House Hunters Has Been Selling You a Big Lie

There are many of us who love House Hunters, the ridiculously addictive show on HGTV about people who are, you guessed it, hunting for houses. And while we have long known in our hearts that much, if not all, of the show is staged and as fake a faux brick exterior, there is now seriously concrete proof that it is nothing but smoke-colored paint and outdated mirrors.

Hooked on Houses has a first person account from a woman named Bobi who was on the show with her family. Her tale of HH stardom is equal parts illuminating and illusion-shattering. She says the producers made up a whole story for her episode about how her family needed a bigger house in Texas, even though that wasn't why they were moving at all. They wouldn't even have her on the show until they'd already closed on their new house, and then they had to rush to find other houses for them to pretend to be interested in. They ended up touring two of their friends' houses which weren't even on the market—and which their friends had to clean meticulously to earn the house its 15 minutes of "fame."

This, of course, means most of the house hunter's reactions are fake and have to be acted out multiple times, which explains why they sound so silly when they say things like "I don't like this paint color" as though it's a dealbreaker. Alas, the dream of house-hunting being as simple as 1, 2, 3 was too good to be true! Though this knowledge shouldn't stop you from watching, because now you can use this inside information to get really good at the game where you guess which house they'll "choose" in the end. And you can start a brand new game where you judge the shoppers on their acting abilities instead of their ridiculous demands for massive closets.

[Via AVClub]