The HGTV network is pretty popular among people of all ages, but a while back the network was making an effort to appeal to younger viewers in an attempt to expand its audience.
One lady whose home was featured on an episode of the show as a “reject home,” said that the network hired a younger, ‘good-looking’ couple to fill in for an older couple in their late 50s who were really the ones purchasing a beautiful retreat in Mexico.
Local Subcontractors Do Most of the Work
Even though there’s always a cool designer wearing work gloves and a construction hat on these HGTV shows, the (actual) work is done by local contracting companies.
And comes to find out that these workers aren’t paid very well, but they do get to add HGTV to their resumes. Whether that’s a good trade-off or not is theirs to decide. But come on, we're sure HGTV has enough money to pay these hard workers a decent wage.
Again for the Camera, Please!
Reality TV can lose its magic when it stops being spontaneous. Often, when producers don't feel as though things are entertaining enough, they get to meddling, and that's when reality becomes a bit scripted. You know the scenes where the homeowners introduce themselves to us viewers or the scenes where they discuss their feelings about different homes? Well, since the prospective homeowners are not actors, it usually requires several takes until the producers feel they got them 'right'.
There have also been times when a homeowner did things the producers thought were funny or entertaining so they ask them to recreate it so they can catch it on camera perfectly.
House Hunters Participants Get Paid
Although it may not be much, the participants on "House Hunters" get paid for appearing on the show. One guest stated that she was paid $500 for the episode she appeared on. Not bad!
Also, the production provides everyone with lunch and snacks while the show is filming. That sounds like a pretty good deal as most people would be happy simply with a chance to be on TV.
Pawn Stars
Sure, the characters really do run a pawn shop, but that's probably as 'real' as it gets on this show. Rick Harrison never works the actual counters, and all of the customer interactions seen on TV are carefully curated before shooting. Any item a person is interested in selling to the pawnshop is cleaned and vetted, and the customer must sign a consent form most of the time.
To be fair, though, this shouldn’t be a huge surprise because if you wouldn’t trust a real pawnshop, then why trust one on television with the sole purpose of being entertaining?