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With mucho curiosity and a tad of apprehension, your loyal racked correspondents headed over to the jam-packed and awkwardly set up Kenmore Live Studio to see in the flesh, Ootra's Debbie Jagel and co-host Issac King, owner of Code Black introduce six pre-selected contestants for the reality web tv series So You Wanna Be A Designer. Thats right, we were in the studio to watch the live stream to Kenmore's Facebook. We were right at the foot of Debbie's couch as the contestants were introduced and grilled one-by-one.
The line-up of contestants are Tonya Pierce hailing from from south Florida, Michael Pazmino who was raised in Quito, Ecuador, Jessica Davis a bi-coastal-ite, LaTonya Williams the IT professional, Anna Hovet, graduate of SAIC and Stephen Curd a graduate of Lindenwood University.
This week's show which, if you missed it, will be available to watch online in just a little bit on Kenmore's Youtube channel. The first challenge started immediately after Debbie and Issac's interactive Q&A session with Facebook fans and live studio audience members. As soon as the models came out wearing little black dresses, the contestants had five minutes to go into the loft space of the live studio to accessorize their assigned model with bangles, purses, hats, and belts from Ootra. During the downtime Debbie and Issac mingled in impromptu dance party format with the audience to the indie / electro-pop band Moneypenny.
All the while we were checking in on the live Facebook feed to see which contestants was getting the most comments. The social queen, Emily Rose Giddings, was sitting atop the cranberry-colored stacked washer and dryer with her laptop live-blogging the every move of the webisode. According to Emily, there seemed to be a slight audio delay due to a Facebook re-coding glitch but for the most part, all technical aspects of the night ran extremely smooth.
After mere minutes of styling their models and dancing our pants off, it was time for Debbie and Isaac to critique the work, online votes to be tallied, and a winner of week one crowned. Without much suspense, Debbie held up a golden envelope with a head shot inside. The winner? Anna Hovet. Giving her victory speech we can't help but notice the disdain on the other contestants faces and the squeals of the studio audience.
We have a feeling that next week will be even more exciting (and packed in the studio) but if you can't wait until then, Debbie and Isaac encourage you to tune in to the #SYWBAD Facebook feed at 9am at Tuesday morning when they reveal the next challenge.
· Kenmore [Facebook]