick together, don't lose faith. If we can get them there they'll stick around.' And so we managed to get them there and they've stuck around which has been great. Fast forward to last week and House Rules was the top-rating show across the country on two nights, and probably would have claimed a third night were it not for State of Origin. The show, and particularly its marketing, have been renovated, and the ratings have reflected the changes. House Rules Week Begin The Block Sky High 12 May 19 May 26 May 2 June 9 June 16 June 23 June Last night, House Rules had a one-off Sunday-night episode to catch up on the night lost to football last week. The Block Sky High won their head-to-head battle as its room reveal is nearly always its biggest night, yet House Rules finished a very tidy fifth overall. 60 Minutes 1.58m The Block Sky High 1.5m Nine News 1.5m Seven News 1.36m House Rules semi final #2 1.28m Tonight's final between Steve and Michelle from NSW and Carly and Leighton from South Australia, battling for the prize of becoming mortgage free, should easily be top show for the night and probably the week. "We're very, very happy," says Lyons. When you're launching a new show that people have to get their head around its always very risky because it is a brand new format. People have come to it now that they understand what's going on. The press release for the final stays on message, as it jumps straight into explaining the challenge. The two teams will return to the home of their competitors for the final renovation challenge of the series. The couples have just three days to transform one last remaining space at their opponent's home into whatever they choose. Viewers will then vote for the winner as the grand final will be broadcast live from both teams' newly renovated homes. Seven also gave the show the ultimate thumbs up, announcing on Sunday that they will make a second series next year. "We're casting at the moment and we have been overwhelmed with the response," says Lyons. It's a remarkable turnaround for a show that looked set to be condemned only a month-and-a-half ago, yet proof that network belief can make a world of difference. "We haven't radically altered the show at all, we've changed how we promote it," says Lyons. A necessary change that has delivered a genuine success story in the end, no matter whose mortgage gets paid off.