Backyard Blitz

Overview

Backyard Blitz was an Logie Award winning Australian lifestyle and DIY television program that aired on the Nine Network between 2000 through to 2007 before its cancellation. It was hosted by Jamie Durie and was produced by Don Burke. The show featured a very similar premise to the show Ground Force, in which a team of gardeners employed by the show descend on a supposedly worthy individual's place and improve the garden for the cameras within a specified time limit. This similarity in fact led to legal action being taken by the rival Seven Network who at the time was set to debut an Australian version of Ground Force. The show like many of its other lifestyle brethren was mainly watched by older viewers and was widely derided by younger viewers and television critics. However it was a strong ratings performer. On 14 November 2006 Backyard Blitz was axed by the Nine Network after seven years on air. Don Burke, whose own show Burke's Backyard was broadcast by Nine for nearly 18 years before it was axed in 2004, said his production company was "quite shocked by this decision". In mid-2007 Nine aired the six remaining unaired episodes that were filmed before the show was cancelled. In 2008, it aired a spin-off show Domestic Blitz hosted by Shelley Craft and Scott Cam