Review of Ellen's Design Challenge

Ellen stated she wants to show us how designers go about designing furniture. I don't really think much screen time is spent showing how they normally design things. That got lost in the short deadlines and drama. They don't have a three day deadline normally, they do normally have material and labor cost concerns which this competition does not address except for the 1 episode of reused materials. The use of artificially short deadlines to create suspense is a common reality show formula that is used to build suspense and save on production time and costs, but it is very tired. It irritates as much as builds suspense. Surely there is a more creative way to build suspense or at least interest. This Old House never really used time deadlines to build suspense and it lasted for decades.