'Battle on the Beach' Combines Competition With House Flipping and a Sweet Prize

What do you get when you mix together a cash prize, your favorite famous house flippers, and a serene ocean setting? HGTV's Battle on the Beach, of course. The reality competition series follows a group of contestants who are also house flippers as they work with mentors from shows like Windy City Rehab and Rock the Block to each turn a 1,500-square-foot property into a renovated home.

But where is the show filmed? The homes are all identical and the contestants stick with the same properties each week to work on a different project with the help of their celebrity mentors. Each week, they're tasked with a new project. At the end of the season, the team who has added the most value to their renovated home wins a $50,000 prize to put toward a home renovation in real life.

As the title suggests, Battle on the Beach is filmed, well, on a beach. To be more precise, Season 1 was filmed on the Alabama Gulf Coast. It's unclear why production chose Alabama, exactly, but along with the option of beach locations, the state does offer filming tax credit incentives for TV shows and movies, so that might be why the first season is set there.

Season 2 meanwhile, while premieres June 4, 2023, is filmed in they idyllic-sounding locale of Surfside Beach, Texas. Billed as "a coastal community that cares," this breezy setting has seemingly perfected "island life, Texas style."

The contestants are real-life house flippers trying to win money to work on new projects to further their individual careers. Because of that, they are virtually unknown to the general public. But the mentors on Battle on the Beach are from other home-renovation shows, and there's a good chance viewers will recognize them right off the bat.

Home renovation expert Ty Pennington, of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Trading Spaces, and Rock the Block fame, is one of the mentors. Alison Victoria from Windy City Rehab is also a mentor to the contestants on Battle on the Beach, and Taniya Nayak of Food Network's Restaurant Impossible is the third mentor to a team of lucky competitors.

"Taniya, Ty, and Alison are no strangers to high-stakes renovations, so they are pumped to share their expertise with these promising flipping teams," Loren Ruch, group senior vice president of programming and development at HGTV, said in a statement on the network's website. "Plus, their work will be judged by their network peers Mike [Holmes] and Mina [Starsiak], which means the pressure is on to deliver blowout beach house renovations."

Meanwhile, Season 2 judges are none other than Bryan and Sarah Baeumler of Renovation Island fame. About their time filming, Sarah said on social media, "I am so grateful to work alongside this incredible crew. We laugh, we cry, we sing. Can’t wait for everyone to see this exciting season!"

Luckily, there's no shortage of ways to watch this particular home-reno show. New episodes of Battle on the Beach air on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HGTV.

However, the same day each new episode airs, viewers can watch the new episode on HGTV GO. And Discovery+ subscribers can watch new episodes early in the day on Sundays on the streaming platform.

Basically, there's no reason not to try and see which real-life renovator comes out on top.