# TLC's "While You Were Out"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tlcs-while-you-were-out/117707>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 7, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tlcs-while-you-were-out/117707 "2002-07-07T00:24:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tlcs-while-you-were-out/117707/1 "2002-07-07T00:24:34Z")

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Anyone catch today’s preview of The Learning Channel’s new show “While You Were Out?” It’s a somewhat similar premise to “Trading Spaces” in that someone gets their spouse out of the house for the weekend, and they have 2 days and $1500 to redo a room and surprise them.

It pretty much eats, sucks and blows. A major disappointment. They’re tearing it up on the Trading Spaces message board. (One woman even said “This show was so boring I actually turned it off to cook and clean!” ROFL!) They played these stupid quiz games with the homeowner so they could win cheap-ass bird feeders and garbage like that.

Discovery is debuting THEIR new home makeover show called either “Suprise by Design” or “Design by Surprise,” which I understand is very interesting and well done. (It ran Friday at noon, but I missed it…it will rerun Monday at noon again.) Any opinions from the field on either?

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**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tlcs-while-you-were-out/117707/2 "2002-07-07T03:22:27Z")

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The people on that show just don’t have the personalities that the TS people do. Although I did like the carpenter and his accent. 🙂

It’s a decent premise. They have more money and a staff of helpers and could pull off some cool stuff but unless they do something about the carboard cutout host, it’s just not very interesting to watch.