Writer of Pop Culture

One of ABC’s more popular shows is coming back – Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. This time though, former host, Ty Pennington is nowhere to be found. Instead, the new series planned to air this fall will feature The Home Edit stars Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin. While the premise of the show remains the same (find a deserving family in need of a new home and then build a dream one for them within seven days) the new version will have some new twists. No information has been given on whether or not any of the past designers will be a part of the new series.

Shearer and Teplin are recognized authors of three New York Times’ bestselling books, creators of globally distributed home and organizational product lines, and have professional organizing services in cities throughout the country. Their 2019 book, The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals, was the basis for their Netflix series, Get Organized with The Home Edit which debuted in September 2020. In each of the 16 episodes, the pair guided celebrities like Khloe Kardashian, Chris Pratt and Neil Patrick Harris to make some tough decisions to remove items that they really didn’t need. In Extreme Makeover, they will be doing some of the same thing.

“Leaning into their organizing expertise and unique design aesthetic, the duo will work with each family to evaluate and edit every single item they own, ultimately transforming not only their home but the way they live,” says ABC in a press release for the show. “Assisting them is a team of builders and contractors from homebuilder Taylor Morrison who will expertly reconfigure the home based on the family’s lifestyle and needs.”

The new show aims to blend the traditional makeover show with a new organizational expertise tailored for each family. It will also embrace elements of the original show including “heartwarming stories, inspired volunteers, and mind-blowing builds for deserving families who give back to their communities.”

It is the just the latest of a long stream of “Extreme” shows. The original Extreme Makeover series had nothing to do with houses. It was an over-the-top self-improvement show which debuted on ABC in December of 2002. In that series, everyday men and women would leave their homes and undergo plastic surgery and learn new exercise routines, and receive a hairdressing and wardrobe improvement. Then, they would return to their homes and shock their families and friends. The show was as controversial as it was popular.

In February of 2004, the network debuted a spin-off series, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition which would transform a house instead of a human body. It had been intended to be a 13-part limited series. Deserving families would be sent off on a week-long vacation while homebuilders worked around the clock to transform their once simple abode into something grander with the family’s hobbies and needs in mind. Then, the family would return, chant “move that bus” (as it was blocking their view) and marvel at the home’s changes.

A spin-off series was created that November with the super-long title, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How’d They Do That? Which show never-before-seen footage of the previous show’s episodes. It ran for one season.

By 2007, Extreme Makeover was cancelled, but the home improvement series lived on becoming more popular than the original ever was. However, the series aired another spin-off at the same time in 2011 titled, Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition (later retitled to simply Extreme Weight Loss) which ran through 2015. By then, the “home edition” of the franchise had run its course ending in 2012. In America at least. Different international versions of the home improvement show have aired in Albania, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Israel, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain and the Ukraine.

Then, out of nowhere, in 2020, HGTV surprised fans announcing that a 10^th season of the show would debut on their network with two Tys. Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family fame joined Pennington for the hosting duties for that version which ran for one season.

While Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has been super popular over the years, it has also been controversial too. There have been cases where the homes had been improved so much that it raised the value of the house which in turn raised the property taxes making it so the owners could no longer afford to live in their dream home. It has been reported that at least nine families had to give up their homes due to financial issues, although it is unclear how much blame could be thrown at the TV show for the families’ new hardships.

During some of the earlier seasons of the show, the transformed houses went over and above any expectations of the homeowners’ needs or even wants, but by the latter seasons, after much criticism, the show made more reasonable changes to the homes. The HGTV version of the show focused more on renovation and less on rebuilding. And it should be noted that many homes have been renovated because of the show. No doubt though, Ty Pennington will be missed.

Main Image: Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin (ABC)