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Hello, I am so bummed with the programming. I have stopped watching HGTV and I have watched it since it started. Where did Candice, Genevieve, Sarah Richardson, the new HGTV show contest winner and the other good design shows go? I am not trying to be rude, but I really cannot stand Love it or List it, and the property brothers, are nice, but once a week would do. Please tell me the good shows will be back. Nina

Oh my gosh -- I am so glad I found these posts. I've been wondering for a while now what the heck had happened to HGTV. I used to love the decorating shows with people like Joan Steffend. I loved Design on a Dime and others like that. But now, every single time I turn that channel on, it's LOVE IT OR LIST IT! I HATE THAT SHOW! But I think what's even worse is that whenever there IS something else on, it's like "Million Dollar Rooms" or "Selling New York" (which is basically Million Dollar Rooms with a realtor. HGTV seems to have lost its focus from when it started: real shows for real people that offered real ideas. Most of us are regular folks who probably work paycheck to paycheck and could really use those simple design ideas -- not spending our days/evenings watching shows about rich millionaires who are quibbling over how much to pay for their New York or LA penthouse. Get your soul back, HGTV. Viewers are leaving!

How long duz it take someone to reply? I'm just curious if anyone cares? The programming is
repetitive and seems phony. What happened to the how-to shows? I'm a general contractor from rural
America and have interesting employees. They could send me a crew and I'd call it how-to meets
Honey boo-boo.

quote:

Originally posted by benji wright:
How long duz it take someone to reply? I'm just curious if anyone cares? The programming is
repetitive and seems phony. What happened to the how-to shows? I'm a general contractor from rural
America and have interesting employees. They could send me a crew and I'd call it how-to meets
Honey boo-boo.

Benji,
HGTV Gal Abby is either gone from HGTV or no longer has this responsibility. She hasn't posted in over a year. No one at HGTV really monitors these boards, it is for viewers or increasingly ex-viewers to share ideas, ask questions, kvetch, whine, b-tch and complain.

With respect to HGTV (and Food and their competitors at Discovery Communications) in a world of hundreds of specialty channels producing original content gets expensive. So you're finding more and more "reality" based shows and shows imported from Canada (Property Brothers, Love it or List it, Buying and Selling) An episode of House Hunters is pretty cheap, a small crew follows a couple around as they look at properties. They send the footage back to the production company where they put it together and the "talent" aka the host comes in an narrates the show having never been on location nor met the couple.

The days of cable channels extorting more and more money from cable companies are coming to an end as people are getting entertainment from other sources. I suspect, though I don't know for sure, that HGTV's viewership is way down, so advertising is way down, so they don't have money to produce the programming that posters on this board are asking for. So we get marathons of LIOLI and HH and HHI reruns because they were cheap to acquire and if they can't command top dollar for advertising they can still keep the lights on, the channel operating and make a decent profit.

I'm with you. I sorely miss the design shows -- especially those that show what you can do with a typical home.

Unbelievable! Just read the Scripps Networks December review of why HGTV has shown a loss of viewership in the last year. They attribute it to the downturn in the housing market and the fact that people no longer feel good about their homes. That they aren't interested in programming relating to their homes. Whoever used this lame excuse with the investors should be fired. Any person with a brain can tell that the reason the viewership has fallen off is from the irrelevant, repetitive and unimaginative programming. So their solution is to develop new flipping and real estate shows featuring more average type homes. Really?! That's the best they can do. Well, that's a start but they still don't seem to see the big picture. To realize that a large segment of the viewership want a return to decorating and gardening type shows. And even though half their target audience, 18 to 49 years old, have grown up with and enjoy reality type shows, I think they are still missing the main point. The younger end of the demographic is just starting out; renting and purchasing homes and would love ideas on what they can do (inexpensively and on their own)to improve those homes. A large segment of this group is imaginative and hands on, interested in the environment and sustainable living. There is so much potential for some really great programming. I just keep hoping the bozos in charge of programming for HGTV will wake up before this once great network dies a slow death.

Susan,
Excellent points. HGTV used to be the go to channel here. I actually watch LIOLI and Property Brothers with LIOLI if I've DVR'd it I can skip large parts in the middle because I know the script so well. The couple wants the world for $50K or are willing to go up $100K from their existing house. David shows them several homes that don't meet their requirements or are too far away and Hilary tries to give them what they want but run into an unforeseen problem and something has to go in the design. Hilary normally pulls together a pretty nice design and David normally finds a decent home on the third or forth try. The faux drama I can do without. Once in a blue moon I'll catch an episode of House Hunters International just to see what housing is like in other places. The inane comments of the buyers are well, inane. Anyone of these programs would be OK if there was one episode per night and maybe a couple per week. The geniuses at HGTV have decided to run marathons of all of them.

Continued from earlier post that got screened...

Locally, my PBS station has dropped carrying Hometime and it isn't available commercially. That is about the only show with some "how to" left in it. This Old House is still fairly interesting but unlike the Bob Vila days the home owners are rarely involved. It has really become a product showcase for the donated products.

I'm not their target audience having broken the into my 50's and being a guy. But, I bet I spend more at their main advertisers (Lowe's and Home Depot) than the average thirty something.

If Washington ever forces the cable companies to go ala carte with their channel line ups I could pare down my 200 channels to probably 20 and sadly H G T V wouldn't be one of them. Maybe DIY Network. There isn't anything on H G T V that I would list as must see TV.

Too funny, I had to edit my comment to remove a reference to a certain place on PA Avenue in Washington to get past the trigger words.

true sparky I have direct tv as it is a rural area I could loose a lot of channels like music and spanish stations and repeat channels .I get channel 7 and 27 and exact same thing on both .I even get a couple of india news stations ,sorry but not interested but it is in the package deal .I get so many music channels to count .I have had to edit several messages on here and also on rate my space .

I would also like to complain about the programming. I have watched HGTV regularly for many years. What has happened to Candice Olsen, Sara Richardson, David Bromstad, Selling New York? I am so sick of the Property Brothers, House Hunters, Love it or List it. How many of these shows are there? Everyone I know has stopped watching because of the programming. Please get it back like it used to be.

I have been wondering the same thing!! Is it because they can't afford the designers? If so why have HGTV? The real estate programs can just go so far. This is the reason I signed up on this site. I MISS THE DESIGNERS.....

Absolutely agreed! I am sick sick sick of the 'Brothers and the bickering realtor & contractor. Will we ever see interesting new shows?

I have been watching hgtv for years also and see now what they do is put old shows on and then pop in 1 or maybe 2 new shows if your lucky if you look at the dates of the shows love it or list it are old shows .Most of the shows i see are in Canada and have nothing to do with the U.S. .Even Holmes on Homes are from Canada .I used to watch Mike Holmes a long time ago and now it does not even interest me .Property Brothers same thing mostly Canada and Love it or List it Canada ,Buy and Selling Canada must be there economy is better than ours because houses here sure don't sell for those prices in most areas any more .Here in VA your lucky you can get a hundred thousand for a home on a couple of acres .

Hi-I agree. I work fulltime, but when I sit down in the evening or on the weekend I immediately turn on HGTV, and the only programs on are Property Brothers, Love It or List It, Property Virgins and House Hunters. I really miss the design shows with Candice, Sarah, Genevieve, Design on a Dime and so on. Please tell me that the design shows will be back on soon. I enjoy the other shows once in awhile, but not night after night and hour after hour.Gerri

I enjoy participating on these message boards, but as a long time viewers there is presently little on HGTV that interests me.

I contacted the Chat Line today. Design on a Dime starts their new season on Tuesday Jan. 15 at 11:00 and 11:30 AM.

Cousins on Call will be aired at 8:00 tonight.

I asked when the designing and gardening shows would start a new season. They asked me to name a few shows..so I asked about Junk Gypsies, Meg's Great Room, Secrets of a Stylist, Elbow Room and Interiors, Inc. They did not have any info as to when these shows would start a new season. They usually tell me to check back with them toward the end of the month and they might have more information.

I really do not understand the thinking of the HGTV network and their programming choices.

quote:

Originally posted by mriley:
I really do not understand the thinking of the HGTV network and their programming choices.

They aren't thinking or at least not long term. They took a hit in advertising revenue when the housing market went into the porcelain throne so they cut their program budget and now run reruns of the same 5 or 6 shows (HH, HHI, LIOLI, Property Bros, Buying and Selling) and have basically chucked out all original programming from their US production companies. Three of their most scheduled shows are purchased from a Canadian network.

Any one of the those shows would be fine one or two nights a week. The problem with their schedule today is it is all they run. The whole concept of a show marathon has run its course.

Sparky, Susan, etc....I hear you all and agree. They've gotten rid of ALL of their designers, including all the winners of "Design Star". What a joke that's going to be in the future if they don't even have design shows anymore and the winner gets 6 shows and then is shown the door...

Truth be told, the reason they keep bombarding the airwaves with the same old real estate shows is that they seem to be the only shows that get the ratings. They can bombard the network with tons of repeats and the ratings will still be good. I think House Hunters is consistently in the top 25 for cable TV shows on any given night. So really, they've sold out for the ratings. I refuse to believe they couldn't find new design shows that will interest the viewers. They just don't want to make the effort. Why bother when they can just slap a few House Hunters on and be done with it? It's easy money.

What gets me is that right now I watch on the Food Network (another Scripps owned enterprise) what is really a design makeover show to a large degree. It's "Restaurant Impossible". Tanya Nayak and Tom Bury are regulars. Tanya's work is excellent and the show is fun to watch. It gets great ratings. So there are ways to incorporate design into a show and still be popular. I think HGTV has been steadily going downhill for a long time. FN has them beat by a MILE at this point. They found a way to keep cooking shows alive and ratings worthy with interesting personalities. HGTV in my humble opinion has bad management. It's the only explanation at this point. You go anywhere on the internet and all the comments are from people wanting the design shows back. It's a cop out on HGTV's part to blame the viewers for not wanting to see them when it's clearly their fault for not finding more entertaining design show formats. It's pretty sad when I have to go watch the Food Network to see a design makeover.

ntuitive,
If you like Restaurant Impossible have you checked out the companion show on Travel Channel Hotel Impossible? Anthony isn't quite as in your face as Robert. His designer Blanch does some nice work as well.

What amazes me about RI and HI is the total clueless-ness of some of the owners.

At times on RI I wish they'd really give Tanya and Tom more than 30 hours to pull off the work. It is no where near 2 days for them, they start after lunch on day one and give it back at dinner time the next day. From a write up on the Hotel Leger in California the make over there took 5 days.

Have you read any of the yelp or other reviews post Restaurant Impossible? Some learned from it, some went back to their old ways. All probably would have failed without the help, even with the help some fail.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sparky,

i couldn't agree more, i signed onto this sight just to say exactly that!! wheres the design??

Oops, should have read this thread first before posting mine. So sad they aren't listening to their viewers (or previous viewers). The comment about viewing being down because of the market and people don't love their homes - HELLOOO bring us shows that show us how we CAN love our homes. Even though of us that already do, it is nice to get new ideas. Seems like a new crew moved into HGTV, changed it all for the worse, and no one is doing anything about it.

quote:

Originally posted by Sparky:
ntuitive,
If you like Restaurant Impossible have you checked out the companion show on Travel Channel Hotel Impossible? Anthony isn't quite as in your face as Robert. His designer Blanch does some nice work as well.

I haven't checked it out but thanks for the tip, I'll add it to my DVR schedule!

Rachelle S, I hear you. I would think it's the other way around - In a bad economy people would be more interested in saving money by doing their own home renovations than they would be in buying a new home or watching other people buying new homes. So I think they have it completely backwards!

Sparky, I am really glad to hear about Hotel Impossible and Restaurant Impossible. I checked and learned that HI is starting a new season at 10pm on Monday, January 14. I am going to be sure to watch.

Thank you for the heads up!

Not being a fan of Design Star I didn't know that Blanch Garcia on Hotel Impossible was on that show. She's pretty talented.

http://bgarciadesigns.com/about_us.php

HGTV used to be one of my favorite channels. Now I can barely watch it. As much as I actually like Property Brothers, it's monotonous to watch that all the time. They narrow down a couple trashy houses, there's always budget scares and then the house turns out fabulous. Voila. I HATE Love It or List It. Just horrible. And beyond that, all that's left is House Hunters and Property Virgins. And does anyone really like HH International??? WHAT'S HAPPENED TO HGTV???!?!?!!!