Some of HGTV’s favorite teams are getting another shot at glory on Rock the Block for Season 5. In a series first, the network has invited four past duos for a crack at redemption, bragging rights, a street sign, and a donation to No Kid Hungry in their names. The lineup includes Bryan and Sarah Baeumler (Renovation Island); Keith Bynum and Evan Thomas (Bargain Block); Lyndsay Lamb and Leslie Davis (Unsellable Houses); and Page Turner and Mitch Glew (Fix My Flip).
They’ve been tasked with renovating their own attached waterfront homes in Treasure Island, Florida over six weeks with a $250,000 budget. The 3,600 sq. ft. properties have a current market value of $1.7 million, so whoever impresses the star-studded judges and adds the most value wins.
During the premiere host Ty Pennington gives the home reno and design competitors the first twists in the game. He also presents their first challenge of planning and constructing their home’s kitchen and dining areas. They’ll have to impress former Rock the Block winners, powerhouse husband and wife pair, Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson of Married to Real Estate.
We caught up with Pennington and the teams to talk about how competition heated up in Florida.
Page Turner and Mitch Glew (HGTV)
Ty, after filming wrapped you concluded this was the hardest season so far. What made that so?
Ty Pennington: Almost every category. The dwellings were touching each other. There is no space in between. You’re sharing a wall with your competitors. You’re dealing with spaces that are next level. Your floorplan is different and because of that, you have extra challenges. You have to multi-task where you have to think about another space while you’re working on another. I think because the location was so amazing, it made it more challenging. That’s why it’s probably the most dramatic season yet. It’s also some of the best in the business coming back to redeem themselves from what we all hate, failing and losing. I’d say it’s the biggest one yet. The ideas are bigger. The reveals are bigger. I think the competition knew who they were competing against, so they had to bring some extra oomph and it showed.
Evan Thomas and Keith Bynum (HGTV)
Did you all have trepidation about coming back knowing how hard and draining the competition was the first time?
Page Turner: Rock the Block is tough. We’re tough people. Everyone on here is a tough cookie. The fact we’ve been on HGTV this long shows what champions we are, but Rock the Block is another level of stress and opportunity. It’s this balancing act where it’s the hardest thing I’ve done in my entire life, but also one of the most rewarding, especially careerwise.
Lyndsay Lamb: I think we all took a pause and thought about if we wanted to put ourselves through this again. You genuinely don’t know what it’s like unless you do it. You can try to prepare. Other HGTV stars tried to prepare us before we got into it, but you really can’t know what it’s like until you do it. These are long days and hard work. We all take tremendous pride in what we do. So we are there putting our hands on everything. The weather, where we are located was not always favorable. It was during a not favorable weather season in Florida. It was wet and rainy.
Ty: I think what people have to remember. This is not a cooking competition where it’s one day and one meal. This is a long drawn-out journey of building a house almost from the ground up. You have a shell, but everything else has to be put in. It’s not one meal. It’s a marathon, a decathlon of design.
Sarah Baeumler: That’s the reason you also see people that are experienced on HGTV. This is not for the brand-new first-season renovator. You go through a lot of ups and downs. You have to be able to handle it and think on your feet, deal with the long days and things you may have never done before. We’re all seasoned professionals, which is what you need to go into this. It would be a very different experience if it was someone brand-new, on the first day with a tool belt. You have to be able to deal with a lot.
And Keith and Evan, I’m sure a motivating factor to come back was also to win a challenge.
Evan Thomas: We were desperate for a win.
Keith Bynum: I had to win something.
Bryan and Sarah Baeumler (HGTV)
What were your keys to victory?
Evan: I would say the competition is supposed to be in value, but every single week is judged by a different person. And that judge is going to have their definition of value. The larger directive of the show is adding value. It’s helpful to know the judge and think about what I can do to persuade this person. What do they like and not like? There are different facets to try to get these wins.
Leslie Davis: It’s a lot more than just designing a home. As Evan said, there is a lot that goes into it that is out of our control. There is who the judges are, the timeline, the trades, and materials. Then you put into it that we have the big goal of an appraiser, but then there are smaller goals that keep us going and motivated. Those wins give us the extra money and keep morale up. Then the show has to get more exciting every year, so they add additional things to it. I don’t know how they are going to get more dramatic next season and kick the next people in the face more than they have with us. That’s what we did. We signed up to get kicked in the face. They know how to make a TV show that is dramatic and tough.
Leslie Davis, Lyndsay Lamb (HGTV)
Mitch and Page, you talked a little in the premiere about making the mistake last season of spending a lot of your budget early on. How did things play out this time?
Page: The budget is very real. I thought it was fairytale money during the previous season. I thought, “They’ll give us another $50,000.” So we budgeted real-life money this time around.
Mitch Glew: We went in heavy the first week last time. We did way better with our budget this time around.
Lyndsay: What’s different this year is you have four teams that have done this before. We have learned so much from the other seasons we’ve been on. Knowing, like Page said, our budgets and that these homes need to sell for the top value. Sometimes materials don’t show up, so it’s also about knowing your contingency plan and that you have to pivot constantly because the timelines are real. You can’t stop and not finish a room because you don’t have something and then come back to it. This has to be done this week. Things you have to do to get done. We all learned it the first time, so we came back ready to make those hard choices at the moment.
Page: There are these surprise challenges that came from our blue-eyed friend Ty. They are real. We don’t get any notice in advance of what they are going to be. It was all while we were sweating, wet from the torrential rain, sad, and happy, and all the emotions. It was all a real challenge we had to add to our stress level and to-do checklist.
How would you sum up this experience? Did you feel redeemed?
Page: For sure. I’m happy we did it again.
Mitch: One hundred percent.
Bryan Baeumler: We had so much fun last year in Colorado. Maybe I approached it differently mentally, but I didn’t approach things where any of us had to redeem ourselves. You want that win though, but you just want to go out there and show your best work. You’re really competing against yourself. You almost have to block everyone else out and put forward what you want because like everyone said the judging is so subjective. Even with the appraisal, you get different people who may put a different value on it. You have to go in confident you’re putting your best foot forward. Then you have to go in thinking, “Oh sh*t. All these people are extremely talented. We hope our foot is bigger to keep up.”
Lyndsay: I think when we walked through each other’s homes we all saw redemption for every single person. Every home was stunning.
Mitch: Last year you may have walked through the homes thinking, “Why didn’t I think of that?” It’s the same thing this time around. There were so many amazing ideas.
Page: All of us went even bigger. Everyone just blew it out of the water.
Rock the Block Season 5 premiere, March 4, 9/8c, HGTV
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
