TORONTO: HGTV has signed an exclusive two-year production and development deal for a new series leveraging the popularity of Scottish interior designers Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan - known to audiences as the hosts of the U.K.-produced How NOT to Decorate.

The Alliance Atlantis-owned channel will air the new series, Home Heist, in the fall, aiming to draw in and build on the duo's existing fan base in Canada.

Home Heist will send the pair beyond the doors of Canadian homes on a mission to expose and correct the worst design disasters. It will start shooting around Toronto in April.

The deal will see Toronto- and Montreal-based prodco Cineflix produce 26 episodes for this year and another 26 episodes for 2008. HGTV is currently looking for Canadian design crimes to be featured in the program, and is casting at www.hgtv.ca/castingcall.

McAllister and Ryan's U.K.-produced shows - How NOT to Decorate, Trading Up and Million Pound Property Experiment - have raked in record audiences for HGTV and BBC Canada, and the sassy design duo stirred up fans during a publicity tour in Canada last fall.

From Media in Canada