Season 3 premier of HGTV’s Design Star
For season 3 of HGTV’s Design Star the nine finalists would be living in and competing in Nashville, TN. But to get there they had to make it through the final auditions in Los Angeles. The top 39 contenders for HGTV’s next Design Star were put through three challenges for judges Vern Yip (host of HGTV’s Deserving Design), Martha McCully (Executive Editor of InStyle Magazine) and Cynthia Rowley (home and fashion designer). Clive Pearse, host of HGTV’s Designed to Sell is the host of the show.
Each of the 39 contenders had to complete three challenges. The first was a hosting challenge, where they were put in a fully designed set and told to “host” a television show. The second one was a carpentry challenge to test their construction skills where each contestant had to use power tools to create a perfect square. The final task was a presentation to the judging panel which included a question and answer session.
The nine finalists chosen to compete in Nashville are:
Tracee Dore, 35 years old from Louisville, KY
Michael Verdugo, 33 years old from Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Michael Stribling, 23 years old from College Station, TX
Matt Locke, 38 years old from Colorado Springs, CO
Jennifer Bertrand, 32 years old from Olathe, KS
D. Paul Derouen, 33 years old from Lafayette, LA
Jerome Scott Miller, 39 years old from Winston-Salem, NC
Stephanie Cook, 27 years old from Irvine, CA
Stephanie Cook made it here because she was the person selected by fans online .
The contestants are brought to a remote location. Each of them is expecting to be taken to this fabulous house, but reality comes crashing down on them. There are nine cots and sleeping bags, a supply of bottled water, a charcoal grill and supplies to build their house. With a fantastic entrance on a boat Clive joins them to give them their first challenge – the “build where you live” challenge. They have one week and a budget of $100,000 to build their house. The contestants are complaining that this can’t be done in seven days. We get the “to be continued” on the screen at the end of the show. I bet everyone is upset now that the design producer from Extreme Makeover Home Edition didn’t make it to the finals. She’d be perfect for this challenge. But then again maybe that’s why she didn’t make it. Who knows?
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