Davis also served as an understudy to Chita Rivera and Marilu Henner in a tour of the hit musical Chicago.

The Trading Spaces job came to Davis almost by accident-a friend of hers who enjoyed the show during its first season learned that the host had quit, and suggested that Davis try to get an audition. Her effusive personality won over the show's producers, though she had little on-camera experience to date. Based on a hit British television show called Changing Rooms, Trading Spaces debuted on TLC in September of 2000. Its premise involves a pair of neighbors who exchange house keys for two days and buckle down to a major room re-do with the help of a design professional. Each are given a $1,000 budget to work with, and a carpenter is on hand to help out as well, but the guest homeowners do much of the grunt work.

With her cheery enthusiasm, Davis seemed a natural for the job, and the show climbed steadily in the ratings after she joined in 2001. She was stunned by this turn of events, as she told the Sarasota Herald Tribune 's Charlie Huisking. "When I auditioned, I had no idea what it would become," Davis said. "I figured it would be a chance to spread my wings and cut my chops on TV, hidden away on cable on a show no one would see. Boy, was I wrong." Soon, Trading Spaces 's Saturday-night new-episode slot began landing No. 1 regular-cable ratings numbers, luring an average of 6.4 million viewers, and TLC executives increased the episodes per season from 45 to 60.

Essentially, Davis's job is to introduce the couples and their room challenges to viewers, and then show the renovation project in its speeded-up stages, but she is also the soother when the situation warrants it. Despite the potential for tears, there seemed to be no shortage of Americans who were willing to spend a weekend with Davis and the Trading Spaces team for a free room re-do. When the show's crew arrives in a neighborhood, people often sit outside on lawn chairs. The crux of the show comes at the end, when Davis takes the homeowners through to see what their neighbors did to their house. "A traditional how-to show says your home is an expression of your personality," Time critic James Poniewozik asserted in trying to define the show's appeal. " Trading Spaces says your home is an expression of your personality-and not everybody likes you."

Sometimes those rooms are changed back the same day, Davis divulged in her book, Paige by Paige: A Year of Trading Spaces. Published as the fourth season's taping schedule was underway in mid-2003, the tome contains an insider's view of the show, based on a diary she kept for several months. In it, she also recounts some episodes that became legendary among the show's cast, crew, and viewers. One participant could be heard sobbing off-camera when she saw that her beloved fireplace mantle had been hidden, and Davis admitted that was part of the show's allure for viewers. "It does make good television," she told the Courier-Journal 's Nord. "I have friends who tell me they love it when that happens. I hate it. It's terribly awkward and sad."

Trading Spaces has spun off into special celebrity-week shows and even a "sequel," Trading Spaces: Family, which features the brutally frank opinions of teenagers on aesthetic matters. Davis also has a minor celebrity following herself, and has appeared on The Tonight Show and Hollywood Squares. Davis's most memorable small-screen performance, however, was on another TLC staple, A Wedding Story, which aired in December of 2001. She wed fellow stage actor Patrick Page, whom she met while on the Beauty and the Beast tour. Forced to keep her maiden name, lest she become "Paige Page," Davis and her husband share a Manhattan apartment whose decorating scheme is mundane, she claims. "It's very Pottery Barn," she told Boston Herald 's Stephanie Schorow. "I want Ligne Roset [a contemporary-furnishings company]."