‘The Bachelorette’ and ‘Special Forces’ star Tyler Cameron is adding another knot on his toolbelt—literally. ‘Going Home with Tyler Cameron‘ sees the Florida native returning to him hometown to take on renovations and tackle some personal projects while figuring out his passion.
To dive a little deeper into the new series, Cameron sat down to discuss what went into the new show, which will premier on Prime Video on April 18.
You talk in the first episode about what inspired you to kind of start all this, but what were some of those first steps to bring the show to life?
I think the first step was one, I want to start this business, but two, how do I? Let’s get the right people around me. That’s how we found Rob (Ritch) and Jess (Quintero), and I always get my pops around. But then it’s about let’s take a passion of mine and a place that I love and my people and let’s showcase it into another part of my life—which is the TV world.
Something I never really thought about when it comes to renovations and construction is just how many personalities you deal with on a daily basis as well, and you see that unfold on the show.
Definitely. I mean, think about this: You’ve got to manage a construction crew, a design crew, and also a production crew. And in the construction crew, you have your tile guys, your drywall guys, your painters, your cabinet guys, your carpentry, the plumbers, electricians, the list goes on and on and on…. And so it’s scheduling and planning. Sometimes people are working on top of each other and they hate it. They get mad and they get mad at me.
I’m like, well guys, we’ve got to get this done, we have timelines—but a couple of Benjamin’s help fix those issues sometimes, which sucks, but sometimes you have too. We were able to get through it and it was a great experience for me to learn how to manage that many people and organize it, because you’ve got production asking, when can we do this? When can we shoot that? Where are we here? So it was a lot.
And the personalities from clients too—that’s a whole different set to figure out.
I didn’t even add the clients to it. That’s the fourth part of it all, you’ve got to keep these clients happy all the time. Some of them were great, they would just leave and not be around and we could just go for it and go all out. Some of them would always stay around and usually those ones slowed things down a little bit.
They were always asking about this and critiquing that—I’m like, just let us get to the finished product, then make your choices. That’s always how you get delays and that’s how the budgets change. So it was definitely keeping up, customer relations is an art and something that you really have to balance with everything you’re doing.
In the show, you also get to put a lot of your own personal life into it—redoing your mom’s house, doing work for friends and so on. How did it feel to bring that into the mix?
It was special—to do my mom’s house, to surprise my dad with his house and to do things for my friends, it meant a lot. I had a lot of friends who took a chance on me to do their homes and family as well, so to deliver for them and to make them happy, it was definitely a lot of work, but something I’m proud of for sure.
Looking back, was this experience what you expected?
It was way more than I ever expected and it was so much more work, but it truly made me grow up a lot. This was probably the hardest work year of my life, but it made me put in perspective what true construction and running a big construction company is all about. Also it just gave me so much respect for what my dad has done over the years.
But honestly, after all the hard work, it made me want to do more—I love it and I want to keep going forward with this. I’m a workaholic, and this is where you’re going to find me for the years going forward.
What do you love about it?
I love the tangible part of it, I love that you always can get your hands on it and you see something start from this and it finishes into this. You’re taking a house and you’re turning it into a home for somebody. You’re making a space that maybe used to be a place they didn’t like to visit and didn’t like into a really special, beautiful place that someone loves and cherishes.
I think when you get to design or renovate or build someone’s home, this is a huge investment for that person. When you get to deliver that and make them proud and happy of their own space again, that’s an awesome feeling.
Overall, what do you hope audiences take away from ‘Going Home with Tyler Cameron’
I think everyone has seen me in the past as someone who’s dated a girl on ‘The Bachelorette’, and then you saw me on ‘Special Forces’. I hope now you get to see the full me. I think everyone’s seen glimpses and pieces of me, this show really gives you the full me. You get heart, you get the grind, you get the fun still, you get it all, and I think I poured my heart into this. I hope people can see that.
What you’re going to see is me grow from episode one to episode eight. I didn’t just hop into this business knowing everything, and I didn’t want to look like I knew everything. I wanted people to see this is real learning, real lessons, and we’re going to grow and learn together when you watch.
Going Home with Tyler Cameron will premiere on Prime Video April 18.
