HGTV's Design Star

HGTV has announced that season 2 of Design Star will premier on Sunday, July 29th with a "making of" program to air on July 22nd. On their website, they say that they received over 2,000 applicants and are culling them down. However, this PR Newswire story reports that the 11 finalists have already been selected. The show will be filmed in Las Vegas and Clive Owen, host of Season 1 will return for Season 2. So will all the judges - designers Vern Yip and Cynthia Rowley and executive editor of In Style magazine Martha McCully.

I can't say I loved Season 1 when it originally aired. But, on the heels of the recently completed, and somewhat disappointing, Top Design, it will be interesting to see if their sophmore season is significantly improved. There is one big difference between the two series. TD was soley looking for a "top designer", so talented people from different fields were all squeezed through the same funnel with the resulting winner receiving a prize that would presumably help set up a business. DS, on the other hand, is looking for a tv host, so telegenic good looks and personality (aka David Bromstad) played as important a role as creative talent. Additionally, the show that was created around the winner presumably played to their individual strength - so a crafter could compete with a florist and a builder and not necessarily suffer for it.

I guess we'll see what happens!