Finale of Ellen's DESIGN CHALLENGE to Deliver Huge Surprise for HGTV Viewers, 3/2

The finale of Ellen's Design Challenge, scheduled to air on HGTV, Monday, March 2, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, promises a surprise from television icon Ellen DeGeneres that viewers will have to see to believe. The stakes in the popular furniture design series are high as the last two competitors Tim McClellan of Durango, Colo. and Katie Stout of Brooklyn, N.Y. go head-to-head to win a $100,000 cash prize courtesy of Wayfair.com and a feature in HGTV Magazine. However, neither finalist could ever imagine what's to come in the last minutes of the competition.

"The pieces I've seen from the designers have been insanely creative, so of course the finale will be very exciting," said Ellen. "This is the moment we've all been waiting for and it includes some curveballs that will make the final episode unforgettable."

The six-episode series, Ellen's first on cable television, features six competitors as they tackle ingenious challenges to sketch, design and build extraordinary furniture. Produced by Ellen's production company, A Very Good Production, and A. Smith & Co. in association with Telepictures, Ellen's Design Challenge requires contestants to create inventive furniture designs to avoid elimination. Television personality Jay Montepare serves as the series' host, while Amanda Dameron, editor-in-chief of Dwell, and Christiane Lemieux, executive creative director of Wayfair.com, participate as judges in the competition.

Executive producers for Ellen's Design Challenge include Ellen, who first conceptualized the series, along with Jeff Kleeman of A Very Good Production, and Arthur Smith, Kent Weed and Tim Eagan of A. Smith & Co.

ABOUT HGTV

America's leading home and lifestyle brand, HGTV features a top-rated cable network that is distributed to more than 96 million U.S. households and the HGTV website, HGTV.com, the nation's leading online home-and-garden destination that attracts an average of four million unique visitors per month. The brand also includes the HGTV HOME consumer products line which showcases exclusive collections of paint, flooring, lighting, furniture, plants, fabrics and other home-oriented products. In partnership with Hearst Magazines, the HGTV Magazine, a home and lifestyle publication, is currently available on newsstands. Viewers can become fans of HGTV and interact with other home improvement enthusiasts through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., HGTV is owned by Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI).

ABOUT TELEPICTURES

Telepictures is an industry-leading and Emmy Award-winning producer of innovative, multiplatform advertiser-friendly television series and digital content for the first-run syndication, cable and digital marketplace. Programs produced by Telepictures have won 85 Emmy Awards in the last 18 years, including Outstanding Talk Show or Outstanding Talk Show Host for 15 of the last 17 years. As of December 2014, Telepictures is producing the following series: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Extra, Judge Mathis, The People's Court, The Real, TMZ, TMZ Hollywood Sports, TMZ Live, CANDIDLY NICOLE and Let's Ask America. Upcoming programs include Crime Watch Daily, Ellen's Design Challenge and Hello Goodbye. For more information about Telepictures programming, please visit www.telepicturestv.com.

ABOUT A VERY GOOD PRODUCTION

A Very Good Production (AVGP) is the Emmy-winning television and film production company of producer/writer/actor/host Ellen DeGeneres. Based at Warner Bros. Television Group (WBTVG) with an exclusive multiyear deal, AVGP produces the nationally Syndicated daytime talk program THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW and develops television projects for all divisions of WBTVG, including scripted and unscripted primetime series for network and cable, as well as additional Syndicated fare. AVGP's current slate of projects includes the new scripted comedy One Big Happy, which will debut on NBC in 2015; Ellen's Design Challenge, a new unscripted design competition program for HGTV, premiering in 2015; and Hello Goodbye, an upcoming unscripted series for the Travel Channel highlighting heart-warming - and sometimes heart-wrenching - stories of love, sorrow, family and friendship from travelers of all cultures and walks of life. Jeff Kleeman serves as President of A Very Good Production.

ABOUT A. SMITH & CO

A. Smith & Co. Productions creates some of the most innovative, highly rated and high-quality programming for the domestic and international television marketplace. The company has produced more than 2,000 hours of award-winning programming. Current productions include such hits as Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, American Ninja Warrior, Unsung, Full Throttle Saloon, Burns BBQ, Celebrity Crime Files, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, Too Young to Marry?, Save Our Business, UFC Countdown, Joe Rogan Questions Everything, Divorce Hotel and many others. A. Smith & Co.'s library of programming includes hit shows such as Paradise Hotel, I SURVIVED a Japanese Game Show, The Swan, Trading Spaces, Pros vs. Joes and Skating with Celebrities. A. Smith & Co. has developed and produced the No. 1 show in America 25 times and a Top 10 show more than 200 times, producing programs with budgets totaling approximately one billion dollars for more than 42 broadcast and cable networks.