I sat down with my 4-year-old daughter to watch Trading Spaces on HGTV only to find an announcement that Alex was no longer the host, and some new girl is doing the show. Oh, man. That just ruined my day. This show just won’t be the same without Alex. She had personality, she had the looks, she had the Alex Cam. It just isn’t the same. I don’t even remember the name of this new girl, because I had totally lost interest. Does anybody know what happened to Alex? I hope they didn’t ‘not renew’ her contract because they thought they could find a replacement.
Anybody else watch this show?
I love the show. I read somewhere that Alex was a bit difficult so they canned her. I think I read it on some fansite I ran across when I did a search to find out more about the lovely Alex, so it might not be gospel.
I think Alex was better than Paige, but I’m willing to give Paige a chance.
It’s just not the same without Alex! I tried to give the new girl a chance, but she’s just no Alex. I’ve stopped watching. If they promise to get rid of Frank the designer, I might come back.
Instead, I have started watching Changing Rooms in BBC America–I think it’s the original from which Trading Spaces was spawned. Bonus: Right after Changing Rooms is Ground Force (the predecessor to Surprise Gardner) which I love even more than Changing Rooms! Love that Alan Titchmarsh and Tommy Walsh!
So far, I have no problems with Paige on Trading Spaces. Actually, unlike Alex, she is a very hard worker for the teams in the episodes I’ve seen so far. Paige is a little corny in her host role, but heck – so was Alex. IMHO, Paige is just as cute, and I’m more than willing to let her grow into the role.
Zoff - Sorry, but Frank’s got to stay. My wife and I feel he is best of the TS designers, with Vern right on his heels.
Sunshine, Changing Rooms is the bomb! The CR crew work harder, because they are usually renovating much older structures than on TS – lots of drywall work & such. They really need to have a Changing Rooms/Trading Spaces crossover event. Carol is quite attractive with that Scottish accent of hers. As a host, Carol really puts TS’s Alex to shame. Lawrence is our favourite designer on CR, with his kick-arse murals and penchant for inexpensive but nifty archwork (I think actually my wife wants Lawrence to run away with her! 
).
Handy Andy mops the floor with TS’s Ty, who has taken recently to kvetching WAY too much. I know Doug & Hildy are royal pains, but still – Ty needs to go easy on the cool designers like Frank & Laurie. Amy Wynn is pretty even-keeled, but Handy Andy is the king of being laid back.
Sorry Zoff. My brain was on “disengage”. The comment about Frank should go to Sunshine.
I miss Alex. Paige’s breasts aren’t as nice. Alex had those perfect B cups. It seems like Paige is trying too hard. She needs to relax and be herself. I guess as she gets more into it she’ll get better.
On TLC’s website, they have pictures from last year. Not one picture of Alex anywhere to be found. It’s like they disowned her. Oh well. I’ll probably still watch the show. I got to like Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, I can get to like Paige Davis on Trading Spaces.
So I guess Paige will never be Alex. Like most of the McLeod’s, there can be only one.
lol. goat!
bordelond, for me, Frank goes two ways. Sometimes he does some really cool stuff, like his murals and painting little flowers and stuff around windows…he did a really great basement/t.v. room that I thought was awesome. But then other times, it’s like you can’t even tell he did anything at all! He did a living room once where they pulled up the carpet and fiddled around with the fireplace and basically just rearranged the furniture. I mean…they might as well just have the old room. Plus…something about him really bugs me…he’s so pissy sometimes.
However–I am wit’cha on all the Changing Rooms people! I just love Carol and Lawrence (and all his crazy shirts!)…and Handy Andy is a stud. Ty may be hella cute but could he whine more? Ugh. Whining is not the mark of a stud. I agree, Amy Wynn is much better but Handy Andy beats them all. Plus I love that Handy Andy actually wears a shirt that says “Handy Andy”. That just cracks me up.
When does BBC America broadcast “Changing Rooms”? I’d like to check it out.
Since we’re on the topic of mild complaints about the show, I’d like to add mine. I’m finding that more and more of the homeowners are trying to be clever or “sassy” with the designers and the host. Here’s my quick rule for the homeowners: Shut your pieholes and do what the designer tells you. I don’t mind a little conversation (in fact, it would be boring without it) but the attempts to be witty are getting old fast. This started near the end of last season, and I fear it will continue.
And, finally, I’d like to add that I find several of the designers to be pretty hot and I kinda dig Amy Wynn – her role as the carpenter is strangely erotic.
I always thought Frank was joking when he was acting “pissy”. I just thought it was funny.
Sometimes, I like the subtle room makeovers. It’s a judgement call, to be sure. A lot of times, TS designers like Hildy & Doug try to do too much crazy stuff – causing a lot of unnecessary stress for their homeowner helpers. Frank and Vern are pretty good about using what’s there, if it’s good stuff. Frank, especially, won’t ruin a room just to make an artistic statement, whereas Hildy and Doug will.
Frank is at his best with the children’s bedrooms and gamerooms and the like. His living rooms ang kitchens are very straight-laced in contrast to his other rooms – but I think they still look good.
Vern and Laurie are the master-bedroom masters. Did you see Vern’s bedroom this past Sunday. Laurie is probably the most versatile of the designers, and her and Frank are the hardest-working for their team.
Hildy and Doug are good when a room is REALLY bad off and needs a drastic change, and when the owner is especially free-spirited. However, they tend to do time-wasteful projects, i.e. Doug’s fetish with slow, laborious wall treatments (you can never just paint and be done). They both tend to overdo rooms, I find.
In contrast to most of the TS designers, the Changing Rooms folks are pretty conservative – don’t you agree, Sunshine? Even Laurence, with the murals and all, normally makes few fundamental changes to a room’s set-up. I find the CR rooms usually look less made-over than the TS rooms (with exceptions).
On Trading Spaces, Ty used to not whine like he does now. What Zoff said about TS homeowners playing to the cameras also seems to go for Ty. It seems to have started on the episodes with Doug and Ty – they were always having it out about some weirdo thing or another that Doug wanted built (like 100 1’x1’ tiles or a wall-size wine rack). On those shows, Ty was especially defensive and snide – and maybe the TS producers thought that would be a good “personna” for the Ty “character” to carry on.
Did you see that episode of CR when Handy Andy built these snazzy oval vertical columns for one of the designers (Anne?)? How he curled up a big sheet of thin wood to make the columns? That kind of thing would have sent Ty running to his trailer.
Zoff, Changing Rooms comes on weeknights at 10 PM Central time.
I thought the extreme example of this was Dez (who is no longer with the show, according to the TS website). She would, in some cases, completely disregard the homeowner’s suggestions. A perfect case was in Philly (I think) where she ignored pleas to keep the room conservative and painted a harlequin design on the walls, painted the wall behind the mantle purple and put some bizarre alabaster hands on the mantle. The male homeowner was clearly shocked and well on his way to pissed. He told her he was going to change everything. I don’t blame him. His friends told Dez to be conservative and he shows up to find his mantle looking like a Liza Minelli concert.
I also like Frank and think he is playing it up when he acts pissy.
Thanks. I’ll have to check it out.
OK, I’m getting ready to duck and run here. I didn’t like Alex. I thought she was horrible. I’m used to Carol on the English version. Carol works hard, even when she’s pregnant. Alex just interrupted people when they were working. Can’t say if I like the new host, because I haven’t seen the new episodes yet.
Zoff - You’ll love Changing Rooms. If you think the people were upset on the episode of TS you saw, wait til you see the special “they almost sued us” episode of Changing Rooms. They show one woman who cried because she hated what the designers did so much. Then they show the people who were outraged and almost sued. Their room was done over by Laurence (of course). There was so much publicity about it that a magazine finally paid to have the room re-done for them.
Even after all that, Laurence couldn’t grasp the fact that they didn’t like the room. He kept saying things like, “That’s a very trendy color.” That’s what makes him so great. Um, to watch, that is. I wouldn’t turn him loose in my house!
Laurance is a trip. That must have been an unusual design he pulled off, because his stuff usually can be defined as “tastefully appropriate” rather than “garish”.
However, Laurance does give the impression (mainly through his clothes!) that he might have a few “garish” design ideas within him just dying to break out.
I miss Alex and her voice and her everything else. 
At least Amy’s still there half the time. I do love me some Vern. The red and purple wine-themed kitchen from last year was el magnifico. A real paid-for professional project couldn’t do much better than that.
I think Frank has problems when the people are clearly not fans of the crafty style. He likes to draw on the walls dammit, and as mentioned below, he tends to fall into minimalism when they don’t want him to.
One more bitch: it should be a requirement that they change the paint color. If you leave the couches and don’t change the walls much, it’s gonna look the same, no matter who the designer is (except maybe Dez). I remember one episode where they went from brown to brown. How exciting! (OTOH, it’s better than painting the couches. Remember that?)
One question… how did they get so many episodes last season? I started watching when they went to having it on everyday during the day, and I’d swear I didn’t see a repeat episode for almost 3 months. That’s a LOT of episodes, and I thought that was the first season??? I don’t get it, especially since now they’re only showing 1 new episode a week.
Laurie’s hot. I want Laurie.
Laurie good! Paige bad!
Actually that’s not very fair of me, since I’ve only seen Paige on one episode, the season premiere. I had no advance warning and I went into deep shock.
I like Frank and Doug. I liked Dez OK, if for no other reason the hats. The redhead designer woman I like even if I can never remember her name. And I like Vern. Geez, I guess I pretty much like all the designers.
Ty’s great, way hot and I think his kvetching is funny. Anything to get Ty more camera time. And that episode where he jumped in the pool with no shirt? Oh my. Amy’s great, and I loved how she and Alex played off each other, but what can I say, given the choice between a great woman and a great guy who’s hot, I gotta go with the hot guy. I’m shallow that way.
As for CR, I don’t care for Laurence most of the time. I like the host and Handy Andy. I have a friend who’s husband (also a friend) is named Andy so I tease her about being married to Handy Andy. I wish CR was an hour. Everything always seems so rushed, which maybe is the point with the short deadlines and all, but still.
Charlie on Ground Force rules. What’s happened to Charlie’s Garden Army? I saw like two episodes of it and then it vanished.
er, whose husband.
Aah, what a nice southern accent. She’s very hot. By the way, Otto, Laurie’s the redhead.
I’ll stick up for Genevieve since she hasn’t been mentioned. I have to respect her for the sheer gall of wallpapering (wallmossing?) the bedroom wall with moss last year.
I haven’t seen much of Vern, but I liked the bedroom he did last episode. He managed to make the room look like he spent a lot more than $1000. On occasion, some of the re-designed rooms look a little cheap or college-y.
I’ve only seen a few episodes of Trading Spaces, and I’m sticking with CR. The Episode where Laurence did an apartment for a couple of 20-something girls and said “I’m seeing something…Barbarella! Purple and silver.” Now that was good television.
Handy Andy can plane my doors any time. And for my husband, there is always Ground Force with Charlie the braless gardener and her water features.
The Changing Rooms where the people almost sued was awesome. The people were pretty open to change and already had a house full of some bold statements. So Laurence did this sort of red and zebra thing which really wasn’t all that awful. Except the people already had a red room and they hated animal prints. The guy was like, “This is all getting changed. Every bit. Tonight.” It was awesome and Laurence so totally didn’t get it because they already had all this wild stuff.
Otto, what is Charlie’s Garden Army? I’ve never seen it! But I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave Charlie’s boobs their own show.
I did see a Ground Force special that was on over Labor Day, (right after the Changing Rooms special) and they explained that in the pilot, it was just like CR, where next-door neighbors exchanged yards and Alan sat on a tall chair on the fence (like a volley ball judge) and sort of narrated. But it was a disaster, the neighbors weren’t experienced enough and the audience wanted more of Alan, so they changed Ground Force to what it is now. Glad they did, because we wouldn’t have Tommy otherwise!