| Trading Spaces | |
|---|---|
| Format | Reality |
| Presented by | Paige Davis |
| Starring | see below |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Ross Productions Banyan Productions A. Smith & Co. Productions |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | TLC and Discovery Home |
| Original run | October 13, 2000 – December 13, 2008 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Trading Spaces is an hour-long American television reality program that 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 show ran for eight seasons.
Contents |
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. 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 she was working on.
The teams have no say over what happens in their own homes, but are able to give input into what happened 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.
The show was generally credited with sparking a nationwide interest in home decorating and improvement television shows in the United States. At the peak of its popularity, it inspired ancillary products such as two Trading Spaces books and a computer software program. The show also served as the launching pad for Ty Pennington, one of the show's original carpenters who went on to become host of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on ABC.
First season episodes featured 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 Ross Productions. Beginning with the second season in 2001, Paige Davis took over as host, with the new production company being Banyan Productions of Philadelphia. It was a tradition for early-season episodes to be videotaped in and around the production company's home base.
Beginning in the show's fifth season, homeowners chose up to three rooms for their neighbors to fix up, and the rooms were selected randomly, with some rooms having increased budgets of $2000 or $3000. Midway through this season, Paige Davis left as host, and episodes now 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 Paige Davis would be returning as the host of Trading Spaces beginning in January 2008.[1][2] 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, Paige Davis announced that Trading Spaces was not picked up for a ninth season.[3]
The show featured different participants each episode. The designers and carpenters alternate for each show.
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.
Another spin-off, Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls airs as a part of Discovery Kids (and also formerly aired on the network's Saturday morning block on NBC). Unlike the original, this version uses 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 premiered on The Hub (TV channel) until New Years Eve 2010.
A spun off series produced for TLC in 2004. It is a spin-off series from Trading Spaces, Trading Spaces: Family, and Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls, in which the winning couple received their home, mortgage-free.
This was a single episode where they increased the budget (but not the time limit) to $50,000 per team.
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.