TV Central: One on One Podcast
Jess Eva joins TV Central to explain why Budget Battlers is about far more than renovation. In this warm, candid conversation, the host and executive producer reflects on Serena’s emotional season-three story, the cost-of-living crisis, regional communities, protecting each family’s dignity and the relationships that continue after the cameras leave.
Now in its third season, Budget Battlers gives Jess and her team five days and a $10,000 renovation budget to transform a home. Donated materials, volunteer labour, imagination and community generosity stretch that figure much further, but the real outcome is not simply a refreshed room. It is a reminder to people doing it tough that they have not been forgotten.
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The full episode of TV Central: One on One with Jess Eva is available now via Acast, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all major podcast platforms.
What Jess Eva Discusses In This Episode
- Why Budget Battlers is a programme about kindness, dignity and community rather than simply paint and plaster.
- Serena’s moving story in Warracknabeal and why it connected so personally with Jess’s childhood.
- Why the series deliberately travels to regional communities that television often overlooks.
- How a five-day, $10,000 transformation works with volunteers, donated materials and clever reuse.
- The responsibility of telling stories involving grief, hardship and financial pressure with care.
- How the first season without Norm Hogan has changed the production and family dynamic.
- The qualities Jess values in Melissa Tkautz, Luke Moore, Brooke Triplett and the returning tradie team.
- The enormous Wishlist charity project and its 18 bedrooms, four kitchen and living areas and outdoor spaces.
- What Grant and Chezzi Denyer and Dave Hughes were really like once the work began.
- The ongoing bond — and honest sense of loss — after the team leaves each family.
More Than A Renovation Show
Jess says the most important change can be emotional rather than material. A large group of strangers arrives, works without asking for anything in return and shows a family that support is still available. That idea gives Budget Battlers a purpose extending well beyond home improvement.
They’re reminded that you don’t have to do life alone.
Jess Eva
The season-three premiere travelled to Warracknabeal in rural Victoria to help Serena, a young mother raising four children alone. Her ageing house had serious defects, including a shower she was frightened to use. Jess saw familiar fear in Serena’s eyes and connected it with her own childhood, when her family lived without electricity and sometimes reached the end of the week with little food.
That experience shaped the way Jess approached the reveal. Before Serena walked into the transformed home, Jess wanted a private moment to hold her hand. For Jess, the scene could not be reduced to a conventional renovation-show catchphrase when the week had become so deeply personal.
Why Regional Communities Matter
Taking the premiere to Warracknabeal was a deliberate choice. Jess grew up in regional communities and knows they may not offer the glossy aerial shots often favoured by television. That is precisely why she wants the programme to go there: the team chooses places where help is needed, not locations selected only for their appearance.
The five-day, $10,000 challenge depends on thinking differently. Jess describes reusing kitchens, painting benchtops, applying stick-on tiles and doing the accessible parts of a job before bringing qualified tradies in for specialist work. The production keeps receipts because she expects viewers to question whether the figure is real. Her broader message is that consumer culture can convince people every improvement must be expensive when resourcefulness can achieve much more.
Telling Difficult Stories With Dignity
As host, executive producer and founder of Maker Media, Jess carries responsibility for how the families are represented. She works with fellow executive producers Anna and Sheldon to know the participants as people before shaping their television story.
We’re people first.
Jess Eva
Jess points to the Newcastle episode involving Brenda, a devoted mother and carer grieving the loss of her son Aaron. When Brenda worried that she would be expected to remove her son’s bed for a neater reveal, Jess rejected the idea. The home and the grief belonged to Brenda; the programme would not dictate how she should remember her son.
A New Season Without Norm
This is the first season made without Norm Hogan working beside Jess on screen. Jess explains that the change has reduced the stress of both parents being away from their children at the same time. Norm remains her best friend and continues supporting the family, while taking a break from the physical toll of the builds.
The shift also gave Jess space to work with new personalities. Melissa Tkautz returns with her eye for design, while Luke Moore — known as Reno Dad — and Brooke Triplett join foreman Leigh Wright, Tim Moncur, Mark Lawton, Glen Hare and the wider volunteer crew. The essential quality, Jess says, is simple: no ego. Everyone has to accept the basic accommodation, long days and needs of the family ahead of their own comfort.
Giving Something Back To Viewers
One of Jess’s key executive-producer decisions for season three was to address the cost-of-living crisis directly. She wanted commercial partners to give back not only to each featured family but also to people watching at home. In the interview, Jess says the season’s viewer giveaways had reached approximately $380,000 to $400,000.
That same principle drives the season’s largest undertaking: transforming an accommodation complex for the Wishlist charity on the Sunshine Coast. The project covers 18 bedrooms, four kitchen and living spaces and outdoor areas for families needing affordable accommodation while receiving hospital care. The team divided rooms among sponsors and supporters, maintaining the programme’s small-budget philosophy through a much larger network of help.
Special Guests Who Got To Work
Grant and Chezzi Denyer join the Newcastle transformation, while Dave Hughes appears during the Wishlist project. Jess says the guests did not arrive for a token cameo. Grant and Chezzi painted and cleaned, while Hughes carried flooring upstairs. Their appearances came from genuine friendships Jess formed through television and radio, giving viewers a chance to see a generous side of familiar personalities.
What Happens After The Reveal
The emotional reveal may end each episode, but it does not instantly end the relationship. Jess and the team continue checking in through messages, birthdays and personal updates. She is also candid about the difficult reality: after becoming intensely close during a five-day build, it is impossible to maintain that same level of contact with every family across the country.
Jess describes feeling a kind of grief when she drives away. That honesty captures the central truth of Budget Battlers: the transformations matter because real relationships form around them, not because television needs a dramatic before-and-after shot.
Listen To Jess And Norm’s Earlier TV Central Podcast
For more from Jess, revisit TV Central’s earlier conversation with Jess Eva and Norm Hogan about Budget Battlers season two.
And A Little Melissa Tkautz Nostalgia
Jess’s affection for Melissa Tkautz is unmistakable, and the feeling is shared here. Before bringing warmth and ingenuity to Budget Battlers, Melissa played Nikki Spencer on E Street and turned the character’s pop-star storyline into a real chart-topping music career. So, just because Jess loves Melissa so much — and so do the rest of us — here is a burst of 1991 nostalgia with Read My Lips.
Melissa Tkautz — Read My Lips.
Podcast Details
- Podcast: TV Central: One on One
- Host: Aaron Ryan
- Guest: Jess Eva
- Season: 2026
- Episode: 14
Budget Battlers continues Wednesdays at 7.30pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
For more conversations with the people who make Australian television, visit the TV Central podcast archive.