Being that I have been on leave for 6 weeks I have been able to work on my blogs and watch a mind numbing amount of hours of HGTV, StyleTv and TLC. I have even called Comcast and hexed their homes when they screwed up and took away my channels by accident. (Don't worry, the hexes have since been removed.) There are shows that I have been enjoying the most such as Color Splash, Curb Appeal, Deserving Design, Clean House, Designed to Sell and on occasion, Myles of Style. I then became hooked on the show Clean House because it is a hour long and it's on almost all day. I had my reservations at first but a show that goes to someones junk-filled home and helps the homeowner to rid the clutter and in turn start them fresh with newly painted and designed rooms is just so sweet. Grant it the families are putting all of their business out for the world to see, we are watching major life changing events right in front of our eyes!
On another morning, while blogging at dawn, I started watching TLC and Clean Sweep came on. It has been a long time since I've seen this show, but I remembered why it was such a success. It was a simple, yet meaningful show. A show about going into a families junk-filled home, helping the family clean and sort the clutter and in turn giving them newly painted...wait a minute....why does this sound so familiar??
Back in the beginning of the design show epidemic, there were big hits like Trading Spaces and Designers Challenge. And then there was Clean Sweep, the show to help homeowners clean out certain room, then they'd rummage the piles and sort them into three piles: toss, sell, keep. Essentially they would have a yard sell, keep the proceeds and the items in the "keep" pile would be worked back in the home. Some of the casts members went on to big and better things- the organization specialist, Peter Walsh, has been working with Oprah and featured on her show plenty of times. The main designer, Angelo Surmelis, has other shows that he does such as 24 Hour Design and Rate My Space. But why did this show fail and Clean House succeed?
When I first saw Clean House, I was thrown as to why Neice Nash from Reno 911 was the host. Isn't she a comedian? Is she a closet interior designer?? Well come to find out that no one in the current cast have any real design background- with exception to Mark Runez who is the shows interior designer. Now this show has been on a for a few years now and originally started off with a real "Go-To Guy" who made real things, and a real "Yard Sale Diva" who was experienced in organization. Now they the show is filled with comedians whose only expertise is to hammer and hang clothes almost as if the only qualification was if they've taken a shop class...in high school...and got at least a "C". Now a cast full of comedians does make for a very entertaining show, but I can only question if they are truly in this for the love of design or if it is just a paycheck, and I'm sticking with the latter. Clean House does host an annual show called the Worlds Messiest Home (those blogs to come as well)
While the shows are incredibly similar, there are a few exceptions being Clean Sweep created separate piles for the homeowners to sort through and the family kept the money from the yard sales vs Clean House where they match the proceeds from the yard sale up to $1000 and use it in the house. But why did one show make it and the other one fail?? I am going to go with Peter Walsh moving on to big and better things and the comedic genius of Clean House
