Did anyone watch Ellen's Design Challenge on HGTV?

[Prashun Patel]

Kickback and it's associated danger isn't very intuitive to the uninformed. For this reason, I don't fault Ellen or even the show producers for not quite getting it. But the designers and especially the 'carpenters' should have been shocked and known better. Instead they smiled and laughed it off. "Woah, wouldn't it have been funny if that shot me in the back?!"

There should be some kind of safety penalty if you don't abide.

Ellen seems like a very nice, genuine person, and I can't imagine the show's producers WANT people to get hurt for ratings. Rather, I think the show encourages the players to be helpful and encouraging.

Even when contestants have the opportunity to 'steal' from each other during theme selections, they don't. They all want to win fair and square and recognize each other's good work too. It's a very good show.

It's like the Downton Abbey of reality shows.

[Larry Browning]

Prashum,
I am by no means "in the business", but I do know that TV production is an extremely tough and cut throat business (or so I have been told). "Helpful and encouraging" would only be encouraged if it helped the ratings. Cause without the ratings, they can't get sponsors to pay and without the sponsors there will be no show. They are in the business to make money. If they don't make money, they look for something that does. It really doesn't matter how good the show is, great shows get canceled all the time. So in my mind, if the producers thought an accident would improve the ratings, they would probably secretly be happy about it. Of course, they would be horrified publicly, and take all sorts of measures to make things safer, but if the truth be known, if an accident improved the ratings, they would be jumping for joy behind closed doors.