HGTV series to be filmed in Newport Beach

Newport Beach home tour visitors on May 15 will help determine the outcome of the TV series “Showhouse Showdown” where two local interior designers head to head to create the perfect dream home.

The new program by HGTV and Stone & Co. Entertainment will air 12 episodes beginning late summer, each featuring two local designers. The show will film in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and other cities nationwide.

“People love to go to open houses, and this is like the ultimate open house,” said program Executive Producer Dawn Stroupe. “The most unique thing about this show is that the people are the sole deciders.”

Two newly constructed homes at Waterpointe Homes’ Newport Palisades development, 1572 Orchard Drive, Newport Beach, were selected for the program’s first episode.

The homes are nearly identical in size and layout.

Two Newport Beach designers were challenged to create original room designs “from the ground up,” Stroupe said.

While the names of the designers remain a secret, as to not influence the general public before the filming date, the designers are both successful professionals with unique and contrasting styles, Stroupe said.

One designer utilizes “antique but unexpected elements” and leans toward “tailored comfortability,” while the other can be described as “unconventional” and “Hollywood regency with modern style,” she said.

The public is invited to tour the homes Sunday. The first 100 attendees from 1 to 4 p.m. will be able to vote and provide feedback.

The fully furnished homes will also be available for purchase for somewhere around the $700,000s, said Garrett Calacci, Waterpointe Homes managing member.

Other unfurnished three-bedroom homes in the development — 33 in all when complete — will be priced about $600,000, he said.

“Showhouse Showdown” returns to Orange County for another episode around August to film in Costa Mesa. The development, Bayside Court on West Bay Street, is also being built by Waterpointe.

That episode will feature an interior designer from Costa Mesa and another from Los Angeles.

The show will follow the same format, with a public tour and vote.

The overall program will also differ from other home-themed reality-TV programs because the episode will not hold off the “big reveal,” or the before-and-after shots of the rooms, until the end of the episode. With each home having five rooms, the viewer will have 10 reveals stacked throughout the episode.

“It’s instant gratification for the whole hour,” Stroupe said.