Another reality show, this time about people deciding on whether to buy a brand new house or rent one, House Hunters has become HGTV‘s longest-running reality show, airing episodes even now. The show has found for itself the perfect formula that manages to get over twenty-five million views every month.
Every episode brings us new couples or families who have been on the lookout for a new house with the help of a real estate agent. We watch them choose between three potential houses they would finally like to invest their money in.
With the first episode released sometime in 1999, the show has completed twenty-four years of being on screen, promising to churn out more content for fans. If you have watched the early episodes of the show, then you would know that it was originally hosted by Suzanne Whang in 2007 but was finally replaced by Andromeda Dunker in 2009, who has been with the show ever since.
The show is popular among millennials and Gen Z, who find it attractive as an escape from the reality that the world is not right. With homeownership looking like a far-fetched dream for many, the viewers live it vicariously through the guests who appear on the show.
The show, House Hunters, has kept to its format since its start, and it has even removed its on-screen host from the show, but it continues to thrive despite its low budget and predictable nature. Critics of the show have revealed that its predictability might be a big factor as to why the show continues to do so well.
Not just this, but the fact that it offers a break from our chaotic and demanding reality, House Hunters has become a safe show for a lot of us. Over its twenty-four years of airing, the show has developed a franchise of its own with a long list of spin-off versions to its name.
While this reality series may have become a fan favorite, others have questioned the authenticity of the show, asking if the show is even as real as it claims to be.
Is House Hunter Fake?
House hunters who have previously been on the show have confirmed this way too many times that they are not house hunting. We’re sorry if you thought that it was all real, but sometime during 2012, one of the individuals who had been on the show revealed that the makers of the show had contacted them despite knowing that she had already bought a house.
Insiders also agreed with her statement, admitting that the producers of the show prefer bringing those on the show who already own a house. That way, all they have to do is find two other empty places that the homeowners have to pretend to look at and choose their own during the final decision-making process.
This process is easier and quicker from a production point of view since the decision is already made. It also reduces the filming to no more than fifty hours, from which the footage is reduced, edited, and aired.
The couples or families that appear on the show get a meager amount of five hundred dollars for their presence on the show. Over the years, there have been a few, who had appeared on the show, who revealed more about how their episodes came to be.
Turns out that there have been times when the makers do not even bother finding places up for renting or selling. There have been times when real estate agents take individuals to tour Airbnb places and houses owned by their friends or relatives.
Most of the show is well-planned and fake, though the reactions that you see from the families when touring the new places are as real as they can be. Even though we know now that the show is heavily staged, it still manages to be the comfort show that it was for us.
