if my row is colored red the text wont set to green and bold italic. When debugging I can see it telling the TextView to set each textViews setting. Thanks TableRow row = new TableRow(getContext()); row.setLayoutParams(new TableRow.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT)); String[] items = list.get(l).split(":"); for(int i=0; i < items.length; i++){ //see if i need to colour row if(items[i].startsWith("colorme_") == true) { if (items[i].substring(8).equals("red") == true) { row.setBackgroundColor(Color.RED); } } else { //create a temp textview then add to row TextView tempTV = new TextView(getContext()); tempTV.setText(items[i].toString()); //test against correct answers and colour text view green if correct if (correctAnswers != null && correctAnswers.size() > i) { if (correctAnswers.get(i).equals(items[i].toString()) == true) { tempTV.setTextColor(Color.GREEN); tempTV.setTypeface(null, Typeface.BOLD_ITALIC); } } row.addView(tempTV,lpTextView); } } //add the row tempTable.addView(row);