Let me just guess because that's the best I can do, but I would say that there are so many design styles that it would be difficult to please most people within a 30 minute time slot. For instance, I doubt there would be many people who would be interested in how to turn a burlap sack into a decorative center piece for a dining room table, but there would be a few. How many would be interested in how to turn tree branches and some rope into a ladder that will hold your indoor or outdoor plants?
TV is entertainment. There are lots of design sites you can easily find using Google with simple terms like 'design ideas'. There are even design ideas a few clicks away on this HGTV website. Of course it is easier to watch something on TV, but problems arise when you try to redo them yourself and forget a step or forget exactly how it looked. On a website you can go back as often as you like, so if you forget something, it is easy to see what it was.
Like I said, I am just guessing that this is one reason there are less and less design shows on TV.
Wsjessup - yes, it would be difficult to please everyone regarding design STYLE, but it sure would be nice to see something approaching intelligent design on HGTV. I'm not talking about a specific style - just that if there were some shows with credible design professionals doing spaces and perhaps showing the steps involved, the general audience would feel they were actually learning something. I'm a design professional and will do just about any style a client wants and always try to educate them along the way so if they wanted to, they might feel they could tackle the next room on their own. I will say it's much easier to get a client on board with a design concept if they have some idea of the process and respect your expertise. For the most part, the so-called designers HGTV has presented don't do a lot for the image of the profession. There are exceptions, of course, but it seems that every time a decent show comes on, it's quickly cancelled or put in a stupid time slot so that HH or HHI or Mike Holmes can air yet again. Bottom line is probably money - it has to be cheaper to get a camera crew to follow wide-eyed and/or demanding home buyers around while they lament the small/outdated/crummy houses their budget will allow than to get a credible designer to put in the hard work it takes to get a good show put together. JMHO, of course.
