TLC has turned over the keys and put out the welcome mat for a familiar face.

Paige Davis, the bubbly former host of "Trading Spaces," returns tonight to the series from which she was let go three years ago.

"We kind of feel like the boyfriend who dumped her at the prom and are now coming back to ask her for a second chance," said Brant Pinvidic, TLC's senior vice president of programming for prime time.

He said rehiring Davis for the show's eighth season started as an offhanded comment but became a priority for executives who joined the network last summer.

"It wasn't my idea to leave, and it wasn't my idea to come back," said Davis, who hosted the show from 2001 to 2005.

Since leaving "Trading Spaces," Davis has starred in a national tour of the musical "Sweet Charity," as well as in Broadway's "Chicago." She also debuted a one-woman cabaret show in Austin.

Pinvidic said viewers provided a "nonstop stream" of requests to bring back Davis.

Without Davis, the show tinkered with format changes, including going hostless and providing a $1,000 bonus for certain rooms.

Now it's returning to its roots: Two teams of acquaintances, each with its own designer and carpenter, will trade rooms for two days, with a $1,000 makeover limit per room.

Joining Davis are four original designers who had been less frequent contributors in her absence: Frank Bielec, Laurie Hickson-Smith, Hildi Santo-Tomas and Doug Wilson.

Also part of the designing crew are more recent members Edward Walker and Lauren Makk, plus newcomer Goil Amornvivat. The carpenters are Faber Dewar, Brandon Russell and Thad Mills.

Davis hopes to place an added emphasis on the traders' back stories: One upcoming episode centers on a Navy and an Air Force family, the latter of which has a servicemember in Iraq.

Davis said the idea is to get the audience more emotionally invested in whether the traders like their new rooms.

Next week the show will move to its regular time slot of 9 p.m. on Saturdays.