The Inevitable 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' Reboot We Don't Need

There was a time when ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was the hottest show on television. Each week host Ty Pennington and a familiar group of helpers gave some deserving family the home of their dreams. The story always started with a tough time or a personal tragedy. There was a family who needed help and Pennington and crew were there to build this family a massive new home designed to change their lives.

It was initially a fun show to watch. I was familiar with Pennington from his stint on TLC and the idea of completely making over an entire house certainly qualified as "extreme." But over the seasons, the show devolved into a loud parody of itself. Pennington ran around the set like a poodle on crack and the houses inevitably became bigger and more filled with not-so-subtly-sponsored materials. And because the houses became so massive and expensive, participants often found themselves struggling to pay the large taxes and other costs associated with an Extreme McMansion.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition soured me on the format until last year when I ran across an episode of the long-running BBC series DIY SOS: The Big Build on the BBC Home & Garden channel. This show was like a Bizarro-world Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. It was heart-warming, sometimes subtle, filled with broad jokes delivered in a kind way. And even better, the show was about the families and not the sponsors or the experience.

Hosted by Nick Knowles, DIY SOS: The Big Build grew out of the show DIY SOS. That series ran on the BBC from 1999 to 2010 and was very much a traditional kind of makeover series. Each episode featured a main project, a smaller project hosted by a series of hosts and a feature which showed three viewer-submitted projects and asked the audience to choose which one the show would tackle in the next episode.

In 2010, the series was rebranded as DIY SOS: The Big Build and this new one-hour series has a format very similar to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Each episode features a family struggling to overcome some deep personal tragedy. A stroke victim unable to use most of their house because of the lack of access, a handicapped child unable to stay in the family home because it doesn't have the facilities necessary for someone with such physical challenges. Knowles and crew come in and makeover the home, assisted by an army of local tradesman and businesses who volunteer their time and material to ensure everything is completed in nine days. 

But unlike Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, these projects are massive but also proportional. Since this is the UK, many of the projects take place in row houses and while the crews often gut the interiors and perhaps add an additional room or two (if the local coding allows), the end result is the perfect solution for the family. But without providing them with some 6,500 square-foot monstrosity.



Another thing that sets the show apart from its American counterpart are the interview segments Knowles does with family members and friends. He has a knack for getting people to open up and honestly, I don't think I've been able to get through an episode without tearing up a bit.

Given the joy I get from DIY SOS: The Big Build, it's difficult for me to get too thrilled about ABC's just-announced reboot of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Particularly when it's set to be hosted Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, founders of The Home Edit, and co-hosts of the impressively annoying Netflix series Get Organized With the Home Edit. And I was not reassured at all after reading the network's explanation of the reboot, which will have the duo working "to edit every single item they own, deciding what to part ways with and what to keep that will set their new home up with smart systems built for success."

Sigh. I'll pass.

DIY SOS: The Big Build can be seen on the BBC Home & Garden FAST channel

The Extreme Makeover: Home Edition reboot is set to premiere this fall on ABC.