Trading Spaces is an hour-long American television reality program that originally aired from 2000 to 2008 on the cable channels TLC and Discovery Home. The format of the show was based on the BBC TV series Changing Rooms. The first iteration ran for eight seasons. A revival began airing on April 7, 2018, with several team members of the original run returning.
Contents
Premise
In each episode, two sets of neighbors redecorated one room in each other's home. Each two-person team had two (later, three) days, a budget of US$1,000, (later $2,000) and the services of a designer. Both teams in early seasons shared one carpenter, while later on, each team had a carpenter. Although the producers generally allowed the teams to go over budget slightly, there was one instance when a designer went $150 over budget and the producers forced her to return a rug she bought for the project.
The teams have no say over what happens in their own homes, but they are able to give input into what happens in the home they are redecorating. The teams are not allowed to enter their own home for the duration of the show, and the transformed rooms are revealed only at the end of the final day.
Ty Pennington, one of the show's original carpenters, later hosted Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on ABC.
Production and changes
The first season featured original host Alex McLeod and some designers who never returned to the show, such as Dez Ryan and Roderick Shade, and was produced by Knoxville, Tennessee–based RVIR Media. After the first 40 episodes, McLeod left to pursue other television opportunities. Beginning with the second season in 2001, Paige Davis took over as host, with the new production company Banyan Productions of Philadelphia. Early-season episodes were traditionally videotaped in and around the production company's home base, as can be seen in those episode's titles (where the city or state and the street are listed).
Beginning in the show's fifth season, homeowners chose up to three rooms for their neighbors to re-decorate, and the rooms were selected randomly, with some rooms having increased budgets of $2000 or $3000. Midway through this season, Davis was dismissed, and the show went to a hostless format for several seasons and episodes often featured two carpenters. This change allowed the two homes to be farther apart, with the most extreme case featuring homes in New York and Oklahoma in the same episode.
On November 13, 2007, it was announced that Davis would be returning as the host of Trading Spaces beginning in January 2008. The first episode with Davis as host aired on January 26, 2008. The show also changed production companies, from Banyan Productions to A. Smith & Co. Productions. On February 6, 2009, Davis announced that Trading Spaces was not picked up for a ninth season.
On March 28, 2017, TLC announced that it had ordered an eight-episode revival of Trading Spaces from Endemol Shine North America's Authentic Entertainment. Host Paige Davis returned, joined by a number of cast members from the original era of the series, as well as new carpenters Brett Tutor and Joanie Dodd (billed as Joanie Sprague), new designers John Gidding, Kahi Lee, Sabrina Soto, and one-off crossovers from Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent (fellow TLC series Nate & Jeremiah by Design) and Clinton Kelly (former fellow TLC series What Not to Wear). A reunion special hosted by Lisa Joyner was also planned to accompany the April 7, 2018 premiere, featuring appearances by other former cast members. The format remains relatively unchanged from the previous seasons, although the spending budget was increased to $2,000. There is also brand integration with the online retailers Overstock.com and Wayfair; one of the retailers provides a "pop-up store" with home décor products during each episode, where a homeowner may pick an item for incorporation into their respective room.
Cast
The show featured different participants each episode. The designers and carpenters alternate for each show.
Original run (2000–2008)
Alex McLeod (2000–2001)
Paige Davis (2001–2008)
2018 revival
Paige Davis
Frank Bielec
Genevieve Gorder
Hildi Santo-Tomas
Laurie Smith
Doug Wilson
Vern Yip
John Gidding (2018)
Kahi Lee (2018)
Sabrina Soto (2018)
Mikel Welch (2019)
Carter Oosterhouse
Ty Pennington
As of S9E2, "The Carpenters Strike Back", both are now primarily designers on the show.
Joanie Sprague
Brett Tutor
Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent (S9E4, "A Surprise In The Truck")
Clinton Kelly (S9E5, "Stripes & A Stripper Pole")
Spin-offs
Trading Spaces: Family
The first spin-off, entitled Trading Spaces: Family, also aired on TLC (2003–2005). It allowed larger teams of three or four, including children considered too young to participate in the original Trading Spaces program. The same designers and carpenters (one per episode, shared by the two teams) worked with host Joe Farrell.
Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls
Another spin-off, Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls aired as a part of Discovery Kids along with airing on the network's Saturday morning block on NBC). Unlike the original, this version used the same two designers and two carpenters for each episode. In addition, there is no budget limit, and the rooms are rebuilt into theme rooms, making the show look more like Monster House. Reruns aired on The Hub until June 2011.
Trading Spaces: Home Free
A spun off series produced for TLC in 2004. In this spin-off, the winning couple received their home mortgage-free.
Trading Spaces: 100 Grand
This was a special episode where the budget was increased to $50,000 per team (while keeping the standard time limit). Designer Doug Wilson and carpenter Amy Wynn Pastor completely remodeled and equipped a kitchen, while designer Laurie Smith and carpenter Ty Pennington completely remodeled and furnished a living room. Approximately two minutes of footage from this episode is included in the Trading Spaces: We're Back online series.
The Best Of Trading Spaces
In January 2011, TLC's sister channel OWN debuted The Best Of Trading Spaces, which revisits some of the traded spaces from the series. Paige Davis hosts the new segments, including interviews with the people who traded spaces in each episode and what has been changed in the spaces since the original episode aired.
Training Spaces
Initially commissioned as part of the series relaunch, Training Spaces is a "GO ORIGINAL" online series, available through TLC on demand, the TLC website, and the TLCgo app which serves as a bootcamp for carpenters and designers, hosted by Paige Davis.
Season 1 (April 7, 2018): The theme of Season 1 is "3 new designers, 2 new carpenters, 1 epic bootcamp". Episode 1 features Tutor and Sprague being mentored by Pennington and Oosterhouse, while Episodes 2-6 feature Soto, Gidding and Lee being mentored by one of the veteran designers in each episode (Yip, Wilson, Santo-Tomás, Smith, Gorder).
Season 2 (March 11, 2019): The theme of Season 2 is "6 contestants, 1 winner", as six designers compete to be a design assistant for veteran designer Frank Bielec in the upcoming season of Trading Spaces. In six of the seven episodes, one of the other veteran designers (Pennington, Smith, Oosterhouse, Wilson, Soto, Santo-Tomás) joins Bielec in challenging the contestants.
Trading Spaces: We're Back
Also as part of the relaunch, TLC commissioned this online series of nine mini episodes featuring Davis and most of the returning series veterans reflecting on some of the best, worst and most memorable moments from the original run.