Kristi Yamaguchi: HGTV Showdown Competitor

Brian Boitano is not the only figure skater entering the world of Cable TV programs. Kristi Yamaguchi is going to be a competitor on HGTV Showdown!!!

http://www.hgtv.com/kristi-yamaguchi/bio/index.html

If you've never seen this show, two teams consisting of two HGTV personalities create a new design for a family that has a problem room. After learning what the family is looking for, a design is created. The team has (IIRC) four hours to bring the room to life. The family chooses the winning design and gets money to recreate the room in their home.

When I saw a commercial I thought I saw Kristi in it. Checking the website confirmed it!!! The show premieres this Sunday 6/28, but she will be on the second episode. She will be paired with Matthew Finlanson from The Stagers. They will be competing against Taniya Nayak from Designed to Sell and Drew Lachey - DWTS Season 2 winner and host of HGTV $250K Challenge. Here is a link to a picture of the room they will be redesigning (which is recreated on the soundstage - twice!!!) and a brief description of the episode

http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/hgtv-showdown-season-3-before-photos/pictures/page-2.html

I can't wait!!!!

I love it! Kristi used to be so shy, but baby look at her now!

Here is a pretty picture.

http://z.about.com/d/womenshistory/1/0/p/S/2/kristi_yamaguchi_2002b.jpg

I love this show = it will be interesting to see what Kristi does. I'm sure it will be awesome.

Spoiler
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v
v

Kristi lost.

Her professional designer partner was kind of frenetic, throwing in this and that. They should have gone with white walls.

But Kristi's team still should have won. The main problem with the room was some weight-bearing wooden pillars that could not be removed. Krist's team made a two-sided fireplace out of it. That was very cool and should have carried the day. The home owners/judges thought that it separated the room too much, but that was the whole point, to separate the adults play area from the kids'.

I will say that the other team had better walls, a better sofa, and much better game table and chairs.

Kristi was mostly on painting detail. Once she had some wall panels laid out on the floor to work on, and she accidentally stapled them to the new hardwood floor. Then she broke a glass picture frame. (The host said, that's what happens when we get these powerful Olympic athletes. )

What's wrong with the concept of the show is that they have to do the whole room in four hours. In real life it would have taken four hours just to take up the floor and get the old panelling off the walls.