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Top Design picks its winner, but…

Did anybody notice? Jamie Durie declares architect Robert Davidov the winner of Top Design.

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Melbourne architect Robert Davidov, 29, has won Jamie Durie’s Top Design series.

He wins the $100,000 prize and a trip to Paris and Milan to meet European designers.

But the win, with a prize as lucrative as MasterChef, is likely to have gone unnoticed by many viewers, limped out in a 10:30 timeslot on Nine. The announcement of the winner wasn’t made until after 11:30pm.

After the failure of the series to fire, it echoed the finale for 2009 renovation series homeMADE as a TV finale that had nobody talking.

The final challenge involved three finalists fitting out three new homes for suburban clients in four days. They were joined by former contestants helping them to make over the three shells.

Runners up Gold Coast single mum Lisa and charity worker Stephen were also offered paid internships by Durie and judge Nick Tobias.

17 Responses

  1. Totally missed the final. I loved it but agree with Jezza – why put it up against The Renovators and The Block – Decorators/renovator overload! I was flicking from one to the other to keep up and in the end did not watch it properly. Why is the final not on the website? Hope they give it another go next year because they truly had some fresh ideas.

  2. Wow there’s some harsh critics out there! I personally loved the show. As a Graphic Designer I found it inspiring and refreshing. The contestants were an interesting mix and were put thru some hectic challenges. I hope they run it again, but maybe with some more variety in the challenges, it’s called “Top Design” not top renovator! Should explore other facets of design as well. But as far as reality shows go, this was a welcome change to some of the other trash on tv,and showcased some brilliant design talent.

  5. “Runners up Gold Coast single mum Lisa and charity worker Stephen were also offered paid internships by Durie and judge Nick Tobias”.
    How much is this costing Ch 9, what does this say about the integrity of Durie and Tobias as design practices and what kind of message does this send to design graduates who study and toil for years to get their foot in the door?????

    @Get Real – Can only hope we never see him again. This show was trash all the way through from the quality of contestants to the elimination set. Bye bye Jamie.

  8. I loved the show…and have gone renovating mad..trying
    to fit in all the shows on at the moment. I liked Lisa,s house
    the best, loved Stephan the most..but believe Robert did
    deserve to win the show.

  9. The finale was widely advertised on GEM and was shown @ 7:30pm last night. Check the twittersphere as a number of the contestants were making remarks.

    How’d I know? I watch Friends @ 6:30 (after Sabrina on Eleven)

  11. A real shame that more people didn’t see this despite the flawed, stale, stereotypical format as this was an Australian first in that a show about design which called for contestants to be professional designers (why cast mums and carpet cleaners?) actually saw someone with professional qualificattions win. Who would have thought?

  12. @ Ken…probably not looking too promising for a second season right now. I think the dummy who programmed this to go to air at the same time as The Block & Renovators were showing forgot to put his/her brain in gear first. So it is hard to assess whether it would have thrived as a stand alone show.

  13. And will any programmer at 9 lose his job over commissioning this, Ben Elton, Homemade, etc etc etc? No. They will just be patting themselves on the back for the success of the excruciating The Black and endless repeats of those lame american sitcoms.
    I am surprised they aren’t repeating the old seriesof the block on their digital channels …

  15. Shame it failed to fire, this show. It is enjoyable, especially now some of the annoying contestants (read the old bugger who thought he was the be all, and wasn’t) have gone. Wonder if it will be given a second season?

  16. I was very disappointed the show did not rate better, I Loved the show and thought it was a well deserved win – the ratings may not be great – but like Homemade I’m sure Top Design will be great launching pad for the finalists

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