HGTV

The new show HomeTown - which I've binged watched at least 3 times since there's only 6 or 7 shows so far - is FANTASTIC and such a breath of fresh air. I thought it might be just another Fixer Upper, but it's not. HomeTown doesn't waste time on showing things like Chip's gross antics (eating a roach... really?), removing his shirt (yuck!), jumping in a river, playing tricks, riding a plane, etc. or the family eating breakfast, playing with animals, or bringing dinner to Jo. All this really takes away from the remodeling and decorating, the reason our family watches the show. Magnolia brand promotion also wastes time and gets really old. We just fast forward through all that now.

I love Joanna's decorating, but we see so very little of it on the show. We figure we only see decorating for maybe 8-10 minutes per show from Fixer Upper but HomeTown is much more interesting and doesn't waste time on the stars' personal lives.

Erin and Ben are masters at figuring how to do things less expensively, both in building and decorating. Their decorating is fun and entertaining. I especially like that Erin actually gets in there and works on the houses while Joanne just points and tells people what to do. (You'll never see Jo tearing down a wall, ripping up a floor or painting a front porch. In a show I watched the other day, Jo wouldn't even go get a bucket from the front yard for Chip.) And Ben is such a gentleman and so mannerly compared to Chip Gaines.

And I so love these old, historic homes that HomeTown does such a great job of bringing back to life and the local vendors and others who assist them. The couples who purchase the houses have been so cute and have interesting stories as to why they're moving to a little town like Laurel, MS. I just hope they don't run out of homes or buyers any time soon.

Best show on HGTV or DIY Network right now. Keep 'em coming!

I use to watch HGTV alot, but then I started noticing that there wasn't enough people of color with shows and that those that do or did have shows, they never lasted long. Unlike other shows where people are complaining about unfinished work or other issues, I truly believe that HGTV, is RACIST and only keep shows on of white host, because they don't want to lose the white audience, so the hell with the black and brown audience. HGTV would rather have a show with white women with no shape or $#*!, as long as they look good in the face, Christina on the Coast is a prefect example, I saw her in a bathing suit and couldn't stop laughing, looked like someone chopped off part of her $#*! and pulled the rest down her legs, is that why your female host have the front of their shirts or tops tucked into their pants, leaving the back covering their backsides. Then to make matters worse, you very seldom see black or brown people buying homes or getting work done on their homes, I no longer watch any of your shows anymore or allow anyone in my house to watch, this channel is blocked in my house. At onetime, you didn't have gay people on your shows, now you have more gay people, then you do people of color, shame on you, I am done.

HGTV, you're in a rut. Enough with the "couples" shows and the ubiquitous spin-offs. Also, must every design on every show be sooooo generic, so Pottery Barn/Ikea, so boring? Enough with the formulaic. Take a deep breath and take a risk, HGTV. Here are five ideas for new shows. 1. Superstar designers. Ordinary people win a design consultation with a super star designer. The contestant could choose amongst five or so designers and choose based only on the designer's renderings without knowing the designer's identity. 2. Use What You Have or Warts to Wonderful. Don't rip out that 1960s pink bathroom and replace it with Ikea particle board. Those 60s bathrooms can be made adorable with a little imagination. You could do an entire series based on the split level, which most people hate and is often ugly, but can be made incredible with some vision and imagination. 3. Legends of Design or Designers Who Changed the World. Have current designers talk about design legends such as Elsie De Wolf or Sister Parish and then design modern rooms based on their ideas using original photographs of rooms that the legendary designers created. 4. Design Element Bingo. What if five designers were challenged with creating a powder room based on Chanel's little black dress? Or a living room based on the bergere chair? Or a dining table based on a bicycle? Of course these would not be literal, but merely reference the aforementioned. 5. Past to Present Design. Egyptian, Greek, Medieval, Jacobean, Louis XIV, Tudor, Victorian, 1980s, take elements or an element from an historic period, explain it to the tv audience and then create a modern room using elements from that period. What kind of a bathroom could one create incorporating the Greek key or a dining room that incorporated Victorian gingerbread in an imaginative yet modern way? Once again, no need to be literal. These are a few idea. Perhaps other posters have more and better ones. Please HGTV, take a risk and try something new and different.