HGTV’s ‘Inside Out’: Mike and Carmine Aren’t Brothers – so How Did They Meet? [Exclusive]

Some HGTV fans speculated that Inside Out hosts Carmine Sabatella and Mike Pyle were brothers or even a married couple.

But Sabatella and Pyle, who have magnetic TV chemistry, said that while they aren’t related, they were connected through someone from childhood. “We were actually connected through a mutual friend,” Sabatella told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “Mike’s old business partner was somebody I went to middle school and elementary and high school with … partially anyway.”

Mike and Carmine met only a few years before ‘Inside Out’

Sabatella and Pyle met on a project a few years before they filmed Inside Out. “There was a project that I was working on and I needed some help,” Sabatella said. “Normally I would handle the landscape on most of my projects, but the scope was too big. So [friend] Jim brought Mike into the picture and we actually met on site and that was actually the first time we connected.”

Pyle estimated that their first meeting on the construction site was in 2017. “So we only met once,” Pyle revealed. “And we only met each other one time before we started filming together. So the second time we met was filming with three cameras in front of us for our sizzle reel. And it just kind of worked. It just felt like we’d known each other for our whole lives, to be honest.”

Why do they work so well together on their HGTV show?

Pyle and Sabatella seem like they grew up together or have known each other for years. They work in concert, but they take friendly jabs at each other, similar to brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott on Property Brothers.

Sabatella said they work so well together and have fun on the show because they have a similar approach to home renovation and design. “I think the way it kind of worked out is in the way we approach all of the projects,” he said. “We’re always collaborative, but we want to find out first what the client’s goals are. So what are their goals? What are their aesthetics? And then once we figure out the budget distribution at that point, then we can actually sit down.”

“So basically, once we figure out the budget and how that’s going to get distributed, then we can sit down and really brainstorm together,” he continued. “We work together on everything. From lighting to paint choices to plant selections. The color patterns that I’m choosing on the inside, how is that going to complement his plant selections on the outside?”

“So we really do work together every step of the way to deliver a seemingly collective package to the client,” Sabatella added. “Because you’ve seen it as much as everyone else. Sometimes the interior and the exteriors of homes do not blend. They just feel like you’re in two different places.” Inside Out shows how homeowners can have it all – seamless beauty inside and outside the home.

Mike said the fun banter is very real with Carmine

Pyle said another reason why they work so well together is they both have a background in designing both the inside and the outside of a property.

“Carmine has a landscape design background and he spent some years doing that,” Pyle shared. “And I have some interior design background too. So it’s nice to know a little bit about what each person mainly is doing. And that’s why we can banter back and forth because we kind of have knowledge on both aspects so we can kind of poke at one another and then kind of test one another and such.”

HGTV’s Inside Out Season 2 premieres on August 1 at 8 PM ET/PT.

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