Awe, I've always like this show and am a huge fan of David Bromstad. Candice Olsen is very good at what she does, but her style is too heavy and often cluttered for my taste. I think Genevieve Corder is a great new addition to the channel and show. She's very down to earth and her design style seems more realistic and attainable for the average person. As for Vern Yip, I hadn't really seen any of his work until he did a show last year and I'm not really sure how he got to be so popular, I didn't think he was very creative at all.

Interesting...Vern I've liked because he *listens* to homeowners and comes up with workable solutions. So does Genevieve, and Candice brings a higher-end vibe, partly since she's a functioning designer who didn't get her start on 'trading spaces' kinds of shows!

I think it's a great group of judges there and I'm actually looking forward to hearing what they have to say. If they live up to their past results, which we know of course are no guarantee of future performance :)

There was a silly poll at the show website--asking who was your favorite Design Star winner -- and David Bromstad came in WAY ahead of the other two. I really never understood either of the other winners (not that I thought the other contenders were so fabulous) - here's hoping there's a David in this group. But at least the talk will be more intelligent and we won't have that third judge (not Cynthia Rowley, whose work I honestly have never loved at all) always trying to come on to the good looking guys :)

OOOOHHHH Flyleft!!! I've never heard that before about that judge! LOL!!! That's hilarious, never even dawned on me that there might be some flirting going on! LOL! To be honest I was pretty tickled to see they had made a change in judges. The judges were so consistant with their comments (same thing every week) they really needed to make some kind of a change. David Bromstad's Color Splash is one of my favorite shows, the network (and viewers) really got lucky when they discovered him.

I will probably wait to hear from others if it is about Design first and not about stirred up personal conflict and drama.

David is superior IMO to the following winners because that first season concentrated less on the "personalities" and more on abilities. This probably affects who gets chosen to compete in the first place.
(I didnt watch *that season until it was half over because of one of the promos of David with his shirt off, and I thought "Oh no, one of those famous by any means people" I was wrong about him, no thanks to what the network promoted.)

Most design TV has turned away from design and to personalities in conflict: One of the promos has Gen saying to Candace "Oh, you wanna fight about it?" C'mon.
I recently watched Debbie Travis's new show. The intro was about a guy complaining about not being able to do laundry. The first segment was about the same and his confrontation with Debbie. The post commercial recap was about the guy complaining about not being able to do laundry and Debbie being a b*tch. I have NO IDEA what the SHOW WAS BUILDING?. I turned it off.

palimpsest. I rarely watch HGTV anymore because of all the drama either. It's just sickening to me. I get more fun out of the forums than I have in years on HGTV. I rarely even visit their website for the same reason. Even Rate My Space (not the show) has fallen away from my desire. Granted I don't care for any form of "reality TV". It's all about bickering. Give me Bones, the Mentalist, Eureka and so many other shows, that make me laugh, any day!

Yeah, all the shows that people with any measure of maturity enjoy and have now for the most part been canceled. GRRRRR....

i really like David B! just started watching him a few months ago.
have only watch maybe 1 show with Genevieve and part of another. I thought her show was gonna be more about showing her off than decorating. but what i did see I like so far.

Aw man, palimpsest...I have to say I haven't watched HGTV in a L-O-N-G time, probably since the last DS finished. I'm really already now expecting the worst from it, from that inane promo you describe. That will truly be the last nail in the coffin of HGTV, IMO, if they can drag Candice Olson down into that pandering nonsense. :(

I'm thrilled at the addition of Candace and Genevieve.

Vern seemed to accuse so many contestants of being a "one trick pony" while on this show, he was doing a lot of the same. Perhaps that's due to sponsorship of his show dictating materials, but it was sometimes hard to hear him pick apart the contestants.

Candace and Genevieve definitely have a "style", but their designs seem much more diverse and I'm excited to see what they'll add to the judges panels on the show.

Someone from this general area is on the show, too. She's an in-store designer at Ethan Allen.

I thought I read here that Candace was ending her show, but that doesn't seem to be the case (this new season started after I heard that). Perhaps she's really tied to HGTV Canada, which seems far superior to the US HGTV. I kind of wish we could cut out the HGTV America (turn it in to the real estate channel) and get HGTV Canada.

I've been waiting patiently since I saw who was judging! I've been set up to record for sme time now.

Genevieve did some great work last night, IMO...really taught and adjudicated rather than just "judged", iykwim. She explained how she read what she saw and helped the contestants take what they'd done to the next step. I hope she doesn't lose that, because Candice was a bit less enlightening -- I like this, I don't like that, etc.

There are several true contenders in terms of ability this year, it seems. The difference between the "self-taught decorators"(not denigrating them at all but the confidence of choice and speed in execution comes when you've already been under the professional gun) and the ones with real experience showed clearly.

Seems they all read their pre-show memo about gunmetal blue gray...

I just watched it yesterday afternoon during kiddies nap time. I too was looking very forward to it - so what did you all think?

Okay about the past yrs. winners - I do watch Color Splash although sometimes I think he misses the mark but not too often. I've always liked David. I remember last yrs. winner (please don't bring her show back!). Who was the other winner? Sad - I can't remember.

I watched it Monday night and it was pretty good. Like Flyleft, I really liked the way Genevieve critiqued what she saw and think the contestants have their hands full with Candice. Looks like both the girls are going to be tough cookies! Poor Vern! Yes, I think there are a couple in there that have potential, but it's really too early to tell.

ttodd, are you referring to Kim Miles "Miles of Style"? I watched her show a couple of times and was not impressed. Not to sound mean, but the makeovers she did looked like an amature had done them.

I heard that the girl that won last season hasn't started her show yet because she got pregnant and had to postpone it.

I am hooked on Design Star, love it. Much better than ShowDown which I found very strange, you just know the people are never going to implement the winning design. Most probably take the 10 grand and pay off their car loan and never do the remodel. 10K doesn't go very far in a kitchen remodel.
Design Star is a lot of fun to watch. I like the judges this year. Vern is too focused on contemporary, hopefully Candace will reign in his one sided view of the world.

Two things that stand out for me wrt 'drama', and that set designer from Brooklyn is involved in both of them: 1) the choice of the Texas model home designer as the final competitor -- LOL I *knew* as soon as they showed the other possibilities that she would get voted in, because she's the least challenging...just hilarious...and when they announced that she was voted in the camera cut to the Brooklyn guy barely concealing a victorious smirk he was sharing with another competitor...

And second, I do believe he just signed his own Cancellation with that comment about Genevieve at the end, about "does that girl have a ring on her finger" -- OY, man, you must know you've just Blown It Bigtime! There's no way he can win now, or it will look like he slept his way to the top. What a jerk. It was clear he was a jerk anyway, but WOW that remark was seriously inappropriate.

Oh, and one last thing: to say to the team that ended up taping up their curtains and cutting king size comforters in half, "Can you imagine saying that to a homeowner?" LOL what homeowners would make designers do a room in three days top to bottom? That made me laugh...might as well admit that the time constraints are artificial and --well--constraining. I know that other teams could turn in something amazing in the time constraints, but I can't imagine that all the good designers in the world could work their magic within that slim, slim time frame...

Drats, I didn't see that part cause our DVR player stopped recording...but yeah, you can tell he's going to be the trouble maker.

In regards to those designers that taped curtains and ripped spreads, short time constraints or not, what were they thinking? They had a big enough budget to buy enough comfortors in the right size. At the the very least they should have gotten extra's and folded them. And how long can it take to hang some curtains. I think it was very lacking in judgement. I also think they eliminated the correct person. She was such a wreck, I'd hate to see her condition (mentally/physically after 3 or 4 more episodes.

And I really hope we won't keep hearing that phrase "one trick pony" over and over again again from Vern Yip this year. Talk about calling the kettle black, geeze....

The funny thing is that these shows *do give people the idea that results should be instantaneous.

I was once asked by someone (more out of curiousity than anything else) what could you do in this room in two days for $2000?

I looked around at the quality of everything in that room and said "for $2000? New made-to-order lampshades and Maybe reupolster the most worn out chair. But not in 2 days"

"In two days? Paint and clean the rugs, but that wouldnt cost $2000"