T: It’s no secret that home improvement TV shows are tremendously popular. But even we were surprised to learn that 79 percent of Angie’s List members indulge in them. Shows like ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” often appear in the Nielsen rating system’s top 10 broad¬cast programs, and HGTV, a cable network entirely dedicated to home and garden shows, earned its highest ratings ever in the first quarter of 2008. Nine of the network’s top 10 programs are real estate reality shows, including “House Hunters” and “Designed to Sell.”
Michael Dingley, senior vice president of programming and content strategy for HGTV, says the TV shows help people learn how to do things themselves, and also inform them about what to look for when it comes to hiring professional contractors.
Dingley: It’s a very emotional thing for people; it’s a very personal thing. And for most people, it’s one of the most expensive investments in their lives. So they want to do all they can to further not only enjoy their home, but also to further enhance the enjoyment and the value of their home. People are empowered to not only do the work themselves, but when they do hire professionals, they’re a little more savvy now about what to anticipate or what to look for when working with a professional on improving their home.
T: You probably remember the roots of the current home improvement TV wave. “This Old House” began airing on PBS in 1979. Hosted by Bob Vila, the show chronicled a home renovation throughout an entire season. Vila’s no longer with the program, but the influence of “This Old House” is still evident when viewers tune in to channels such as HGTV.
HGTV - launched in 1994 – created the DIY Network in 1999, and those cable channels, along with TLC, air more than 90 home improvement and makeover shows combined.
Brant Pinvidic, senior vice president of programming for TLC, says like “This Old House,” TLC’s long-running “Trading Spaces” has proven quite popular amongst viewers.
Pinvidic: It sort of renewed that interest in the entertainment/makeover area, which has been kind of fun.
T: He also says a good host is integral to a home-improvement show’s success.
Pinvidic: Paige Davis coming back to Trading Spaces is a huge lift to the series, and it really showed how important the right personality can be - it kind of ran its course without a host. Bringing her back has reinvigorated it.
T: A great storyline is as important as a great host.
Pinvidic: I think you have to have, at the core, a great before and after. There needs to be some stakes to the show — you have to care whether the person succeeds or fails.
You want to tune in and have a good time, be engaged in the story and interested in the before and after and see how things happen or how it works, but it’s always important to have a little bit of the show be relatable or reflective of what’s going on in the audience’s lives and how they can use or apply it to what they’re going through at home.
T: HGTV’s Michael Dingley agrees.
Dingley: It has to be relevant to people’s lives. If it’s not a homeowner that people out there will go “I can relate to them, or I like them, or I’m rooting for them,” it doesn’t matter what the product is.
T: Dingley says “hybrid shows” strongly appeal to viewers.
Dingley: We’re taking two popular concepts — physical transformation and how to increase the value of one’s home — and combining them into one show. “Designed to Sell” is about how “I want to sell my house, but I want to get every dollar I can out of it.” So that’s about how to get the most value out of your home. But in order to do that, we’re going to do a transformation of your home to increase that value. You’ve got a design makeover show in there and a property-enhancing show all wrapped up in one in “Designed to Sell”.
T: Increasing value has always been a keystone topic for home-improvement shows. The housing market in the United States has taken some especially hard hits lately, and home improvement shows have helped homeowners figure out how to invest in their home wisely in the face of economic turmoil.
Dingley: The number one thing is they want to enhance their further enjoyment of their home. And then number two, they want to make sure as they’re doing that, they’re not unintentionally reducing the cost of their home. because at some point in time —not today, but maybe a year from now, decades from now — they may have to move. They want to make sure they’re doing the right thing.
T: Whether the economy is healthy or hurting, Dingley says home-improvement TV will always be relevant.
Dingley: The economy is very iffy right now; I always say people are strapped for three things in this society: time, effort and money. Those three ebb and flow depending on what’s going on. A few years ago, people would say “I’m time-starved.” I want to have a great impact on my home, but I don’t have the time and I don’t want a lot of effort, but I’ll spend a little bit more money on it. But now two or three years later, it’s like “I want to have an impact on my home and make it better and further enjoy it, but I don’t mind doing a little more elbow grease, a little more effort, spending a little more time, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money.”
T: What’s your favorite show? Let us know by leaving a comment at our website, angieslistpodcasts.com. And if you’ve seen some great home improvement work on TV and are looking for a contractor to do the same to your house, make sure you check the ratings and reviews on Angie’s List!
Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to list-en!
