Two unscripted projects — The Price You Pay from Tim Grady and Frank Carlisi of Tim Grady Films, and Earthships from Lottie Naughton-Rumbo — have emerged victorious at the Realscreen Summit’s live pitch competition, the Summit Showdown, held today (June 7) in Dana Point.

This year’s edition of the Summit Showdown was hosted by television personality, designer and author Carson Kressley (Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, RuPaul’s Drag Race). HGTV executives Betsy Ayala (SVP, production and development), Maggie Zeltner (director, programming and development) and Anna Bloomfield (senior director of development), as well as A&E executives Jonathan Partridge (senior executive producer) and Marcie Hume (senior executive producer), were on hand to choose one winner for their respective networks, with the prize being a US$20,000 development deal for each.

A&E’s judges praised The Price You Pay for its treatment of a true-crime story centered on the life of its central character, a Texas penitentiary inmate known as the “Death Row Chef,” while HGTV’s judges were swayed by how Earthships combined the channel’s favored “before-and-after” reveals with the novel subject of eco-friendly, sustainable abodes that are being built across the U.S.

The finalists who pitched to each network, and their projects, were:

For A&E:
First Degree — Ocean Entertainment (Jennifer Comeau)
The Price You Pay — Tim Grady Films (Tim Grady & Frank Carlisi)
Dog People — Studio BRB (Niamh Kennedy-North & Jenni Baynham)

For HGTV:
Earthships — Lottie Naughton-Rumbo
Filthy House Fix — Avanti Media Ltd (Emyr Afan)
Streamers — 3 Story Pictures Inc. (Ell McEachern)