The former host of a home renovation show on HGTV says he can’t be blamed for construction defects on a Denver firefighter’s house because he only pretended to work on it.

“Rico Leon denies having performed any actual management, design or construction work on the project,” attorneys for the Denver contractor wrote in a June 2 court filing.

“Rather, he was an actor in the show ‘Rico to the Rescue,’ performing in the theatrical sense mock construction work in front of TV cameras as part of the show,” they explained.

Leon owns Rescue Restoration, which operates out of a co-working space in Ballpark, and was the face of “Rico to the Rescue” for two seasons in 2023 and 2024. The show’s premise had Leon rescuing projects that had been badly botched by shady contractors.

Episode nine of season two, titled “Burying the Hatchet,” featured Jon Schauer, a captain with the Denver Fire Department who was building his dream house south of Castle Rock. In the episode, Leon is shown wearing safety glasses, carrying lumber, using a nail gun and saw, moving floor tiles and hoisting a new wall.

Though the episode shows Schauer being thrilled with the job that “Rico to the Rescue” did on his home in Larkspur, he is now suing Leon, the studio Watt Pictures, and Precision Custom Builders, the Centennial company that completed the renovation, claiming construction defects. Precision says it did nothing wrong and is countersuing over unpaid invoices.

Leon believes that he should have been left out of the entire case.

“Mr. Leon did not enter into a contract with the plaintiff,” his attorneys explained in a court filing last week. “Mr. Leon did not serve as a construction professional on the project.”

BusinessDen requested an interview with Leon to better understand the work he did or didn’t do on HGTV. His lawyer, Greg Theo with Overturf McGath & Hull, denied that request.

Schauer’s attorneys, Ivan Sarkissian and Tyler Campbell with McConaughy & Sarkissian, also declined to discuss the case. A five-day trial is scheduled for May 2026.

— Justin Wingerter, Business Den