HGTV Dream Home 2010 winner is not from Dallas-Fort Worth

Instead it is one Sandra Gilson of Scotia, New York.

HGTV awarded the 2010 version of its annual Green Home to Sandra Gilson in Scotia, New York, which is more than 1,425 miles from Dallas-Fort Worth.

Gilson and her husband Kermit won the eco-friendly, single-family home in Plymouth, Mass., plus a GMC Terrain and $100,000.

From the release:

"Gilson's excitement at receiving the news was televised on the HGTV Green Home Giveaway 2010 special on Monday, June 28, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Gilson, whose name was drawn from more than 17 million entries, was at home with her husband Kermit when Durie appeared at her door to give her the news. She had entered the giveaway online every day throughout the entry period, but never expected to win. The green-minded couple recycle and keep a compost pile for their garden."

I watched the show because Pegasus has been deluged by searches for "HGTV Dream Home," sending me to the HGTV site. So then I got sucked into filling out their form every day to try and win. Also persuaded a friend to do the same. Then learned my sister and her roommate and her entire Connecticut office were also entering to win every day. Which seemed futile, because wouldn't HGTV be more interested in awarding the house to someone who resided in the middle of the country, someplace hot, someone who would appreciate a house in a cooler area?

Awarding the house to someone who lives near Albany seemed like a complete waste. But then they showed Sandra and Kermit emerging from a modest-looking domicile and it seemed like they probably deserved it. Gratifyingly (and like the one or two other HGTV Dream Home winners I've seen), Sandra did not exhibit the kind of Price Is Right screaming you expect from someone who has just won a grand, eco-friendly home, despite the efforts of the Australian co-host to get her to emote.

To keep you on the edge of your seat, they had the Australian guy wandering through the winner's hometown, obscuring its identity while offering "clues" about where it might be. These segments were interspersed with an advertorial on how great the house is, the art is amazing, it uses only 41% of the energy a similarly-sized house of its size would use, etc.

It's hard to pick which was worse: the advertorial or listening to the Australian accent while they postponed the payoff. The logistics of the finale were odd: The Australian guy was suddenly accompanied, pied-piper-like, by a parade of the Gilsons' neighbors. When did he accumulate them, and was the whole town in cahoots? Seemed fishy. As this story reveals, the 2009 winners' "surprise" visit was recorded a week before the show aired.

Since they already knew the outcome, what was the point of making a mystery about the winner's hometown? IE., for whom is this exercise most cruel? The thousands of entrants who are realizing they aren't the winners, or the residents of Albany who, recognizing the fried-dough stand and movie theater up the street from where they lived, might've still thought the house was theirs?

Meanwhile, nearly all of the winners have sold their homes, including the winners of the Dream Home in Tyler, Texas, in 2005.