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The Block’s Shaynna Blaze responds to Scott Cam’s ‘bitch’ comment

Designing woman: Shaynna Blaze was all smiles at the AACTA Awards in Sydney in December 2016.

Designing woman: Shaynna Blaze was all smiles at the AACTA Awards in Sydney in December 2016. Photo: Getty

The Block‘s resident interior designer Shaynna Blaze has accepted host Scott Cam’s apology for his “poor judgement” after he called the show’s lone female judge a “bitch” on Sunday night’s show.

“They have made up. They have absolutely made up,” a spokesperson for Blaze’s management company, Bravo, told The New Daily.

“I have not spoken to Shaynna today but as far as I am concerned, she and Scott have spoken and she understands that is was said in jest.”

Gold Logie winner Cam, 54, levelled the word at Blaze when revealing her scores for The Block contestants’ front gardens.

He looked at the assembled group and joked, “Some high scores and some low scores. And that Shaynna’s a bitch, isn’t she?”

Former wedding singer and mother-of-two Blaze, 54, was not present during the scene, which lit up social media with viewers accusing Cam of sexism.

An industry source told The New Daily “you could draw the conclusion” that the failure to edit out the comment from a pre-recorded show was a “deliberate and smart” attempt to court attention before Sunday’s live finale.

“When someone on the last season of My Kitchen Rules called another contestant a slut, ratings spiked and held,” said the source.

“It probably doesn’t reflect that well on Scott, but it’s a pretty standard pre-conceived move. I imagine there’s no beef at all between Scott and Shaynna.”

The controversy saw Cam swiftly undertake was called “a whistlestop apology tour” on various radio stations.

scott cam

Scott Cam has been hosting The Block since 2010. Photo: AAP

“Look, obviously I said [bitch]  in complete jest, and I’ve said it to get a rise out of the contestants,” he defended himself to Hit105’s Stav, Abby and Matt with Osher.

“I’ve rung Shaynna and apologised. We’re fantastic friends and we’ve worked together for a lot of years.”

“She’s incredible – she’s a great designer, she’s a great person, she’s a great judge. She’s certainly not ‘that’.”

Cam repeated his public mea culpa on Fitzy and Wippa’s Nova 969 morning show, saying: “Sometimes I’m an idiot. It was disrespectful … I shouldn’t have done it.”

Despite the assurances Blaze was fine with the off-the-cuff sledge, some viewers of the Nine renovation juggernaut asked whether Cam would describe male judges Darren Palmer and Neale Whitaker in similar language.

Nine declined to comment to The New Daily on whether the comment could have been edited out of the episode before it went to air, or whether Blaze had complained to the network about her treatment.

Cam extended the terms of his apology in a Nine statement, offering it not just to Blaze but to “anyone else who was offended” by his ‘bitch’ comment.

“It is not how I feel about Shaynna at all. There was no hurt or insult intended by anyone.”

The statement echoed the defence Cam was trying to soften the blow for disappointed contestants.

“I respect Shaynna enormously and the fact is that as judges Shaynna, Neale and Darren have a tough job of critiquing rooms/spaces.

“Someone will often feel hard done by if they don’t receive the scores they are hoping for.”

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