HGTV shows - who pays the bill for these renovations?
 

So, I'm watching my favorite network, HGTV, and am wondering for some of these home renovation shows - who pays the bill?

What's in it for the home-owners? Do they get some sort of stipend?

Like, I know for some shows like "Designed to Sell", they get 2000.00 and for "Decorating Cents", they get 500.00 or less, BUT:

For "Divine Design" with Candice Olson, are these renovations free? I was watching a show where she gave this homeowner a brand new basement, complete with granite counters, new lighting, and a fancy plasma for over the fireplace.

Is this free?

And "House Hunters"....What's in it for these home-buyers? Do you think they get paid to be on TV? HGTV doesn't cover any of the closing fees, right?

i've always wondered this too...especially for 'This Old House' type of shows...

I've always assumed it was some sort of trade off. If you let us use your house on our TV program we''ll give you these renovations. I'm sure the amount they spend is outlined somewhere in the paperwork.

It's kind of like those ads for aluminum siding you see every once in a while on TV or in the paper where they'll give your home new siding for free if you allow them to use photos of your home for their publicity purposes.

They'll only choose your house if it fits their needs though, i.e. subject of show, location of house, potential of house. Not just anyone will be picked.

Of course this is just my guess, I really have no idea.

The one I wonder about is Ground Breakers. They always have very elaborate and extensive landscaping projects (large backyard patios w/ fireplaces, exquisite water features, etc.).

Maybe they just help the owner get discounted services because it will be televised. I would guess these are $20k-50k landscaping projects. Some may be even more.

on some of the shows they rent the house from the owners for a week, then make improvements. this is done to get around tax implications I believe.

Here in Philadelphia, there's a morning radio show called Preston & Steve on WMMR (Highly recommend, by the by - the podcasts are free on Itunes) and the co-host/color guy/comedian, Steve Morrison, who lives near me in the Manayunk area of Philly was recently featured on "Spice Up My Kitchen." He joked repeatedly about the fact that he got a 40 thousand dollar kitchen renovation on the arm simply because he let them use his house. This was much to the chagrin of Preston Elliot who was on a "Trading Spaces" type show and had a "two thousand dollar abortion of a bathroom 'facelift' that made it harder to sell his house."

I checked out the website for Nancy Glass Productions (they produce "Spice Up My Kitchen") and evidently, you can contact them with your story and pictures of your kitchen and they basically just pick the ones they like, that need the most work, etc. and then the show pays for the whole job. Not too bad.



Doc

Gadzooks!

Dang! I might have to take pictures of the basement that I so badly want to get refinished etc and see if anything comes of that.

Spice Up My Kitchen is only eligible to people in a 4 state region and I'm in the Midwest. So many of their shows are restricted to West or East coast for production reasons, which is understandable but disappointing.

Aren't a lot of these shows sponsored by places like Lowes or Home Depot? It would seem to me that they would foot most of the bill via materials instead of paying for advertising spots. :shrug:

Now that I look at the HGTV website, their shows expect you to pay for some of it:

So they'll supplement your budget for the project to a degree, but they don't just flat out pay for it.

Someone here had his HT done on HGTV.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread....highlight=hgtv

All I did was get out of the shower!

I know on The Old House. The homeowner pays for the renovations. But, most of the materials are donated. Plus you get Norm and the gang doing some of the work. I also heard they look for big money projects. Although, on a couple of projects they buy the house and do the work. Then sell the house at the end (also for big bucks).

If a store/brand name is mentioned, the store/manufacturer pays a fee or donates the material.

In addition, you get to say "this house was features on This Old House" which should probably net you a little bit. I remember hearing about someone banking on their house after Monster House came through and renovated it.

I was on Design on a dime and they have a budget of $1000. They pay for everything. Basically they do the show and leave "the props" behind. On a different note the shows are very heavily edited (who woulda thought :)) For design on a dime they make it seem like everything happens in a short time, but it really takes about 3 days of filming and there is a week between the first day and the last.

What I've wondered is how in the world "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" can build an entire home in a week, especially one that is going to have any sort of quality.

That's cool.....

Design on a Dime....Is that the one with Joan Steffend, or am I thinking about Decorating Cents?

You are right you set a budget, and they come out and do everything they can within that budget factoring in the free labor, and free stuff you will get along the way.

I've seen a few news stories where the houses the build in a week aren't really all that quality.....but what do I know.

They prefab pretty much the entire framing (sub-floors, walls, and trestles). Still they don't leave much time for cement curing and drywall putty & paint to dry that's for sure. Plus they have to move out all of the current belongings don't they? At least any personal mementos I would think.

I've always thought the mechanics of pulling off a 5 day build of a huge house was far more interesting than another 45 minutes of sob-story. I wish they would flip the amount of time they spend on each aspect of the show.

every time i went to a new home build site like Toll Brothers you always see one or two guys working on a house at a time. maybe 3 or 4 if they are lifting stuff to the roof.

in this case there is like 200 people working at once almost around the clock and a lot of them are pro's and work for big home builders. except for the drying concrete part that someone mentioned, it's not that big a deal when you have that many people and you divide the tasks up. most of it is just nailing stuff together.

stuff like kitchens and baths can be done in one or two days. do the tiles and crap one day, dry overnight and then put up stuff like the cabinets the next day along with granite countertops


my guess with the other shows is the show pays a little and the sponsors kick in the rest. there is no cast of friends to pay $20 million an episode so the production budget can't be that big