Each week, Design Star producer Loren Ruch gives us the inside scoop on the show.  After this week’s finale, he discusses the panel’s final deliberation. Plus, what you can expect from Meg’s new show HGTV’s Great Rooms.

It must have been hard for the design panel to choose between these two talented designers! What made them ultimately choose Meg as the winner?
It was an extremely tough decision because our design panel liked both Meg and Karl so much.  In fact, the deliberation took nearly four hours!  They reviewed all of the camera challenges and design challenges, and ultimately selected Meg as the winner.  Meg and Karl had each won two challenges throughout the season, and then split the win in the tiny houses episode, so it was a very, very even competition all the way around.

What was it like for Meg to meet so many of the HGTV talent right after the win?
Meeting our HGTV talent was a huge moment for Meg. When she said “Oh my God, you’re all real,” it was a true ‘light bulb’ moment.  She told me it was in that moment she realized winning Design Star was a life-changing event!

The original concept for the Meg’s series was Design Crimes. How did that idea evolve into HGTV’s Great Rooms?
If I’m going to be completely honest, HGTV’s Great Rooms is the same show as Design Crimes.  Meg uses her criminology background to investigate the crimes in her fellow Chicagoans homes, and then redesign the spaces to be more beautiful.  This may sound crazy, but I believe that there’s power in words, so instead of focusing on something negative (like the word “crimes”) I’d rather we focus on the positive (like “great”), which is why we changed it to HGTV’s Great Rooms.  “Great” is a double entendre in the show, because not all of the rooms are true great rooms, but they are all GREAT!

When did Meg’s show begin filming?
Meg’s show started to shoot about three weeks after we completed production of Design Star.  She needed to get working on her designs immediately following our finale.  Honestly, she hasn’t slept much since we started shooting Design Star back in March!

Can you give us any clues about what we can expect from Meg’s new show? What did you think were the best on-set moments?
I can say this with 100 percent sincerity – I think that Meg’s makeovers in HGTV’s Great Rooms are some of the biggest and best makeovers that I’ve ever seen on our air.  I truly believe that our viewers will be blown away by the level of talent she displays in this show.  By the way, HGTV’s Great Rooms debuts Saturday at 6pm ET/PT – so set your DVR’s!!  Learn more about Meg’s new show >>

Note:  The picture is one of our entire crew – look at how many people it takes to get a show like this on the air!  I want to take this opportunity to thank the best crew in the business, and the best viewers in the world…we love our HGTV fans!

Liz Gray is a writer and senior editor for HGTV.com. She lives in a midcentury tri-level that’s stuck in the ‘70s…for now. When she’s not working on remodeling projects with her boyfriend and mystery breed puppy, Miles, you can find her buying impractical hats, baking homemade pies and drooling over Danish modern furniture.