Price is right for HGTV

Marystown - He might not have gone all the way on "Designer Superstar Challenge," but Ambrose Price came away a winner nonetheless.

The 23-year-old native of Fortune, who was one of 10 contestants on the Home and Garden Television (HGTV) reality show last winter, has landed a contract to host his own show on the station, entitled "The Decorating Adventures of Ambrose Price."

"It's going to be me being mentored by the best of Canadian designers.

"I can't really reveal what the TV shows are going to be, but I can tell you that it's going to be me in the big world of design doing different challenges each week. It's going to be a mix of everything.

"It's going to be wild adventures."

Price, a self-taught interior decorator, was working with "Beyond Design" in St. John's, when he applied via video submission and was selected to compete on "Designer Superstar Challenge."

On each show, the contestants were presented a series of design-related challenges to complete for the program's three judges, who then decided who should be eliminated based on the results.

Price ultimately didn't win, but he did catch the eye of the show's director, who expressed an immediate interest.

"Two weeks into the show that was on last winter they phoned me up and said not to sign any other contracts with anybody else, because they had a show that was gone into development and that I would be filming it in the spring."

As luck would have it, he was just about to sign on the dotted line to regularly appear in design segments on CBC's Living Newfoundland when he received a call from the director.

"She said, 'you are headed for big things, my friend, and we want you here on HGTV.'"

The station filmed a pilot for the series in May.

"I had a lot of fun doing that.

"It was based on the floral industry and the whole idea of it was for me to learn as much about making fresh floral arrangements ... it's very educational, as I learned, the audience learned."

Price said he's ecstatic about the project.

"I can't wait. I'm really, really excited. This is a gift from God, I have to say. This is an opportunity of a lifetime, and I'm going t o do my best to make sure that I have a hit TV show."

He left for Toronto Nov. 25 to begin filming the show, which starts airing on HGTV in April.

He'll get a brief chance to return home to Newfoundland for Christmas this month, and then it's back to Toronto until May to wrap up shooting.

He acknowledged "I'm going to be quite busy."