Jeff Lewis-related stories
Posted Oct 20th 2009 11:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Interviews, Celebrities
Bravo's resident house flipper, real estate guru and OCD interior designer, Jeff Lewis, is a very complicated guy. When I spoke to him recently, I was actually a little concerned. If you've seen Jeff on Bravo's
Flipping Out, you've seen him lose it on occasion. Would he yell at me on the phone if I asked the wrong question?
In fact, Jeff Lewis was extremely friendly and funny. We had a great talk and he couldn't have been nicer. He was also really forthcoming about the past seasons of
Flipping Out, including this one that's concluding tonight.
What has it been like to be turned into a reality TV star?
Because of the reaction of the show, some people see me as a villain and that could be the way I do business. I handle my employees in a rather non-traditional way. I was concerned about how people would react in public, but it's actually been pretty positive. Overall, it's been a very positive experience. Many people are very nice and complimentary and supportive.
Continue reading Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis: An interview with Bravo's OCD realtor
Posted Aug 20th 2009 8:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Ratings
Last night, everybody's favorite obsessive compulsive decorator and house flipper, Jeff Lewis, was back on Bravo, and the ratings for
Flipping Out were through the roof. The Season Three premiere was the highest ever for the reality show, up 53 percent from last season's opener.
More important than the numbers, though, was the show itself. If you want to see how the recession has hit the real estate business, check out this show. Instead of flipping million dollar homes in Southern California, Jeff is now reduced to taking renovation jobs and working for other people. He's not used to having to work for others, but it's great to see it happen.
Continue reading Ratings boom for Bravo's Flipping Out
Posted Apr 8th 2009 3:39PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Programming, Early Looks
Bravo has announced the show
Top Chef Masters will begin Wednesday June 10th. The show is basically the celebrity version of
Top Chef, where "world-renowned" chefs will compete for $100,000. The money will be given to their favorite charity. The format hasn't changed: the quickfire and the elimination challenges remain, but there will be a five-star grading system implemented.
There are 24 chefs, but I will have to trust the producers with their use of the words "world-renowned" since I'm just an average guy. One of the few chefs I know is
Top Chef guest judge
Wylie Dufresne, who is well known for his work on molecular gastronomy. The contestants' bios are available on the
Bravo website.
Continue reading Top Chef Masters premieres this June
Posted Dec 13th 2008 12:06PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Celebrities
When you hear about this celebrity tussle, I think you'll feel like me: "I would love to be a fly on the wall to watch these two go at it!" It turns out that Bravo's reality star,
Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis,
is fighting with Ashley Jensen, who plays Christina on
Ugly Betty.
Jeff, who specializes in buying properties then fixing them up and selling them -- flipping -- has a house under construction right next door to the home of Ashley and hubby Terence Beesley. If you've watched even one episode of
Flipping Out, you know that Jeff has OCD and is extremely difficult to work for -- he fires workers at least twice a season -- and presses buttons like nobody's business.
This tussle falls under the pressing buttons category. Lewis had a deck built onto the house he was re-constructing, the one right next door to Ashley's, and went over the property line. Now, in Yonkers that would be a reason to get upset; in Hollywood, it's a good enough reason to go to war.
Continue reading Ugly Betty versus Flipping Out...in court!
Posted Jul 10th 2008 2:23PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Reality-Free
Soap operas are a funny form of television fiction. They have rules all its own, they can tell all kinds of stories and do them in the most unusual ways. Here's a few things I've noticed lately, things that seem to only be possible, on a soap.
Only on a soap...can a medical clinic be conceived, built and stocked in less than a month. It's true. It happened in Port Charles. On
General Hospital, soon after Emily died -- and Nikolas stopped seeing visions of her thanks to a brain tumor -- he decided to dedicate a health clinic in her memory. Since Nikolas is a royalty, some kind of prince, cost was no object. He never met with an architect or designer, never spoke to contractors, never searched for a location and dealt with permits. He did have a fight with the mayor for a couple of shows about opening the clinic after it was already completed. If only all construction projects could be done so easily. Jeff Lewis on Bravo's
Flipping Out doesn't even work that fast!
Continue reading TV Squad Soap Report: Only on a soap...
Posted Jun 26th 2008 12:27PM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, OpEd
Bravo is bringing back
Million Dollar Listing for a second season this summer. The docu-series gives viewers an inside look at the most exclusive realtors in the Los Angeles area, a luxurious but dangerous place to work. Despite the soft market, these agents will stop at nothing to close million dollar deals in neighborhoods like Malibu, Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
Josh Flagg, Madison Hildebrand and Chad Rogers, L.A.'s up-and-coming realtors, are the stars of this season. Flagg is known to send clients up in helicopters to view properties and has wrapped a home in a big red bow for a pair of new owners. Hildebrand, touted as the "King of Malibu," has sold over 80 million in real estate in the past two years. Rogers had his real estate license at the age of 18. Some of his celebrity clients include Paris Hilton, Nick Lachey, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Minnie Driver, and Coach Larry Brown.
Continue reading Million Dollar Listing premieres this summer on Bravo
Posted Jun 18th 2008 12:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Episode Reviews
(S02E01) I watched the first season of
Flipping Out on Bravo last summer based on a teaser I saw during
Top Chef 3. The show is about a real estate "flipper" who buys properties, fixes them up and then resells them for a profit. You might say, "Yawn, that's just like a bunch of other shows on TLC, Discovery, et al." Well, yes, that's true.
But
Flipping Out isn't really about the flipping, it's about the flipper -- Jeff Lewis. This guy Lewis is not normal. I mean it, he's not. He says he's not. He's obsessive compulsive and it comes out in everything he does. It makes him a better flipper, because of his attention to detail, but it also makes him really hard to take if you're his employee, partner or contractor. But, boy, is it fun to watch Jeff Lewis's life! That's what
Flipping Out is really all about and it's back.
Continue reading Flipping Out: Sell Out (season premiere)
Posted May 8th 2008 10:07AM by Kristin Sample
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, Video
He's the most colorful, neurotic, and unpredictable real estate speculator / house flipper on television and he's back on Bravo this June. Once again, fans of
Flipping Out will get to watch Jeff Lewis buy properties, renovate them and sell them for six-figure profits, all while torturing his assistants and other employees.
But this season will be different. Firstly, the soft market should create even more drama and tension in Jeff's world. Secondly, Jeff is trying to turn over a new leaf and not treat his employees like, well, you know. I'm skeptical. I seem to remember Jeff nearly "flipping out" about not getting the right combination of lemonade, fruit punch, iced tea and sprite for his beverage. He also fires someone at least once an episode. In fact, this season Jeff installs a nanny cam to spy on his workers.
Continue reading Flipping Out is back - VIDEO
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