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Networks raise the roof with home TV'House Rules' latest addition to growing genre
By Thom Patterson
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- America is cordially invited to a wedding -- a new reality TV show uniting two classic television genres: home improvement and the game show. Friday at 8 p.m. ET, "House Rules" -- Atlanta-based TBS Superstation's first foray into reality TV -- opens the door on a new generation of the home show, which has roots more than a half-century old. (TBS is a unit of Time Warner, as is CNN.) It's the latest in a slew of TV home improvement programs -- including TLC's popular "Trading Spaces," where two sets of neighbors re-design each other's homes; "While You Were Out" -- also on TLC -- where participants surprise friends or relatives after secretly allowing experts to re-do their homes; and HGTV's "Building Character," in which historic structures are transformed into homes while viewers hear stories about them. The trend is so hot that HGTV is starting up a do-it-yourself channel, dubbed the DIY Network. "Reality TV comes along and it proceeds to marry with every other type of program and have offspring," says Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television. "We've got reality TV married to a talent show – 'Nashville Star' and 'American Idol.' And now I think the same is happening with home improvement shows." The "House Rules" debut has a tough act to follow. Last Sunday, a special $100,000 edition of "Trading Spaces" became TLC's highest-rated program ever, garnering 9.1 million viewers, according to the network. On their ownMore or less, "House Rules" is MTV's "Road Rules" meets "This Old House" -- the competition of "Road Rules" without the travel, and the renovation of "This Old House" without the "how-to" element.
On the show, three couples with amateur home renovation skills must each renovate a house -- one room per week -- by themselves. They compete in various games to win their renovation budgets. At the end of the season, viewers will vote for the home they like best and the couple who fixed it up gets to keep it. Hosted by former "Temptation Island" emcee Mark Walberg, "House Rules" also throws the winning couple $50,000 in cash. "We have a competition aspect with a grand prize on the end of it that sort of separates it from 'This Old House,'" says Walberg. " 'This Old House' is really a how-to show and 'Trading Spaces' isn't a home renovation show -- it's a home remodeling show, without the prize." A popular plethoraViewers who watch one renovation show often watch others. In addition to "Trading Spaces." Marcia Cybul, of Marietta, Georgia, admits to watching a lot of home shows. "I watch 'Divine Design,' 'Designer's Challenge,' 'Design on a Dime,' " she said.
"I don't want to say I'm addicted," she added, "but they bring an entertaining kind of value to the do-it-yourselfer. They show me that it's possible to do it yourself." On "Monster House," the Discovery Channel brings together homeowners, craftsmen and craftswomen to transform ordinary living spaces into outlandish, theme-oriented homes such as the "Old West House" and "70s Disco House." The home improvement TV craze has even caught on in Russia, where a new show called "Kvartirny Vopros," or "The Housing Problem" has gained popularity. The home improvement show goes way back, according to Thompson, even decades before the seminal "This Old House," which debuted in 1979. "Even back in the '40s there were home shows -- early, early television -- that would give you various instructions on how to change a light fixture or a switch or something like that," Thompson says. "You had home improvement stuff way back in some of the earliest television, especially a lot of the early daytime stuff that was aimed at a homemaker -- essentially women at home who they wanted to give some basic skills so they wouldn't have to call a contractor everytime any thing came about." But "This Old House" remains the undisputed prototype home improvement show. Hosted until the late 1980s by the dean of the genre -- Bob Vila -- the program showed viewers, in detail, how to fix up a fixer-upper. Two homes were chosen for restoration each season. The show even became the model for a sitcom, Tim Allen's "Home Improvement," part of which took place on the set of a home improvement show. Laughs are now a big part of the type. "The whole home improvement genre has evolved into a kind of a combination between shows that are looking for laughs -- and they are very successful -- and reality TV," Vila said. "I don't think they should be considered how-to programming," said Vila, whose "Home Again" now features restoration projects in New York and Massachusetts. "I think they have more to do with inspirational programming, but from what I can tell, it's mostly entertainment." The time factorAlthough "House Rules" is an exception, Thompson says the difference between programs such as "This Old House" and many new home shows is the time factor.
"They've taken the idea that it used to take a leisurely whole season to achieve, and they've done it in one single episode," Thompson said. As an example, Thompson cited Bravo/NBC's home and body makeover program hosted by five gay men. " 'In Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' you get a face-lift for your entire home in one single episode, and then -- just as a bonus -- you get a physical makeover as well." So now that home improvement has married the game show, what's next for reality TV? Is it played out? Walberg says it's here to stay, in all its forms. "I think that although we have gone from reality TV being a sort of documentary of a real-life experience to gimmicks and hitches and secrets and big money prizes and all that, I think that as long as there are creative people there'll be twists on the theme for as long as TV is around."
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