The Block Has Been Hit With a Cheating Scandal — Here’s What You Need to Know

When one thinks of The Block, they think of renovation, homes and interior design. However, that seems to have changed since last year, because The Block was hit with its first cheating scandal.

It was a huge debacle that went on for what seemed like centuries, but it brought in the ratings, which is why the show decided to milk it.

Now, the series has been hit with another cheating incident, with Ankur and Sharon front and centre.

So, What Happened?

On Tuesday night’s episode of The Block: Tree Change, the Blockheads jumped in a helicopter to check out an aerial view of their properties and see all of the progress they’d made so far.

The brief helicopter ride landed at the luxurious Levantine Hill, and the teams were in high spirits.

Despite landing at a winery, the contestants weren’t there to taste wine. Instead, they were about to discover their new challenge, which came with a prize of $50,000 worth of wine.

The task was to recreate Levantine Hill’s 2015 Samantha’s Paddock Wine.

Host Scott Cam explained that most red wines are a blend of different grapes, and that the contestants would be given a selection of grapes to mix together.

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The teams began to taste and smell the wine to try and understand the blend, but Ankur and Sharon decided to take a different route.

The two turned to Google to find the tasting notes for the 2015 Samantha’s Paddock Wine, and found out the exact quantities they needed to recreate the blend.

It didn’t take them long to finish their wine — nine minutes to be precise. Their fellow contestants finished an hour later.

Their tactic left everyone furious, and it didn’t help that they were chosen as the winner almost immediately by Levantine Hill’s chief winemaker.

Did They Actually Cheat?

After the winner was announced, Scott asked Ankur and Sharon what technique they used, but rather than admitting to using Google, they said they just know wine really well.

The other teams didn’t buy it.

“After the challenge, the thoughts were that Shaz and Anks obviously had to Google the recipe,” Ryan said.

Even Omar agreed that something wasn’t right, telling the other teams, “Apparently, Anks’ [wine] was almost identical.” 

However, Ankur and Sharon are adamant that they did not cheat.

“We weren’t telling the other contestants we Googled it, because – as has been made clear by all the contestants — it’s a competition and it was time for us to finally get competitive too,” Sharon told TV WEEK.

“We knew the wine well and have been presented it many times. We knew it wasn’t cheating, because it wasn’t against the rules to search it.”

The couple said they eventually told the teams that they had the tasting notes, and everyone seemed to be fine with it.

In tonight’s episode, Scott and Shelly will meet with Ankur and Sharon, so this is definitely not the last we’ll hear about this.