‘Ugliest House in America’: Retta Weighs In on the Good Intentions That Lead to Living in an Ugly Home [Interview]
What were they thinking?
Comedian Retta is back to host a new season of Ugliest House in America, premiering January 7 on HGTV. The hit series sees the Parks and Recreation alum embark on another cross-country tour of truly WTF design choices, bizarre layouts, and hideous (and sometimes hazardous) in-home features.
Why people love HGTV’s ‘Ugliest House in America’
In season 7, Retta visits her 100th ugly home. It’s a milestone she never expected to reach. While she didn’t doubt there were plenty of unattractive homes to tour around the U.S., she “didn’t know there was that much interest” from viewers.
“It definitely does cater to the nosiness of people, that’s for sure,” she said.
This season of Ugliest House in America begins in the Great Plains, where Retta visits a trio of awful abodes, including an off-the-grid castle with a “room on what I guess we would call a second floor, but there was no staircase. It was just a carpeted slant.” Another house has a bathroom with carpet (a not uncommon occurrence on the show), dozens of mysterious light switches, and master bedroom with a massive pit that used to be a hot tub. A third home is metal monstrosity with nary a straight line in sight, plus the original’s owner’s ashes entombed in the floor.
How do people end up in such bizarre homes?
“I think generally it’s a bad decision in that they know they’re getting a deal on the house and they think, ‘We’ll do the work,’” Retta said. “A lot of times they think they’re going to do the work themselves and they don’t know what it entails.”
In other cases, the homes themselves are in remote locations, which makes hiring contractors and bringing in equipment more difficult than people expect.
Homeowners want their house to be the worst Retta has ever seen
Whatever leads to someone living in an ugly house, by the time people call HGTV, they’re desperate for help. (Each season, one fortunate homeowner gets a massive renovation from Windy City Rehab star Alison Victoria.) Any embarrassment they might feel over the state of the home is usually overridden by their desire to fix the problems.
“They want the renovation, so they need it to be the worst thing I’ve seen,” Retta said. “You know what I mean? They’ll try to pump it up. I feel like I’ve only had one house where everything that I commented on was the thing they had worked on and changed. And I was like, ‘You guys, I’m going to need a heads up on stuff like that.’”
Fortunately, most homeowners have a sense of humor about their situation. One of Retta’s favorite experiences filming the show involved visiting a home she dubbed the “Victorian Dollhouse.”
“Trevor was the homeowner and Trevor was just the sweetest, kindest person who just did not look like he fit that house. I was like, ‘This is like a Victorian dollhouse.’ And he’s like, ‘I just knew it could be something.’ Trevor just had high hopes … his demeanor was like, ‘I know it’s crazy, but isn’t it interesting?’”
“Most of the reason why I love the house is because the owner is hilarious,” she added. “There was a house in North Carolina and [the owner] was so scared of her own home … she said when she moved in there, she probably called the police two, three times a week to the point where the neighbors said, ‘Stop calling the police, call us. We’ll come help you.’ Because every sound she heard she was scared of.”
How can homeowners avoid getting stuck with an ugly house of their own? Don’t be too eager to snap up a seemingly good deal, Retta warned.
“Like I said, some places they’re hard to get equipment to,” she said. “Some places demo alone is going to take up their whole budget. So they really need to know what things are going to cost. Ask your realtor, ‘What do you think it would be to fix this, this, this, this, and this?’ … And if they give you a number that you’re like, that’s my whole budget, don’t buy it.”
Ugliest House in America airs Wednesdays at 8 and 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV. Episodes also stream on HBO Max.
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