Morrow-TV: 'HGTV's Design Star' launches fourth season

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Eleven creative types throw themselves into the stress and competition of the fourth season of "HGTV's Design Star" (premiering 10 p.m. EDT Sunday, HGTV).
The prize is the start of a career -- and the opportunity to host an HGTV series.
The first challenge: The first 10 contestants get to pick who the 11th contestant will be. The 10 decide based on videos on three semifinalists vying for the spot.
Afterward, the 11 start on their own journeys to win the prize.
Clive Pearse returns as host and is joined by Vern Yip, Genevieve Gorder and Candice Olson as the panel of judges. Also changing this season is the fact that the judges will pick the contest's winner, not the audience.
The contestants will have $50,000 to rework a classic Hollywood home in 32 work hours. They will decide budgets for each room, who will work together and how the overall plan to redesign the home will come together.
By the end of the first day, the designers are off to Sears to find paint and try to liven up the plainness of the rooms. On the second day, though, something as simple as painting leads to disagreements and helps bring down one contestant.
The judges' pronouncements aren't always good. For example: "I'm so embarrassed for you," Olson told one set of contestants, "that I am almost speechless."
Other highlights for the week of July 19-25 (all times EDT; listings subject to change; check local listings):

SUNDAY

-- "Hooked" (10 p.m., National Geographic Channel). In this edition titled "Monsters of the Deep," fishermen hook a 1,091-pound squid that measures 26 feet long. Take that, Red Lobster!

MONDAY

-- "Torchwood: Children of Earth" (9 p.m., BBC America). The children of Earth are controlled by an alien force. Parents, of course, are not surprised.

TUESDAY

-- "Hell's Kitchen" (8 p.m., Fox). Sixteen chefs are served up for Gordon Ramsay's delight as the sixth season boils over.
-- "The Colony" (10 p.m., Discovery Channel). A 10-part series examines 10 real-life volunteers who are left with the task of rebuilding society. First call of business: pantless Thursdays.

THURSDAY

-- "Most Popular" (10 p.m., WE-TV). Graham Norton oversees a contest in which first good impressions are vital, but being a person of substance is more important.

(E-mail Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at morrow2(at)knews.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
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