Ask the Producer: Design Star Finale and Meg’s New Show!
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!
I stand by my idea. They need to judge the rooms blindly and then once they have a winner and a looser for that then they need to watch the camera challenges. It should be based solely on design at first. Then on the camera challenges. Anyone can get acting classes but true design is talent based.
I am frustrated that Carl didn't win but i see no reason to be mean to Meg.
Producers would there be a chance of doing any sort of "blind" judging of the work to make it completely unbiased and impartial? If not for the entire show but portions?
I agree the judges should not be told who designed the space before rating it.
If the potential design stars could walk through an already decorated space, then create a camera challenge for it. It would be interesting to see how each designer represents the same space.
Also, a good design challenge, would be, to furnish an entire space using Craigslist, thrift store, or yard sale purchases only.
Really good idea!
Kate — I have posted the same opinion for 4 weeks. The judges should NOT know who designed the room until AFTER they judge the room..
The show was fixed from the beginning because Meg should not have gotten past episode 3
Au contraire! Not to burst your bubble, but she should have gone the 2ND Week! – with her dreadful white box challenge that nearly got her booted off. With the salmon pink walls (which got Doug Hines booted the following week) and the creepy coffee grinds she attempted to make shadows with in addition to the table toppling over.
(btw- side note: no contestant has ever won has been at the bottom of the white box challenge until Meg!)
it really doesn't matter bc the show is fixed, and it would just be a farce where the judges would pretend not to know who did what project.
Who cares. The ratings are poor for past two winners and they would be poor for whomever won this year.
MEG? REALLY? i agree with all previous statements that Karl had the obvious talent ("genius" i think vern called him) and yet they picked the overrated Meg. That tiny house design by Karl should have locked him in as the winner. I cried when they announced Meg's name. No one will watch that show. NO one. And i don't think the judges should know who designs which room before they go in to assess it. They are WAY biased and base their critiques on how they feel about that person. Why would the network give Meg her own show??? i just don't get it. Karl is the true, consistantly great, and inspired designer. And he even came around for the camera after all. I'm so disappointed by Candice Olson if she voted for Meg… and she (Candice) was my hero. But she's right — there is so much design information "out there" that i'm just gonna quit watching hgtv all together. Why go do design school when the mantra of the Novogratzes is "no rules"??? And Vern Yip was, is, and always will be a joke, and he wears too much lipstick. >:- ) There, HGTV. Blog THIS.
right there with ya. stopped watching hgtv right after the final
I really wanted Karl to win and thought his designs were consistently better than the others. It doesn't really matter at all at the end of the day because the only show HGTV shows night after night after night is house hunters. I live in Denver and there are NO design shows on at night. I would watch Antonio or David's shows but am not usually home on a Saturday night. It would be nice if they showed any of these design shows at night after work. We are talking hours of repeated House Hunters and every night of the week. Complaints to HGTV to review their programming have proven unsuccessful.
House Hunters must be cheap to produce and that is why they have so much of it. If I want to look at houses for sale I just go to open houses in my area. I've quit watching HGTV pretty much for that reason, no originality and very little designing.
Ha. If you guys really want to rattle things up, you should start writing a complaint letter to the network execs. And if you REALLY want to take it all the way to the top, then find out who owns it and see if they care
I know most of you won't want to do that but just putting it out there since the producers of this show can't be bothered with us
Hey Loren – the notion that Karl and Meg "split the win" in the tiny house challenge is just insulting. True, you didn't announce a winner, but that doesn't mean that your viewers didn't perceive a winner. And that winner was Karl. His design was fully thought out, fully functional, and beautifully executed. In comparison, Meg's design was garish, not functional for actually living in the space, and poorly executed. I figured you didn't announce a winner so that you could send Karl and Meg into the finals as purported "equals," with two wins each. But Karl clearly won that challenge.
I agree. Plus they never did answer any of my posts about how the door to Megs mini house could not be fully opened because of the bathroom. Major fail.
Meg's biggest fail IMHO was the fact that you could not use her toilet room with the door closed. Personally, I do not want to sit on a toilet with the door open to the rest of my Tiny House. What do you do – close the curtains on the kitchen wall before you go to the toilet? Send your visitors outside so you can p*e? Go outside yourself when your visitors have to p*e? Tragically bad space planning.
sst-a, I totally agree!
It's clear that HGTV wanted Meg's personality and overlooked her lack of design talent. I don't get it – HGTV has a stable full of perky girls-next-door with questionable design talent whose shows have not done well. Why hire another one?
Why not hire the actual, honest to goodness season six design star? Karl. He is a first rate designer with a warm and inviting style on camera. And he offers something new for HGTV – a show that uses architectural details for inspiration. It's a brilliant concept and his pilot demonstrated that it would be a terrific show. I would watch it. Judging from these boards, so would a lot of other DS fans.
Here's hoping that someone at HGTV or Scripps is smart enough to give Karl the show that he so clearly deserved to win on DS.
As a loyal HGTV viewer I am both happy for Meg and disappointed for Karl. How about a way to satisfy all the Design Star viewers? The incredible camaraderie of most of the Design Star candidates truly gave this season an unusual positive energy that was a joy to behold. This was epitomized in the final challenge where Karl was reunited with Mark and Kevin. What a dynamic trio!!!! Their respect and affection for each other as well as their individual design strenghts and personalities would prove a winning combination for a future HGVT show.
I look forward to Design Star each year and HGTV is still my "Go To" channel but the fans are restless. While I liked the design challenges this year, I am disappointed in the final outcome. Perhaps the producers will take some time to glance through our messages and consider changes. I suggest adding 2-3 fans to help in the mentoring process; fans could check in during each challenge and ask questions or make comments. This would give the designers an oppotunity to discuss their theories and educate us!
I like that idea. After all it is normal people on budgets who live in houses that watch HGTV.
Years ago, I watched so much HGTV, their logo was literally burned on my screen. My husband was overwhelmed with ideas I wanted to recreate in our home. I had a notebook filled. Sadly, so many designers/shows have gone by the wayside & there is very little I now watch. I can't tell you the last time I saw something I wanted to duplicate…until Karl's designs, that is.
It should be apparent viewers are unhappy. In a good contest, as many folks would be happy with who won as distraught over who didn't. FAR more people wanted Karl & are rabidly upset esp. given the previous 2 years. HGTV has lost sight of what viewers want. Isn't it ironic that immediately after selecting Meg, they realized how rude the concept for her show was & changed it?
I don't dislike Meg but have no desire to watch her show. Will not watch DS again unless they go back to letting viewers choose. Wouldn't it be great if the producers reacted by giving Karl a show, too, but that would be admitting they made a mistake & I don't think they will do that.