Adrian Portelli Spends Big Amid Disappointing Ratings

High-flying billionaire Adrian Portelli is

The controversial 37-year-old entrepreneur is a major sponsor of the renovation competition, which debuted on Tuesday.

Hyped as a rival to Channel Nine's The Block, the format sees four teams of renovators revamp two rundown properties in . 

During Tuesday's premiere episode, Portelli announced that MRR's winners would go home with a $100,000 cash prize.

But a new trailer dropped ahead of Wednesday's episode shows the cast react in shock and delight as Portelli tells them he is 'upping the ante' on the stakes.

'First place will now be competing for $1 million,' he said. 

As an added incentive to competitors, Portelli said he was giving away $250,000 for the runner-up.

Host Dr Chris Brown seemed genuinely taken aback by Portelli's generosity, telling the contestants, 'I did not know [about] this.'

Portelli will give away the completed houses, which are planned as luxury multi-level properties with glorious views of Melbourne's skyline.

The judges include design guru Neale Whitaker, founder of real estate buyers' agency Cohen Handler, Simon Cohen, and interior stylist Julia Green. 

Meanwhile, after months of teasers and Portelli's own heavy promotion via his social media, My Reno Rules was soundly beaten in the ratings by Nine's Travel Guides on Tuesday night. 

Scoring an average national total audience of 638,000 viewers, MRR was no match for Nine's reliably popular long-running hit, which premiered its seventh season on the same night.

The show about everyday Aussie globe-trotters pulled in an impressive national average audience of 1,025,000.

 It's a disappointing result for MRR after its troubled production made headlines last year.

Just weeks after the show was announced, a builder walked off the set.