TV Talk: Damar Hamlin gifts grandmother with ‘Secret Celebrity Renovation;’ WTAE hires reporter
Damar Hamlin soaked in his return to Pittsburgh last month but the former Central Catholic High School student, 2020 University of Pittsburgh grad and current Buffalo Bills safety made a quieter return in May to film an episode of CBS’s “Secret Celebrity Renovation” (8 p.m. Sept. 1, KDKA-TV) where he gifted his grandmother, Portia Stockton, with a near-total home renovation.
“Survivor” alum and home improvement contractor “Boston Rob” Mariano said Stockton’s McKees Rocks home hadn’t been updated in many years.
“We ended up doing the entire downstairs of the house, the living room, the family room and the kitchen, completely gutted,” he said. “And then we noticed the stairway to go up to upstairs was in bad disrepair, so that was a little bit of a surprise for us. But whenever we do these renovations, the most important thing from a construction standpoint is safety. So even though that wasn’t in our original [plans], we took that on as well.
“Ultimately, it’s like night and day,” Mariano continued, “like you’re walking into a brand-new house because we renovated almost their entire living space.”
A CBS rep said Hamlin was unavailable to discuss his “Secret Celebrity Renovation” episode due to his Bills practice schedule. The episode begins by recapping Hamlin’s on-field collapse from cardiac arrest in January and then shows Hamlin driving “SCR” host Nischelle Turner around Pittsburgh before they arrive at his grandmother’s house.
Hamlin credits Stockton with opening her home to many family members.
“Grandkids, great grandkids, cousins, aunties — 23 people probably in and out at a time,” Hamlin says. “Grandma gonna make sure everybody OK no matter what. If you don’t got a place to stay, she gonna do whatever she can to help out. Whoever’s coming to get a meal, whoever’s just in town or whoever needs a place to stay.”
Mariano said Hamlin doesn’t have a lot of experience in the construction space (“Not good,” Hamlin says in the episode when Mariano asks how he does with power tools) but Hamlin got his hands dirty anyway.
“He got in there and did demolition with us and [‘SCR’ interior designer] Sabrina [Soto] can tell you he has an eye for design and he knew specifically what he wanted to do,” Mariano said. “He had a lot of suggestions — more with her than with me. But I got him up there doing the work, taking down the ceilings, demoing the kitchen, climbing the ladders. I’m not gonna get out there and defend against the best in the NFL. I’d need some coaching for that and he needed a little coaching, but he was not afraid to do the work.”
Mariano said this three-to-four-week renovation was one of the longer ones this season with the home’s kitchen seeing the biggest change.
“We completely changed the layout of the kitchen,” Mariano said. “Damar talked a lot about how his grandma was such a big influence and cooked for them a lot.”
“Coming where I come from, you got an island in the kitchen, you’ve made it,” Hamlin says in the episode.
“Then in the living room, Sabrina and Damar completely refaced the fireplace,” Mariano said. “It was definitely an extensive renovation.”
In the episode, Hamlin takes Turner to the football field at Sto-Rox High School, a field he played on from grade school through eighth grade.
“Damar Hamlin is our neighborhood hero,” says Josh Jenkins, a Sto-Rox High football player.
“He’s like a bigger brother to all of us,” says Amere Hibbler, another Sto-Rox player.
Hamlin and Turner also visit Hays Manor, where Hamlin lived as a toddler.
Mariano said the renovation, which included a makeover of two bedrooms, is only one aspect of each “Secret Celebrity Renovation” episode.
“It’s more about the relationships that Damar had with his grandma and the people in Pittsburgh and growing up there,” Mariano said. “You get to see these athletes and celebrities, singers, actors and actresses in a different light. Damar is a lot younger than me and obviously, he went through a very traumatic experience that everybody saw, but he was so down to earth and super-thankful and just a really, really nice kid.”
Upon seeing her newly renovated home, Stockton says, “I just feel so loved and so blessed.
“He’s always had a good heart,” Stockton says of her grandson. “Any grandmother would be proud to say ‘That’s my grandbaby.’”
This “Secret Celebrity Renovation” episode marks the third time in two years the show has come to Pittsburgh, following last summer’s Billy Gardell and Aaron Donald episodes.
“It’s starting to be pretty familiar territory,” said Mariano, who is married to Beaver County native and fellow “Survivor” alum Amber Brkich. “And for me personally, you know Amber’s from right over there in Beaver, so it’s a little bit of a home away from home.”
New hire at WTAE-TV
Channel 4 hired Ava Rash as the station’s new Westmoreland County bureau reporter. She’s been a reporter and fill-in anchor at WCHS-TV in Charleston, W.Va, since October 2020. She also works as a host and emcee at Marshall University football and basketball games and has previous experience as a sideline reporter for Big Ten Network.
Rash, a native of Pittsburgh’s South Hills who attended Thomas Jefferson High School, was a reporter and executive producer for WPSU’s “Centre County Report” while she was a student at Penn State.
Rash has a good sense of humor about the perils of live TV as evidenced by her pinned post on X, formerly Twitter, of a live shot where she gags after something flies into her mouth while she’s on the air. Her first day at WTAE will be Sept. 11.
You can reach TV writer Rob Owen at rowen@triblive.com or 412-380-8559. Follow @RobOwenTV on Threads, X, Bluesky and Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.
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