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CNN Live At Daybreak

Ugly Couch Contest

Aired August 26, 2003 - 05:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: If you're sitting at home on your couch watching this, look at your sofa objectively. Could it be a contestant for the Ugly Couch Contest?
Jeanne Moos reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wanted: a couch so ugly it would make even a couch potato prefer a chair. A couch that makes folks groan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every year it amazes us, they get uglier.

MOOS: To impress these judges, partly ugly won't do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That fabric's ugly, but the whole couch isn't ugly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

MOOS: It's the ninth annual Ugly Couch Contest, run by a slip cover maker called Sure Fit. Couch owners send in photos. The Sure Fit staff winnows them down to the worst.

(on camera): Are there more ugly couches concentrated, in, say, the Southeast or the West or? BERT SHLENSKY, PRESIDENT, SURE FIT: No. No. No, they come from all over.

MOOS (voice-over): The public votes on the worst 10 at Sure Fit's Web site. The top three go on the "Regis & Kelly Show," where the audience chooses. You're looking at last year's winner. And, yes, those are mirrors. It was custom designed for a Nevada bordello, bought by its owner at an auction. Some couches come named. One year, owners were required to appear in the photo with their couch. This woman posed sanitizing hers.

SHLENSKY: We got a couple of nude entries, so we decided that wasn't a good idea.

MOOS: The sofas are judged on criteria such as texture, clashing combinations and fabrics.

(on camera): Like I could be a couch material, huh?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I hate to tell you, but there is a striking resemblance. MOOS (voice-over): After the judges disqualified this couch, we confronted the owner.

(on camera): There is an accusation against you that you put this couch together specifically for the contest.

JOHN STARNES, UGLY COUCH CONTESTANT: Oh, heaven's no. I just live with that couch.

MOOS (voice-over): A couth resting on a cinder block may draw snickers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's on a cinder block.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes.

MOOS: But, hey, the cinder block enabled it to hold us up.

(on camera): Do you think it's ugly?

CAMILLE HEMPEL, CONTEST FINALIST: Well, secretly I love this couch. I think it's beautiful.

MOOS (voice-over): Brooklyn artist Camille Hempel is the proud owner of a finalist.

HEMPEL: Oh, yes, here it is, the old leg.

MOOS: She found her couch on the street. She goes around photographing street sofas in the snow, bedecked with tires. She could sure use the $5,000 prize.

HEMPEL: Can we lift these? Can we look under? Oh, jeez.

MOOS: Ew.

HEMPEL: Oh, coffee beans...

MOOS: A little bread thing.

(voice-over): A portrait she painted of her couch hangs above it. Camille has even taken a street couch and worn it for Halloween. If all else fails, maybe she could win the ugly couch costume contest.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired August 26, 2003 - 05:56   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: If you're sitting at home on your couch watching this, look at your sofa objectively. Could it be a contestant for the Ugly Couch Contest?
Jeanne Moos reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wanted: a couch so ugly it would make even a couch potato prefer a chair. A couch that makes folks groan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every year it amazes us, they get uglier.

MOOS: To impress these judges, partly ugly won't do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That fabric's ugly, but the whole couch isn't ugly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

MOOS: It's the ninth annual Ugly Couch Contest, run by a slip cover maker called Sure Fit. Couch owners send in photos. The Sure Fit staff winnows them down to the worst.

(on camera): Are there more ugly couches concentrated, in, say, the Southeast or the West or? BERT SHLENSKY, PRESIDENT, SURE FIT: No. No. No, they come from all over.

MOOS (voice-over): The public votes on the worst 10 at Sure Fit's Web site. The top three go on the "Regis & Kelly Show," where the audience chooses. You're looking at last year's winner. And, yes, those are mirrors. It was custom designed for a Nevada bordello, bought by its owner at an auction. Some couches come named. One year, owners were required to appear in the photo with their couch. This woman posed sanitizing hers.

SHLENSKY: We got a couple of nude entries, so we decided that wasn't a good idea.

MOOS: The sofas are judged on criteria such as texture, clashing combinations and fabrics.

(on camera): Like I could be a couch material, huh?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I hate to tell you, but there is a striking resemblance. MOOS (voice-over): After the judges disqualified this couch, we confronted the owner.

(on camera): There is an accusation against you that you put this couch together specifically for the contest.

JOHN STARNES, UGLY COUCH CONTESTANT: Oh, heaven's no. I just live with that couch.

MOOS (voice-over): A couth resting on a cinder block may draw snickers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's on a cinder block.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes.

MOOS: But, hey, the cinder block enabled it to hold us up.

(on camera): Do you think it's ugly?

CAMILLE HEMPEL, CONTEST FINALIST: Well, secretly I love this couch. I think it's beautiful.

MOOS (voice-over): Brooklyn artist Camille Hempel is the proud owner of a finalist.

HEMPEL: Oh, yes, here it is, the old leg.

MOOS: She found her couch on the street. She goes around photographing street sofas in the snow, bedecked with tires. She could sure use the $5,000 prize.

HEMPEL: Can we lift these? Can we look under? Oh, jeez.

MOOS: Ew.

HEMPEL: Oh, coffee beans...

MOOS: A little bread thing.

(voice-over): A portrait she painted of her couch hangs above it. Camille has even taken a street couch and worn it for Halloween. If all else fails, maybe she could win the ugly couch costume contest.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com