Kelsey and Ryan Mansingh — former stars of “Battle on the Beach” — spill HGTV‘s secrets from the beloved series.
“I mean, we don’t have an NDA anymore,” Kelsey said during a Thursday, November 20, appearance on the “Mostly Thriving” podcast.
‘Battle On the Beach’ Stars Spill HGTV Secrets
The Mansinghs, known as Newbuild Newlyweds on social media, were paired with fan favorite Taniya Nayak during season 3 of “Battle on the Beach.” While they didn’t walk away with the top prize, they did learn a lot about the behind-the-scenes secrets of HGTV.
“What ‘Battle on the Beach’ is, is they take three teams to somewhere on a beach. You have six weeks to completely renovate your house. Whoever adds the most value to their house at the end of it wins the grand prize,” Kelsey said during their podcast appearance. “There are three houses right next to each other on a beach. Pretty identical houses, so it was a pretty fair, even playing field.”
According to the Ohio native, each team “had no idea what the other teams were doing in their houses.”
Throughout the six episodes, fans watch as the teams compete week by week to complete five challenges: Kitchen, living room, main bedroom, guest bedroom, and exterior.
“Common sense-wise, no one can finish a whole kitchen in one week,” Ryan explained. “So let’s say you’re doing flooring, let’s say you’re doing ceiling accent…We’re not gonna just stop the ceiling just for that kitchen, or that flooring just for that kitchen. We’re doing the whole house at the same time.”
Kelsey added, “The whole house was renovated at once. It is edited down after to look week-by-week.”
According to Ryan, teams were told to switch into the same outfits they wore while renovating certain rooms, for the reveals.
“We didn’t know who won each space until all in the same day. That was all at the very end,” Kelsey explained. “The judges weren’t there until the last week.”
‘Battle on the Beach’ Had Strict Rules
According to the Mansinghs, production was “really strict” in terms of budgets and privacy.
“You can’t even walk by and look up into the [other] house. You have to stay in your lane. Stay in your house,” Ryan explained. “We weren’t allowed to come on set anywhere unless they were there.”
They went on to say that the teams all stayed in hotels 30 minutes away from the work site in an effort to avoid cheating and snooping.
In terms of budget, each team was required to stick to a very tight budget throughout their renovation.
“It was very organized so well. Everybody knew what they were doing. We honestly had the best team,” Kelsey said. “There was check-ins. Like, you have to have cabinets ordered by this day. It was literally like day 3.”
She continued, “There was a lot of stuff we really wanted to do. And it just wasn’t in the budget. Because the budget was very real. Down to like the penny.We would be at lunch and our associate producer would be like, ‘You’re $30 over budget.’ And I’d be like, ‘Cut that pillow cover out.'”
“Things we really, really wanted to do but couldn’t, it was because money and just time. We genuinely didn’t have a lot of time.”
