News you should know that you may have missed over the past week: HGTV’s Design Star has been cancelled after seven seasons, according to judge Vern Yip, who said he’s “disappointed” but also said life is “about changes and change is not always bad.” The show had potential but wasn’t great in recent seasons, especially… continue reading
Design Star
Design Star All-Stars: weird
Immediately after concluding the latest season of Design Star, HGTV debuted a new season of the show. Design Star: All Stars, which concluded last night after just four episodes. It was, however, bizarre, and it magnifies everything that’s wrong with its sibling show. First, if these six people were the most memorable, best designers from… continue reading
Design Star rebounds, improves on its earlier self after its terrible fifth season
Design Star rebounded this season, its sixth season, thanks to no-brainer changes to the show’s structure, better challenges, and the addition of season-one winner David Bromstad as the contestants’ mentor. After the series fired the producer who created it, Mark Burnett and his team came in and, surprisingly, wrecked it. But HGTV smartly brought in… continue reading
In season six, Design Star finally fixes its judging: hallelujah
The first episode of Design Star‘s sixth season ended with a surprise: the show has finally started showing the judges’ deliberation, so we know why they are making decisions. It’s a miracle! That isn’t difficult, but the show has stubbornly refused to show us the judges’ deliberations for years, instead cutting between disconnected footage of… continue reading
Design Star returns with new producers: Mark Burnett replaced by Food Network Star’s producers
HGTV’s Design Star returns tonight, and there’s good news for those of us who think last season was an unmitigated disaster: For the third time in three seasons, the show has a new production company, as it is now produced by the company that produces the outstanding Next Food Network Star. (It was originally produced… continue reading
Design Star adds a host, guest judges, and mentor David Bromstad
Design Star is making changes for its sixth season, which hopefully will put it from the depths of awfulness it reached last summer thanks to its poor makeover. While the HGTV series is sticking with judges Genevieve Gorder, Candice Olson, and Vern Yip, who were insufferable last season, they will not be judging alone, nor… continue reading
Design Star’s creator SallyAnn Salsano on being fired by HGTV, Mark Burnett’s version
Jersey Shore creator SallyAnn Salsano told me that being fired by HGTV from another popular reality show she created, Design Star, “really hurt my feelings,” but that watching Mark Burnett’s version of the show made her realize that she and her team are “geniuses.” Today, in The Daily Beast, I profile SA, as she’s known,… continue reading
Design Star now casting, which means HGTV intends to bring it back despite last season
HGTV apparently intends to air a sixth season of Design Star despite the absolute disaster of a season that just concluded in August. The new season is now casting via a series of open casting calls, and the application indicates that production on the next season will take place Feb. 15 through May 10.
HGTV’s new Mark Burnett-produced Design Star ends, and “what a disaster” it was
On HGTV’s Design Star earlier this season, judge Vern Yip said of the losing team’s design, “What a disaster!” The same could be said for this season of the show, which, despite being taken over by Survivor executive producer Mark Burnett and his team, actually got worse. It concluded last night, with Emily Henderson winning… continue reading
Clive Pearse out as HGTV Design Star host; judges will act as hosts
After four seasons of hosting Design Star, Clive Pearse is out as part of the makeover the series is getting for its fifth season, which debuts in June. Clive Pearse will not appear at all this season, and an HGTV spokesperson told me that there’s “no designated host” because the three “judges are now taking… continue reading
Design Star’s Mikey Verdugo suing police department for firing him over his gay porn
Design Star cast member Michael Verdugo was uninvited from the show’s reunion and fired from his job as a cop when his gay bondage porn work was revealed, and now he going to sue his former Florida police department. The Miami Herald reports that “Hollywood police put Verdugo on administrative leave with pay” in the… continue reading
Mark Burnett Productions takes over HGTV’s Design Star for season five
Survivor and Apprentice executive producer and creator Mark Burnett’s company will produce the fifth season of HGTV’s Design Star, which is now casting. This is the second producer change a month for a 495 Productions-produced show. The company previously produced Design Star and also produced Oxygen’s Dance Your Ass Off‘s first season, but was replaced… continue reading
Vern Yip says Antonio Ballatore won Design Star because of his “distinctive voice”
On Sunday, Antonio Ballatore won HGTV’s fourth Design Star, beating Dan Vickery. After three seasons of letting viewers select the winner, the show dropped viewer voting and let the two new judges and Vern Yip decide, and they picked Antonio because he “has such a distinctive voice as a designer,” Vern Yip told me a… continue reading
HGTV’s Design Star returns without viewer vote but with new judges
One of my two favorite summer competition series, HGTV’s Design Star, returns tonight for its fourth season at 10 p.m. ET. Like Food Network’s Next Food Network Star, the competition awards its winner a show on the network, but for the first three seasons, HGTV’s version let the public select its new star. This year,… continue reading
HGTV’s Design Star 4 now casting
Design Star, the HGTV series that looks for a new host for the cable network, is casting for its fourth season, which an announcement says will “[have] a whole new layout.” Production for the show, which typically airs in the summer, will take place over six weeks between “approximately February 26 – April 30, 2009,”… continue reading