New season of “Divine Renovation” to be filmed on Long Island | Long Island Business News

A television series that helps people in need is planning to bring the show to Long Island for its third season. 

The show, called “Divine Renovation” is hosted by TV veteran Erik Estrada, and its producers are seeking local businesses and nonprofits to be a part of the production and its charitable goals. 

“Divine Renovation” is the creation of Heartlight Entertainment, a company headed by producers Monty Hobbs, Valerie Smaldone and Matthieu Chazareix, which develops “uplifting, inspirational and spiritual programs designed to provide positive energy,” according to its website. Heartlight’s most recent film was an award-winning family drama called “The Thursday Night Club,” featuring former disco diva Gloria Gaynor. 

The Bronx-born Smaldone should be familiar to those in the New York metropolitan area, as she spent nearly a quarter-century as a radio personality here, including 19 years with 106.7 LITE-FM. 

“Divine Renovation” is described as a spirited television series that provides home enhancements for needy individuals and families, along with a spiritual uplift. The show’s first season, which had six episodes, was filmed in Wilmington, N.C. and its second season recently wrapped shooting in Connecticut. 

Past episodes highlighted several home projects to assist people in need, including the building of a ramp for a former firefighter dealing with a traumatic brain injury; providing accessible spaces for an elderly couple; and clearing an overgrown outdoor area for a formerly homeless mother and her teenage son. 

Smaldone says the company is bringing “Divine Renovation” to Long Island at the suggestion of John and Joseph Cipri, owners of Superior Metal and Woodwork in Farmingdale, who said they could provide some space and knew people who would assist the production. 

“We need that hand up to get a foothold in the community,” Smaldone told LIBN. “It’s been astonishing how the business community and the not-for-profits, once they heard the mission of kindness and paying it forward, wanted to join and help their neighbors in whatever way they could, whether it was volunteering, or providing a service or a product, we have numbers that are pretty amazing for a small company.” 

Without the major sponsors and resources of a big broadcast network, Heartlight can’t really compete with larger home renovation productions. 

“We’re up against a wall when it comes to competition shows, and we never wanted to make it like an “Extreme Makeover,” but what we did find in the course of season one and season two, we were able to get over $200,000 of in-kind donations for 11 recipients,” said Hobbs. “So, it wasn’t about can we do it, it was about we managed to do it. We shot season one in five days.” 

Smaldone said the company hopes to start filming the Long Island episodes in the spring. The series, currently available on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes and Google Play, will launch on UP TV, available in over 67 million households, on Sept. 1, and will soon be available on TUBI and other free video-on-demand channels. 

A point person for season three on Long Island is Michael Haltman, who learned about “Divine Renovation” from Smaldone when she was a guest on his podcast “Do You Ever Wonder?” Haltman, a principal of Plainview-based title insurance agency Hallmark Abstract, is also board chairman of Heroes To Heroes Foundation, which works with combat veterans who return home suffering moral injuries and are at serious risk of death by suicide. 

“Divine Renovation is going to come in and work with representatives of three charities to identify people in need of such help and make them whole,” said Haltman, who is hoping the show assists a deserving veteran in the Heroes To Heroes nonprofit. “It’s a phenomenal effort, it’s a feel-good situation and it’s helping those in need. For someone like me, who has lived on Long Island all my life, it’s a beautiful thing.” 

Haltman is organizing an informational meeting with the show’s producers on Wednesday, Sept. 13. Those interested in participating can email him at: [email protected]. 

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