HGTV star Alison Victoria thinks a single slip of the tongue may have cost her a return to Battle on the Beach.
Victoria recently said she believes she was passed over for the home renovation competition’s new season after referring to the show as “canceled” on her Pap Smear Podcast last summer, instead of using the industry-approved phrase “not renewed.”
The designer, who previously co-hosted the series with Taniya Nayak and Ty Pennington, broke the news in July 2025 while chatting with Retta. At the time, HGTV was pulling the plug on several beloved shows, and Victoria casually mentioned that Battle on the Beach had been “canceled” after four seasons.
Turns out, the beach house competition wasn’t washed away for good.
More than 10 months later, HGTV announced that the series would return, with Pennington reprising his role alongside Mika Kleinschmidt and Sarah Baeumler. According to TV Insider, the new season will move forward without either Victoria or Nayak.
In an interview with Daily Mail, Victoria said she suspects her wording on the podcast may have rubbed network executives the wrong way.
“There is no editing,” she said of the podcast. “It’s just conversation. I don’t have notes. I should be more prepared, but I’m not and she and I were just talking about different shows and I had said that Battle on the Beach was canceled.”
“Now, that word should not have been used,” she added. “I should’ve said ‘not renewed.’ That’s the language that I should have used.”
Victoria said she found out about the show’s return through Nayak, who delivered the news directly.
“She was like, ‘They picked up Battle on the Beach, and neither of us are gonna be on,’ and I looked at her and I just said, ‘I expected that.’ ”
Even so, Victoria said she has no hard feelings about the shake-up.
“For me, we loved that show and we just had fun,” she said. “We made great television, and now it’s time to pass the torch and see what they’ve got. So only time will tell, and you know, the ratings will be the feedback, and I hope that the ratings are amazing.”
Fortunately, Victoria’s dance card is already full. She is currently hosting Sin City Rehab and also working on Scariest House in America and Ugliest House in America, both of which are hosted by Retta.
That packed schedule, she said, may have made her unavailable anyway.
“I’m working very hard on my show, so even let’s say I did get asked to be back — which I did not, but let’s say I did — I wouldn’t have been able to do it because there was no way to juggle it.”
And if Victoria is choosing to believe there was a silver lining to being left off the guest list, it’s that HGTV may have assumed she was simply too busy to head back to the shore.
“Part of me hopes that maybe they didn’t ask me back because they knew I didn’t have time.”
