Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

I never leave reviews on TV shows, but I had to on this one. I got through about 15 minutes and had to turn it off. The hosts are TERRIBLE and completely lack in personality. Ty had big shoes to fill, but they didn't even come close. And who made the decision on the family who earned the house??? Yes, very sad the husband/dad passed away, but they sure didn't seem too hard off. Families this show used to pick would bring you to tears with their heartbreaking stories. Very disappointing, was hoping this reboot was going to be as good as the original, but really missed the mark. I might try it one more time next week to see what family they pick, but unfortunately the hosts will be the same...

Extreme Makeover Home Edition (the 2025 reboot): The original series was one of my favorites. I even had the honor of working on one of the houses built in Wisconsin. So, for nostalgic reasons, I had to tune in to the new version. And to be fair, I gave it 3 episodes (actually, I couldn't make it through the latest episode and began writing this review.) Quick take- not a fan.

I actually feel like they deliberately removed everything likable from the original. The hosts are insufferable. They spent the majority of the time talking over everyone and each other. And they have no construction experience or knowledge. Their "specialty" is home organization. It's painfully obvious that a ton of extra clutter has been dumped into the house prior to filming. I've worked in homes occupied by hoarders and the ones on the show are super exaggerated as to justify the home organizers presence. The actual carpenter and designer really don't add much to the experience and are pretty bland. There are still the sad stories that the featured family shares but I just wasn't able to connect. The old show usually made me cry at least once each episode. I know I haven't become more cynical, I still sometimes weep during coffee commercials 🤣 I just can't put my finger on what the disconnect is with this version.

The one thing I do like about the reboot is the fact that, ironically: it's not that extreme. Ty and the rest of the old gang did a lot of things in the houses that were too over the top and far too excessive. I don't remember the exact numbers, but somewhere in the neighborhood of 75% of the receiving families ended up losing their new homes because they couldn't afford to keep them after renovation.

I don't know if this is just me or what but when it comes to building a whole new house or a renovation I expect to see progress of that happening. With the hosts bring organizers not builders but we didn't really see them organize or decorate anything either. We really only went from their old house to their new house just like the family did which to me kind of defeats the purpose of this being a television show. I didn't particularly find issue with the family story or what was actually done for them, but I just felt so out of the loop. I mean there were multiple times where one of the hosts would say "we did this because blah blah said this about you" and we didn't even get to see that? And why couldn't we as the audience have been told that as they were placing sad item into the home? I don't see why this needed to be a show. To me it's not really even enough content for a full blog post. What I do like about it though is that there was nothing unnecessarily outrageous done to the new home. It's an actual house that these people can live in for a long time, With some personalized decorations that makes sense to the family. That is something that I have disliked about shows of the past. Making one person's bedroom a complete novelty of a passing phase that they just aren't going to be comfortable in long-term and was built purely for spectatorship.

The original Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is one of the greatest things ever made and they did so many great things for many deserving families. This one does too, but they don't seem too too happy to be doing it. These two new hosts seem to "care" about the families' stories, but ultimately just interrupt and say their own stories trying to be relatable, but just come completely off self-involved. Kudos to them for doing these great deeds, but please cancel and bring back the original people, or at least Ty. People that seem to genuinely care more than these newer folks! This reboot seems to try to pull more emotions out of you, but the original did it effortlessly.

I miss this original show, the actual structural needs for the families.

This version is just organizing so people with nice houses don't have to organize their nice houses.

I am on the sixth episode and I have liked only one..because it seemed like that one had an actual need.

If I had that much junk laying around such a nice house, I wouldn't apply to have someone to organize it on a TV show ..geesh

I wonder what decision-making criteria goes into accepting these requests/entries. I had high hopes for sure but when I noticed that none of the original crew were involved..I still keep trying to like it.

But I just don't.