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I do not like this show. It is too adversarial and full of constant disharmony. I could live with that premise once a week, but every time I turn on the TV, there he is, along with his adversarial kin, Property Brothers and Love It or List It. Why this trend???? Can't we watch shows that are fun and true design shows? Give me DIVINE DESIGN, DESIGNED TO SELL, CURB APPEAL, THE BLOCK, and other non-adversarial programs. Who didn't love Lisa LaPorta??? Please, POWERS THAT BE, consider my suggestions. I am sick of the arguing!!!!!!

Addendum to my message. I am talking about MIKE HOLMES' shows.

quote:

Originally posted by nanabrown8:
Addendum to my message. I am talking about MIKE HOLMES' shows.

Don't watch it then.

Thank you, Sparky, but you missed the whole point. I have been watching HGTV for years to get away from the junk on regular TV, and now the adversarial "reality" shows have migrated to my favorite channels, HGTV and DIY. I look at these channels as places to go for design and remodeling-type programs. Well, Holmes' and other adversarial shows have moved in and are often the only thing available on both channels. I don't watch TV constantly since I am employed full-time, but I do watch a lot at night. I am really disappointed at the change in format of both these channels. Sadly, Holmes is all over DIY, too. I don't want to quit watching TV altogether, so all I'm saying is quit inundating the television viewer with Holmes and Property Brothers and Love It or List It type shows where there is nothing but controversy, misunderstandings and negative attitudes. Where did the fun shows go?

Sometime ago there was a link (likely under favorite shows) to an interview with one of programmers of HGTV and they said they were going for more drama.

Sooooo, it is not likely to change anytime soon. Not until the reality show craze finally ceases (none too soon for me) and all the channels get back to another type of programming..... and who is to say that will be anymore to our liking??

While I agree with the other posters, don't watch the show if all you want is design and fun.

But, for many actual homeowners, owning a home is not without it's problems. I recently sold my home after 11 years of home ownership, I had $12K of plumbing problems due to a faulty design by the developer. This was a brand new home.

It would be a perfect world if homes were maintenance and problem free, but they are not. This show helps home buyers & owners look for and possibly solve similar problems to those featured on the show.

Sounds like the OP is not a home owner.

Nana,
I get your point. There is very little on HGTV that interests me at all. They should really change the name to House Hunters because most of the time I cruise by that's what's playing. DIY is marginally better but few of their shows interest me anymore either. If I'm going to watch one it will usually be one of the various "crasher" shows because they usually do some interesting projects. There was a time when a competitor to HGTV & DIY had a neat little network called TLC or The Learning Channel, which was like a commercial PBS showing how to and "edutainment" shows. These days they still call themselves TLC - it might mean "The Loser Channel" but it certainly isn't much on "learning" these days.

I think we've gone full circle with respect to TV, there was a time when you could have argued against public TV because channels like TLC, Discovery, HGTV, Food, DIY, NatGeo et al were doing what only PBS did before. Now they've all gone down hill. On Scrips Howard channels I'm down to watching Chopped, Restaurant Impossible, Hotel Impossible and the occasional rerun of Good Eats. Property Brothers isn't bad either. I'm noticing that the shows I watch on HGTV or DIY all for the most part come from HGTV Canada... trend here?

BTW I don't see Holmes on Homes as a conflict show. He'll gripe about the work the previous "builder" did on the house but that builder is never there. Holmes team doesn't seem to get into the arguing seen on some other "reality" TV shows.

These days I find myself watching more shows on USA Network than anything else. If I want to see life unscripted I'll go to Wal*Mart and enjoy the show.

Complaining here won't do anything to change what gets on the air at HGTV, they don't read these posts looking for advice.

Sparky, your response is well-thought out and well presented. I agree with most of what you said and must admit that I was on my soapbox and aggravated when I made my initial post. I am a homeowner and understand your points, having had to put a new roof on my house recently, as well as having it painted. The roofer was great; not so much the painter. It took him weeks to finish, but I refused to pay him a dime until he did. I wish there were some way just to filter out some of the repeats of Holmes. I admit he is popular and in many ways an asset to homeowners, but the numerous reruns are obnoxious. It appears that my choices have narrowed on both HGTV and DIY. Perhaps the poor economy has gotten to them as well as it has the rest of us. Anyway, I will try your suggestion to watch the USA Network and put a little variety in my life.

Dear Paisley,

I don't have any quarrel with shows that show people how to fix things and even deal with bad contractors. I don't like the adversarial nature of those type shows, but I watch them and learn nevertheless. And, yes, I am a homeowner. (See my last post to Sparky.) I own an 89-year-old house and have had my share of repairs, etc. I'm just tired of the constant reruns of Holmes on both HGTV, as well as DIY, and let my feelings be known, whether it does any good or not.

You may need to talk to your cable provider. I've found that different cable providers have control over some of the programming during the day. On Dish Network, HOH is only on DIY most evenings (for an hour) and 1 or 2 days during the day. HI is only on Sunday, once Sunday AM & PM, along with American Handyman for a few weeks. So if your are tuning in during those times, you will see it, roughly 15 hours a week - and some of those are overnight.

I would rather watch the Holmes shows than anything else either channel offers. I have learned quite a lot and have been able to use it on our house. More than I have ever learned watching any other show.

quote:

Originally posted by Susan, jwdcreations:

I would rather watch the Holmes shows than anything else either channel offers. I have learned quite a lot and have been able to use it on our house. More than I have ever learned watching any other show.

Before he went commercial Hometime on PBS was probably the best show to actually learn how to do stuff. The Bob Vila days on This Old House were more hands on than the program today which is mainly a 22 minute long infomercial for whatever products they're putting into the subject home. I see on the web the Dean Johnson is still at it with Hometime but we don't get it on WUNC in NC. His website has a lot of good tutorials on various aspects of building.

I could never figure out why PBS always ran their home improvement shows during the day on Saturday when any good DIYer would be doing not watching. Same with their garden shows back when they actually had garden shows like (dating myself here) Crocket's Victory Garden, until he died and then just Victory Garden oh and Square Foot Gardening.

There is usually a thread over in gardening kvetching that Paul James' show is gone from the air. It is from the day when the G in HGTV stood for garden.

We like Holmes since he solves real problems in real time frames. He can't fix everything but he tries to do the structural stuff right.

Bob Vila on the other hand was a host not an actual contractor. He was sued by a homeowner who purchased a house that he allegedly designed. His defense was that he was just a TV host not an architect or contractor and could not be responsible for the structure. This happened years ago and was the subject of several articles including one in the Wall Street Journal that I saw.

Paws,
Actually Vila was sued by the dad from Mork and Mindy. He bought the beach house in California he did on Home Again. Villa was never anything but the host on This Old House and on his follow on Home Again. I was referring to the fact that back then This Old House was more hands on and the homeowners did more themselves. Now it is more a product show case than a how to program. I still watch it though.

Remember when DIY first got started and they had a rotation of shows on Car Repair, Gardening, Home Improvement and Crafts/Sewing? Now it seems Renovation Realities is the staple of the network. I have to ask myself, why would anyone volunteer to be on that show if they didn't have a clue about building?

I don't trust Mike Holmes. His show is about other tradesmen's shoddy work, so he will find shoddy work wherever he goes, and I suspect, even if he has to make it up. I can't watch him because I hurt for the homeowner who is made to feel like a dunce for ever hiring/trusting the crook who done the dirty deed. The whole premise of his show is too upsetting for me.

Thanks for the info on who purchased that house. Very interesting. What I really want to know about Toronto is whether or not the home inspector ever gets sued after Holmes finds all the problems. Think I once saw a show where Holmes made a comment that the tv footage was going to be used in court as a defense to a contractor's lawsuit to collect on a bill and to show evidence of what we call gross negligence here in the States. Anyway, I like his show and have learned a lot from it.

quote:

Originally posted by 16paws:
Thanks for the info on who purchased that house. Very interesting. What I really want to know about Toronto is whether or not the home inspector ever gets sued after Holmes finds all the problems. Think I once saw a show where Holmes made a comment that the tv footage was going to be used in court as a defense to a contractor's lawsuit to collect on a bill and to show evidence of what we call gross negligence here in the States. Anyway, I like his show and have learned a lot from it.

Even This Old House post Vila has had issues with home owners. The homeowners on Nantucket were so ticked off by the end of the project instead of a wrap party at the house they (the contractor and TOH cast and crew) had belt sander races back at the contractors garage. I would think it would take a special contractor to deal with the challenges of TV production while doing a whole house renovation.

Holmes is quite full of himself but he does do nice work. He is not the only honest GC in North America though, he just happens to have a TV production company to chronicle his work.

How can you NOT like Mike Holmes? He is making things right! And he doesn't blame the owners for the hiring the wrong contractors/workers! He blames the contractors/workers for doing a poor job! How can you be upset with someone who is doing great things for people? As far as things being made up...huh? That just doesn't make sense to me.

What I do with any channel I'm watching and a show comes on that I don't like, I change the channel.

But I gladly admit, Mike Holmes is one I DO watch, and I DO like! I know these are all repeats, but KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK, MIKE!

I totally agree, everytime I turn to HGTV it is either Holmes on Homes, Property Brothers, yuck. Where is Antonio & Chewy, Candice Olsen, etc. I know Holmes knows his stuff, but please, how many times a day does he have to run? Property Brothers, not only one show, but now they're buying, selling and remodeling. Always get people into "more" money situations. Why don't they pay for an inspection prior to people shelling out money.

I have watched this old house since i bought my first house back in 1978 and learned lots of good stuff and then hometime came out and had to record some of the shows because they were on saturday and sunday .I like holmes on homes but find some of it as being just unrealistic .I think a lot of the shows should not be on as they make home owners think they can make money like they used to on updates when they sell there home .That does not happen much any more .Every one wants the bells and whistles in your home but if you over spend and can't afford it then what good is it .Plus all the new gets old after awhile .A kitchen or bathroom redo in the 1990's is not new any more .I see they shows kitchen crashers and house crashers and they seem to not match the house exterior .I do like some of there ideas but keep it true to the house .Main thing is to keep it in budget .Funny story friend remodeled her kitchen back in 1994 spent tons on the newest appliances and now realtor tells them they are really outdated and commercial grade is really expensive to repair .They ended up paying for that kitchen remodel until 2010 and now house is hardly worth what they originally paid for the house with the new kitchen and bathrooms.They wanted to retire on the money they made off the house and all the updates and now have to cut there losses .sad