Stephanie is sent home on HGTV’s Design Star

After last week’s individual challenge, this week’s episode of Design Star had the remaining six contestants working in teams of three. The teams were chosen “playground style” in the words of Clive Pearse – each designer selected a paint can and the ones who got the stars would be the team leaders. Jennifer and Trish got that role. Going alphabetically Jennifer picks first and picks Matt. Trish said she needed a carpenter so she picked Mikey V. Jennifer picks Stephanie and Tracee (not the contestant’s favorite because she is not known for her ability to work well or play well with others) was on Trish’s team. Clive reveals the challenge – to redesign a suite at the Opryland Hotel with inspiration provided by country music star Sarah Evans. The two teams had the opportunity to meet with Sarah in her home and learn what she likes in terms of design, style, and what she would look for in a hotel suite. They had 28 hours and a budget of $15,000 to complete the project.

Both teams seemed to work well together – even Tracee wasn’t too hard to work with. There was an issue on team Jennifer and Stephanie’s shopping – she was gone for a good part of work day 2 and didn’t buy all the items they needed. Matt was upset saying that if you were gone that long then you should have been able to buy everything. Plus Stephanie bought a couch on day 3 that was not able to be brought up to the suite – it was too large to fit in a elevator or through the doorway of the stairwell. There was no time for a plan B so team Jennifer had to go without it, leaving part of the suite bare.

When the challenge was completed Clive has a surprise for the contestants. They were going to have a “hosting” challenge and were given a few minutes to prepare a bit on the hotel and what they did and why they were there. They each had three takes to get it right. Trish flourished in the challenge, while Matt did well too. Vern Yip said later that Mikey V. scared him.

Sarah Evans liked both suites but had some critiques on team Jennifer’s suite. She was overwhelmed and just loved team Trish’s suite. She even said that hands down that was the Sarah Evans suite. The judges agreed and loved that suite too. They had some serious problems with the other suite, one of them being the lack of a sofa. The judges asked who was responsible for it at first and they hemmed and hawed (it seemed as if no one wanted to throw Stephanie under the bus). After being pressured by the judges the three of them fess up as to who did what, and Stephanie admits to being responsible for the sofa problem.

After deliberations the judges tell Matt that his contributions were obvious and he was safe. In the end Stephanie was sent home. The judges said she was not able to articulate her role in the challenge. And isn’t that a big part of the winner’s responsibility as host of their own HGTV show – to be able to clearly communicate with the public?

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