Edgy designer gives HGTV “The Antonio Treatment”
By Stacey Harrison
© Scripps Networks
Having covered HGTV for the past couple of years, I’ve seen more than a few shows pitched as something completely different for the network. While sometimes you can chalk that up to clever marketing, it happens to be oh-so true in the case of The Antonio Treatment. For instance, how many design shows can boast life-size pink rhinos coming out of walls and boxing with a former Saved by the Bell heartthrob?
Design Star Season 4 winner Antonio Ballatore brings his rock’n'roll background heavily into play as he revamps dumpy spaces with his signature edgy style. Along with his crew of longtime friends, and his ever-present bulldog Chewie, Ballatore sets out to make radical designs custom-suited to his clients. Among his tasks this season are a renovating a non-profit music studio for young people, creating an art studio for a deaf cartoonist, a punk rock family looking to incorporate antique furniture into their home, and giving Mario Lopez a swanky new workout gym. It all gets started when The Antonio Treatment premieres with two episodes at 10pm ET Sunday on HGTV.
Ballatore took some time to answer some questions about getting the show off the ground, and the backlash to his unconventional approach.
Did you know right after you won Design Star what your show would be, or was there a lot of planning that had to be done?
Antonio Ballatore: I think we had a basic plan to begin with, and once we started, we really got into more of my life and what I was doing and captured a lot of that also. It’s definitely evolved since then. A lot of what goes on, it’s a lot of my friends, a lot of things that are in my life, a lot of artist friends I bring in as guest artists. I could have a guest artist come in every week. A lot of that developed as it went. [Read more →]
by Karl J. Paloucek
On Wednesday, October 28, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins former Bachelor Dr. Travis Stork and the rest of the crew on TV’s syndicated The Doctors to separate the facts from fiction about the H1N1 virus and vaccination.
If I could pick one thing everyone should have in their lives on a regular basis, near the top would be a bit of surrealism. If I could pick a second, it might as well be puppets. (Note that the two concepts rather complement one another.) Well, just in time for summer, IFC brings both your way in a new Internet transplant of sorts, Food Party, premiering June 9 as part of the IFC Automat.
Aw, like you need another reason to look forward to summer. Well, how about two of ‘em?
