'Renovation Resort Showdown' Hosts Reveal the Hardest Part about Filming the HGTV Show

Scott McGillivray and Bryan Baeumler might just be our new favorite HGTV duo. The two renovation experts have taken over Sunday nights with Renovation Resort Showdown, a new competition series that gives four building and design teams seven weeks and a budget of $100,000 to renovate identical lakeside cabins.

The series was filmed in Campbellford, Ontario. Scott explains that, for the duration of filming, it was a closed set due to COVID restrictions. He and Bryan, who previously teamed up for Canada's Handyman Challenge, lived in side-by-side trailers. Scott said, "Waking up with Bryan 5 feet away from my trailer, you learn a lot about each other. Some things are great, most things you would never want to know." The two self-proclaimed "frenemies" gave us a look behind the scenes at what they love about the project and what their biggest challenges were.

Bryan, a Rock the Block and Battle on the Beach veteran, explains the appeal of the challenge format. He says, "The average viewer, the average homeowners, the average person interested in home renovation can come down and hang out with us and show us what they’ve got. It’s so accessible to viewers. We always have fun. The challenges are great too. We get to see what their ideas are and what they can do."

Scott explains that, while the properties ended up beautiful, it wasn't an easy process: "The stakes are so high and real. There’s so much invested in property. We wanted to find a property that really gave people a megaphone to showcase their talents. What’s exciting about this series is we have real contractors and real designers doing real work, and it’s really hard to do that in a seven-week period of time. The most incredible things hide behind an incredible amount of work, and this was an incredible amount of work.

"The hardest thing was absolutely the time crunch," Scott continues. "Seven weeks to renovate these properties was a very short timeline. It was intense, it was ambitious. It’s amazing that we pulled it off."

Will there be a season 2 of Renovation Resort Showdown?

It's definitely possible! Scott explains, "We’re looking for a location for season two of Renovation Resort Showdown." Finding the location for season one was a big challenge. He says, "It was an existing resort, 100 years old, on a waterway system that’s got a lot of history to it, and that was close enough to a metropolis where we could bring everyone in. We have teams all over North America competing. It was really hard to find the location. I found this property a few years ago, and as soon as I found it, I thought it would be the perfect platform for competitors. The existing buildings were close to 100 years old and were basically sinking into the ground, so we started fresh. It was definitely a difficult project. We bit off more than we could chew."

In the meantime, Bryan and Scott both have their own HGTV shows in the works. Scott says he's working on season five of Scott's Vacation House Rules, and is "getting ready for some pretty exciting productions this fall." Bryan has been in Newfoundland filming Bryan's All In, his new series that has him helping entrepreneurs in off-the-beaten path locations. The Caerula Mar owner says that he and his wife Sara are "in the process of acquiring two more hotels in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys, and Sarah is looking at property in Italy."

Catch Scott and Bryan on Renovation Resort Showdown at 9 p.m. ET on HGTV and streaming on Max the same day.

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