Getty Jonathan Knight
HGTV’s “Farmhouse Fixer” host Jonathan Knight still had former “Rock the Block” castmates and “Unsellable Houses” hosts, twins Lyndsay Lamb and Leslie Davis waiting a full year on an apology.
In season 3’s kitchen face-off, Jonathan and his brother Jordan Knight came to the block as guest judges and chose Jenny and Dave Marrs from “Fixer to Fabulous” as the winners. While judging the twins’ space, however, Jonathan called their countertop choice “basic”, a word that has followed him since.
“[The twins] call me all the time and they’re always talking about ‘basic’. We have Ty [Pennington, host of ‘Rock the Block’] on the culdesac talking about ‘basic’, we have the contestants talking about ‘basic’,” Knight said in confessional.
Lyndsay Lamb & Leslie Davis Want an Apology From Jonathan Knight
Lyndsay and Leslie returned in season 4 as judges for the main suite face-off, giving them the perfect opportunity to address the “basic” label, with their confronting Jonathan having aired in the “Rock the Block: Behind the Block” bonus footage episode of season 4 of the series.
“Maybe we’ll get a basic apology in there,” Lyndsay said in confessional, with Leslie adding, “Just something simple”.
The editors then included a “Basic Count” segment where they showed clips of people using the word “basic” to Jonathan throughout the filming of season 4. Besides Lyndsay and Leslie (who said it was good that Jonathan wasn’t there to walk them through his house for judging, as the twins did a blind judging for the main suites), guest judges Jenny Marrs, Brian Kleinschmidt, Alison Victoria, and contestant Bryan Baeumler all poked fun at Jonathan’s past word choice (some directly to him and others indirectly behind his back). The final “Basic Count” totaled 10 utterances of the word.
Despite having their “basic” issues with Jonathan, Lyndsay and Leslie judged the main suites fairly, though in the end, they gave the weekly win to eventual season winners Michel Smith Boyd and Anthony Elle.
Brian Kleinschmidt Was in the Super Bowl Halftime Show With New Kids on the Block
Lyndsay and Leslie weren’t the only guest judges to bring up their past with Jonathan. When Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt came to the block to judge the exterior face-off in episode 5, Brian recalled the last time he saw Jonathan was at Super Bowl XXV in January 1991.
“Jon, long time no see. It’s been what, like 30-something years?” Brian said. The exact number comes to just over 31 years (given “Rock the Block” season 4 was filmed in October 2022). Jonathan’s partner Kristina Crestin was shocked to hear that these two had such a history, and was even more shocked when Brian explained his involvement in Jonathan’s Super Bowl Halftime Show performance with New Kids on the Block.
“We were in the Super Bowl Halftime Show together when I was in 3rd grade,” Brian said.
“It was a ‘Small World’ theme so he was one of the ‘Small World’ children,” Jonathan added, referencing the iconic Disney World attraction.
Disney produced the 1991 halftime show, with the official theme being “A Small World Salute to 25 Years of the Super Bowl”. New Kids on the Block came out to perform songs including “It’s a Small World” – the first time a major contemporary pop artist/group performed at the halftime show – while thousands of children (including Brian) came on stage dressed in costumes to represent different countries and cultures from around the world.
“My brother was from Russia and I think I was from Holland,” Brian said.
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