What To Know
- Mina Starsiak Hawk responded to fan questions about Rock the Block via her Instagram Story.
- The HGTV star reacted to a fan comment criticizing how the show’s guest judges pick episode winners.
- Starsiak Hawk shared more behind-the-scenes facts about the series, including whether cast members get paid the same amount.
Mina Starsiak Hawk is sharing some Rock the Block hot takes ahead of the Season 7 finale.
This season’s penultimate episode — which aired on Monday, May 18 — saw the teams transform their homes’ backyards into fun outdoor spaces. Former NFL star Danny Amendola, now a home designer and developer, served as the episode’s guest judge. He ultimately selected Kim Wolfe and Chelsea Meissner as the week’s winners.
During an Instagram Story Q&A on Tuesday, May 19, Starsiak Hawk reacted to a fan’s comment about Amendola’s judging decisions. “In my opinion his decision was based on his design preference and not design and value adds,” the user wrote.
Starsiak Hawk responded to the statement by offering her own criticisms about the show’s guest judges. “That’s why I feel the weekly competitions are kind of a crapshoot because it does depend so much on who the judge is, and it’s not objective,” she stated. “So, my MO is like, ‘Okay, let’s not worry about those. Let’s worry about the big objective win at the end.’”
Each week on Rock the Block, the episode’s winning teams can choose to add $3,000 to their design budget or $1,000 to their home’s final appraised value. As Starsiak Hawk noted, the team whose house earns the highest appraisal value at the end of the competition will be crowned the season’s winners.
Ty Pennington and Danny Amendola on ‘Rock the Block’ (HGTV)
So far, Starsiak Hawk and her partner, Vernon Davis, have only one win under their belt, as their office, laundry room, and RV garage renovation impressed guest judge Luann de Lesseps in Episode 5. They chose to add $3,000 to their budget for the following week. Wolfe and Meissner, as well as Brooke Hogan and Scott McGillivray, are in the lead with two episode wins each, while Taniya Nayak and Drew Lachey have only won a single episode.
In another Instagram Story post on Tuesday, Starsiak Hawk responded to a fan who asked, “Do all participants from Rock the Block get paid equally?” She answered, “I have no idea. I don’t think so, but I have no idea what the scale or differences could be or how they figure that out. I will probably never know, which is probably for the best.”
Another fan questioned why many of the Season 7 teams used lots of furniture in their backyard designs during Episode 6. “I can’t speak for other teams, but for us, the yards were just so big, they would look empty unless we put furniture all over the place,” Starsiak Hawk explained. “So, I was just trying to find enough to fill the space and make it not look empty, without it just feeling like there was random seats here and there. So, it was kind of tricky.”
A different user seemingly tried to get Starsiak Hawk to reveal which team won Season 7 by asking, “How hard is it to keep the secret of who won?”
Keeping her lips sealed, Starsiak Hawk stated, “It’s so hard. Like, randomly, people at the airport will be like, ‘Did you win?’ And I’m like, ‘I can’t tell you!’ Yeah, it’s definitely [hard]. I mean, obviously, my closest friends and my husband [Steve Hawk] and my kids and everybody, we all know. But not telling other people is very hard.”
Rock the Block, Season 7 Finale, Monday, May 25, 9/8c, HGTV
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
