Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EM:HE; sometimes informally referred to as Extreme Home Makeover) is an American reality television series that aired from February 15, 2004, to , on ABC and in 2020 on HGTV. It premiered on January 2, 2025, for its tenth season on ABC and its eleventh season overall. The series is a spin-off of Extreme Makeover that features a family that has faced some sort of hardship, having their home completely remodeled to better suit their exact needs. The pilot aired in December 2003.
The series was produced by Endemol USA in association with Disney–ABC Television Group's Greengrass Television. The original ABC run was hosted by Ty Pennington; the HGTV season was hosted by actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson. The executive producers in the original series were Brady Connell and George Verschoor. On May 7, 2024, the series was revived again and returned to ABC for the first time since 2012, with Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer from the website The Home Edit as co-hosts.
The program originally aired on Sunday evenings, but was moved to Friday nights during the 2011–12 television season. Upon the airing of its final episode in series form during its original run, and for the 2012 special holiday run, it was ABC's last series to air solely in 4:3 standard definition. However, when the show was revived by HGTV, it was converted into high definition and widescreen presentation.
Overview Extreme Makeover: Home Edition premiered as a thirteen-part special on Wednesday, December 3, 2003, and had its official series premiere on Sunday, February 15, 2004. It was among ABC's top-rated series and has become far more popular than the original Extreme Makeover, which struggled in the ratings through its last two seasons and quietly ended with its episodes burned off wholesale in July 2007. The show ranked 41st in its first season, averaging 10.6 million viewers per episode, with the pilot episode bringing in 12 million viewers. However its ratings soared thereafter with the second season entering the top 20, finishing 15th for the year, averaging 15.8 million viewers per episode. The next four seasons each ranked at least in the top 30, with seasons two and three ranking in the top 20, and seasons four and five ranking in the top 25. The sixth season, however, fell out of the top 35, and ranked 38th, averaging 10.3 million viewers per episode. The seventh season ranked 39th, averaging 9.1 million viewers. By season eight, the show barely ranked in the top 50 with just over 8.5 million viewers per episode on average. The last season ranked below the top 100 (finishing at #101) and averaged only 5.8 million viewers per episode.
Series reruns began airing on TV Land in August 2007, making it the youngest non-original show to air on the network.
The show is hosted by Ty Pennington, formerly a carpenter on the show Trading Spaces. The series is devoted to rebuilding families' homes when the family is in need of new hope.
During the 2005–06 season, the show went to areas hit by Hurricane Katrina and helped communities to rebuild themselves with help from other organizations.
The show also had a series of specials that later became a regular series during the 2004–05 television season entitled Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How'd They Do That? It was a short-lived spin-off of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that featured extra behind-the-scenes footage of what had happened in that week's episode. An occasional special would feature The Muppets, property of ABC, engaging in comical scenes with the design team. However, their scenes were usually filmed after the renovation.
Episodes
Production
Two episodes in two different cities are shot at the same time (a few days apart), using two different production crews. There are also two groups of designers. Ty Pennington flies back and forth between the cities to do the "door knock", the braveheart march, and the "reveal", as well as to finish up work on his projects, which he mentions and gives walk-throughs in his magazine. The amount of work that Ty and the design team put into the house itself and the projects they take on depend mostly on the amount of filming needed to be done. In some circumstances, such as smaller makeovers or makeovers scheduled to be two-hour episodes, the lead designers lay out a general idea for their projects, and the show's backup designers take over. Generally, the lead designers are notified in advance of the makeover recipients, to enable them to start their plans ahead of time. At several makeovers, they have been criticized for never doing any work at all, and just being there to put on a show.
Format
ABC received thousands of applications from families in need, and the team said that it was extremely hard to filter through the stories and choose only one of them. The families they looked for must have met two criteria: first, they must have been truly deserving and in need of the makeover, and second, they must have been the kind of people who gave something of themselves back to their community. The main theme of the show was advocacy, as each family that was selected helped to address a wide range of issues in American society. The show had helped families who had been victimized by a form of loss or tragic event, experienced a certain hardship and most of all, advocated on ways to treat, face and prevent such losses. The show helped families of veterans, single parents, and families with children who had illnesses ranging from childhood cancers to HIV/AIDS, as well as children with mental illnesses and disabilities such as autism. The show helped families victimized by natural disasters such as tornadoes and hurricanes, as well as families who had dealt with house fires and mold contamination. Other instances included families who had either lost loved ones or had loved ones injured in car accidents (including alcohol-related incidents), domestic violence, gang-related crimes and drug abuse. Every episode made a family stand as an advocate of awareness of such problems.
The majority of episodes were one hour; however, in some instances (mainly if complications were involved, or if the makeover involved more than just the family home) the episode was aired as a two-parter and started at 7 p.m. Eastern Time (one hour ahead of its normal 8 p.m. Eastern Time slot). In the UK and some countries, some of the twohour episodes aired as one single program instead of as two separate parts.
The first season of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition took place mostly in Southern California, particularly Greater Los Angeles. Season two extended the renovation outside California and beyond, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Most shows in the first three seasons began with a shot of Pennington in the team's bus saying, "I'm Ty Pennington, and the renovation starts right now!" The exceptions were those episodes which featured a guest host in his place.
In the fourth and fifth seasons, the opening shot was of Pennington in a location iconic of the state the episode was in, and a declaration of what state the episode was in was added to the tagline. Then, the chosen family was briefly profiled; their nomination video was shown to the team (and to the television audience).
Pennington then brought the team together in a huddle and led them in a chant of "Let's do it!" Next, Pennington and the design team visited the family's home and proceeded to give the family a "wake-up call" (courtesy of Pennington's infamous bullhorn) by shouting "Good morning, [family's name] family!" then introduced each family member. The team then went throughout the house, finding out about the family's interests as design inspiration.
The family was then sent off on a one-week vacation (where applicable, airfare was provided by Southwest Airlines, whose involvement was noted at the end of the show, mostly Disneyland) while the house was renovated or demolished, depending on its condition and the family's needs. Two families in separate seasons (The Sears Family, season 2, episode 13; and The Kubena Family, season 3, episode 17) did not include vacations because their respective family's daughters were in isolation at each local hospital.Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: The Official Companion Book They received video messages via laptop computer from Pennington's camera. The videos displayed on the laptop were superimposed on broadcasts to avoid both screen glare and the requirement of paying advertising royalties on the software used in the videos.
Beginning with season 3, the demolitions became quite creative: the team had used falling trees, tanks, and even monster trucks to accomplish the task where needed. In one episode (The Miller Family, season 5, episode 7), the team used dynamite to blow up their radon-contaminated house in Wyoming. In 2008, a rather innovative episode showed Pennington and his team rolling a five hundred pound bowling ball through the house to eventually demolish a family's "bowling-themed, Big Lebowski–inspired" bathroom.
A local home builder (sometimes two builders) and community volunteers began basic work (electrical, plumbing, roofing, and, if the house was demolished, framing a new one) while the design team began designing the creative aspects of the house. Once the basic work was completed, the design team then added the finishing touches. Pennington selected a portion of the house to be his "secret room" (except in the case when the secret project took place in the backyard), which no one was allowed to view prior to final reveal (with one exception in The Pauni Family, season 4, episode 10, which involved a commercial kitchen; the health inspector had to approve the kitchen and issue the permit before it could be used). Shows often featured design team members making a trip to a local Sears store as well as special guest appearances. The IQAir Clean Air Team was often called in to provide ultra-clean air for families with special health issues.
At the end of the week, the family returned to their home to see cheering crowds and the view of their home blocked by a bus (for larger projects, two buses would block the home). When Pennington and the family gave the order, originally "Bus driver, hit it!" in season 1 (usually only called by Pennington), and later the much more famous, "Bus driver, move that bus!!" (or "those buses!!"), starting in season 2, with the family participating in the call to the bus driver, the family saw the end result of the team's efforts. Pennington's secret room was usually the last item featured on the show. Often, a child's bedroom, the parent's master bedroom or a business room received Pennington's special attention. Some episodes featured special gifts given to the family by outside parties. The show always ended with Pennington saying, "There's only one thing left to say: welcome home [family's name] family, welcome home". This was often followed by a standing ovation from the family, design team, and whoever else was there as the show ends.
Team