Summer series: they keep me sane during the regular TV season break. And since reality TV is cheap to produce there’s a ton of it. Two of the best are Next Food Network Star and HGTV’s Design Star. Because only one of them has a real plug into real estate, I’ll just talk about Design Star.
The first episode of season 5 premiered yesterday and my enthusiasm was met with a giant yawn from HGTV. The designers are qualified and are all type-A personality prima donnas and they’re supposed to be. Unfortunately, since the first challenge wasn’t a group challenge we didn’t get to see any bickering or genuine drama. It was a giant snoozer.
Not to mention the fact that they opened this season’s competition with one of the classic challenges: The White Box. The designers are given a white room and are supposed to turn it into magazine/television-caliber work with $500 they can only spend at an Asian market. This is usually a mid-season challenge that seperates the wheat from the chaff. Instead it showed that everyone cast this season are left-overs. None of the rooms could hold a candle to contestants of previous seasons. Most of the rooms looked like a teenage attempt at design, especially Julie’s and Tom’s rooms. Tom threw together a modge-podge of Asian aesthetics that was completely monotone. Julie’s painting technique looked like a four year old got hold of the paint, then plucked the feathers off a thosand geese.
Nina won the first challenge, but there was some controversy- the night’s only real drama. When the judges asked if her designer got her personality right she said, “no,” and made up some BS about wanting something Bohemian; thus, the awkwardly named Courtland ended up in the bottom 6.
My personal favorite was Casey’s room. Nina went to an Asian market, brough back Asian aesthetics, and designed an Asian-themed room. Not exactly the most original idea. Casey, however, managed to create an interesting Caribbean space. Tera’s room was pleasing to the eye, but was completely comercial. You could probably find that same setup at a Rooms-To-Go or Ikea.
Season 5 is starting to look like no match for Season 4, but I’ll keep watching, hoping for some honest-to-goodness drama and TV-show deserving talent. Food Network Star is much more entertaining.
You can watch all the seasons of HGTV Design Star on Hulu and can find more information on this season’s contestants and episodes at HGTV.com.