HGTV Debuts ‘Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge’ Days Before ‘Barbie’ Movie Premieres

Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge on HGTV
‘Barbie Dreamhouse Challemge on HGTV (Image credit: HGTV)

Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge, a competition series that sees stars from HGTV build a real-life Barbie dreamhouse, debuts on HGTV Sunday, July 16. Supermodel and entrepreneur Ashley Graham hosts.

The movie Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, comes out July 21. Margot Robbie plays Barbie and Ryan Gosling portrays Ken. 

Mattel is behind Barbie. 

There are four episodes for Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge. Eight teams of HGTV stars and one Food Network chef transform a house in Southern California into a real-life Barbie Dreamhouse. One Barbie superfan wins a “sleepover staycation,” says HGTV.  

Designer Jonathan Adler will be head judge along with HGTV designer Tiffany Brooks. A celebrity guest judge will join them each week. 

Design elements will include a light-up dance floor, an aquarium that doubles as a desk, a hat carousel and a pet elevator/phone booth. 

“To pull this off, we’ve assembled the biggest group of renovation stars ever on HGTV to create a real-life fully functioning Barbie Dreamhouse,” Graham said. “The pressure is on for the teams to unleash their creativity far beyond their usual design parameters to dream up a place that Barbie would be proud to call home.” 

The premiere is 90 minutes. Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson of Married to Real Estate will face off against Jasmine Roth (Help! I Wrecked My House) and Food Network’s Antonia Lofaso (Beachside Brawl). 

Kitty Black Perkins, who’s credited with designing the first Black Barbie, will make a surprise appearance. 

HGTV stars lined up for the rest of the season include Ty Pennington, Alison Victoria, Jonathan Knight and Kristina Crestin in week two, with Nischelle Turner of Entertainment Tonight the guest judge; Keith Bynum, Evan Thomas, and Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt in week three, with Marsai Martin the celeb guest judge. 

The finale will have Christina Hall, James Bender, Michel Smith Boyd and Anthony Elle Williams, then Christian Siriano the celeb guest judge. 

Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge is produced by Mission Control and Mattel Television. 

Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.