Designer Guys

Designer Guys was a Canadian design show on HGTV, created by Mary Darling and produced by WestWind Pictures.

Designer Guys
Anwar Mekhayech, Matt Davis and Allen Chan at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival
GenreReality/design
Created byMary Darling
Presented bySeasons 1-3:
Seasons 4-6:
  • Allen Chan
  • Matt Davis
  • Anwar Mekhayech
Country of originCanada
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons6
Production
Production companyWestWind Pictures
Release
Original networkHGTV (Canada)
Original releaseJanuary 20, 2001 (2001-01-20) –
April 20, 2008 (2008-04-20)

Debuting in 2001, the first seasons were hosted by Chris Hyndman and Steven Sabados.[1] They hosted until 2004, when they were offered a deal with Alliance Atlantis to create a new series, Design Rivals.[2]

After they departed, the show was relaunched in 2005 with new hosts Matt Davis, Allen Chan and Anwar Mekhayech, partners at The Design Agency.[3] Whereas the original Hyndman/Sabados incarnation of the show concentrated primarily on interior design, the new version took on larger renovation projects.[3] Producer Mary Darling compared the process of relaunching the show to "trying to recast The Odd Couple".[4] The second version of the show remained in production until 2008.[5]

In one of the most noted episodes of the second incarnation, Davis, Chan and Mekhayech travelled to Dawson City, Yukon to redesign the childhood home of Canadian literary icon Pierre Berton as a writer's retreat.[6]

The original Hyndman-Sabados era has also been credited as one of the innovators of a shift in home design reality programming in the early 2000s,[7] as one of the first such programs to be hosted not by a single designer depicting only the conventional parts of the renovation process, but by a pair of designers who allowed their debates and conflicts over design choices to be depicted as part of the series.[7]

References
  1. "Decor without decorum ; Designer Guys use a playful approach to dispense advice". Toronto Star, January 14, 2001.
  2. "Designer guys duke it out". Calgary Herald, June 27, 2004.
  3. "New designer guys pick up the ball in popular show". Edmonton Journal, March 4, 2006.
  4. "'Like trying to recast the Odd Couple'". The Globe and Mail, April 23, 2005.
  5. "Movable feasts; The Designer Guys seamlessly segue from kitchen pitching to brassiere braggadocio". National Post, April 10, 2008.
  6. "Design goes north; TV HGTV's 'Designer Guys' give Pierre Berton's childhood home in the Yukon a face-lift". The Telegraph Journal, March 27, 2007.
  7. "Chris Hyndman, co-host of ‘Steven and Chris’, remembered for breaking boundaries". Metro, August 4, 2015.


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