TV show's catch phrase spawns drinking game

The real estate show's host has unwittingly started a drinking game.
By TERRY MORROW
KNOXVILLE (TENN.) NEWS SENTINEL
HGTV personality Clive Pearse has reached iconic status -- but at first, he didn't understand it.
For some viewers of his shows "Design to Sale" and "Design Star," he's become part of a drinking game. Just like Lawrence Welk ("wunnerful, wunnerful") and "Columbo ("just one more thing...") and countless other current and classic shows, Pearse sets the game in motion with a trademark phrase.
"Apparently, every time I say 'top dollar,' back they go with their shots. I'm not sure if they get to the end of the program," he says with a laugh, "because I say it quite a lot."
Pearse learned of the game via an e-mail from a viewer.
"I received an e-mail from a lady, and she watches 'Design to Sale.' It's on five nights a week, and, of course, the theme of the show is 'Can You Get Top Dollar for Your Home?"' he says.
But Pearse, who moved from the United States from England in 1997, says he can't take all the blame.
After all, he says, he wasn't quite sure what the woman meant by the term "drinking game."
"To sound very British," he says, "I didn't know what a 'drinking game' was."
He's thinking he might have fun with these ladies, though.
"I should work in the phrase a lot in one episode," he says. "That would take care of them."
Back for more
Pearse, who admits he doesn't have much of a flare for design himself, will be on the tube even more this summer. He's returning for another edition of "Design Star," in which contestants compete to host their own HGTV show.
Pearse was recently the host of HGTV's "Dream Home Giveaway," during which the cable channel gave away a prize package worth more than 2.5 million.