One thing happened when the powers that be decided they wanted to take "Trading Spaces" another direction, and fired host Paige Davis ... and that was to plunge in the ratings.
When TLC received new managment last year, they decided of their major strategies to revamp the channel would be to get Paige Davis back as the perky host of the show. They managed to do that, and the first show after her return and for the season premiered Saturday at 10pm.
The new management, led by senior vice president of programming Brant Pinvidic, knew he had his job cut out for him in getting her back, because of the very public way the former management had dumped her.
When approached, Davis did indicate she would be interested, but included some conditions.
First, she wanted the people she originally worked with in the show back again: the original designers Hildi Santo Tomas, Doug Wilson, Laurie Smith and Frank Bielec.
Another thing she wanted was for the show to go back to its beginning premise of doing two rooms in two days with no more than $1,000. Once she left the show abandoned in order to copy the higher end makeover shows, and was no longer recognizable in its new format. They even dropped having a host on the show after she left. It of course bombed.
"To not use a host was one of the more visible destructive mistakes they made in terms of the fans," she says. "I know what the fans love. And what they don't like. They wanted the old show back. They wanted the theme music and the fast-motion overhead camera and the goofy antics. And they wanted the family back."
One thing she did hesitantly give in on, was changing the show to involve the participant and their backgrounds more, which will include some of the reality TV type of personal battles and conflicts. She had concerns it could overshadow what the show was overall meant to be. It also could be she doesn't want it to overshadow her.
Either way, this will be a chance to see if the genre TLC and Paige Davis pretty much created, can come back and draw the types of audiences that tuned in during the old days.
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