As part of my very difficult and important job as a girl reporter, as well as AfterElton.com's go-to-girl (I just typoed that as "go-go-girl" which would be a lot more interesting,wouldn't it?) on all things HGTV, I got a screener for this weekend's upcoming episode of HGTV Showdown, a design competition series.
They sent it to me because, of course, it had the gay. And in this case, the gay it had was last season's Design Star first runner-up Matt Locke, who I'd interviewed a couple of times for AE. I was scheduled to interview him today, and I did, but before that, I put the DVD in and watched it. (See how hard it is to be a girl reporter?)
The announcer introduced the contestants. Team One was Design Star Season Two winner Kim Myles of Myles of Style, paired with Matt, who was the runner-up in Season Three.
Team Two was Design Star Season Three winner Jennifer Bertrand, along with Kim's Season Two runner-up, Todd Davis, a blond surfer dude type.
Just to put what I'm about to say in context, Kim is African-American, Jennifer is, of course, a woman as well as visibly pregnant, and Matt, well... we know about Matt.
So, everyone is chit-chatting and then Todd says that he intends to win because he's not "going to be beaten by a chick."
I thought to myself, Todd, you're going down -- just as Kim was saying the same thing out loud on my teevee.
Oh, and one other thing: you already were "beaten by a chick," Todd dear. That's why you're the sidekick and Kim has her own show.
Journalistic ethics prevent me from telling you how it all turned out, but it will be on this Sunday night at 9 PM ET/PT on HGTV.
Forgive me for bringing the politics to the pop culture, but there's something very, very wrong about the only straight, white man on that stage saying something like that.
On a happier note, Matt says his career has exploded since his appearance on Design Star. He's been doing design work for clients, pitching a television show to the various networks, and making public appearances all over the country. I asked him what kind of show he wanted to do, and his answer reminded me of the first thing we bonded over when I interviewed him last year: a mutual love of designer Candice Olson, whose Canadian show Divine Design airs on HGTV.
"I tried to pitch something like 'an American version of Candice Olson,'" he told me, "but it will never happen here. The Canadian government subsidizes those shows, and the homeowners pay for at least part of the work she does. We just don't have the budgets here for that kind of work. It will never happen."
Wow, Matt, way to break my heart; I'm sick of all the new "faux drama" reality crap on HGTV, like Property Shop and Buy Me. "That's what viewers like these days," he told me. "That's the direction HGTV is going in more and more."
Then we reminisced about 80s music, but some things are, you know, personal.
Don't forget to watch Showdown, and root for Matt and Kim!
First I thought, well, he's a guy that's just typical. Then I thought, well, why should it be any more acceptable for him to say he won't get beat by "a chick" than if he had said i won't get beat by "a gay guy". I hope he goes DOWN. Neither should be acceptable.
Apparently I do a lot of my thinking in wells. Deep subject.
Posted by: Lori | 12 February 2009 at 01:09 PM