‘Makeover’ television shows are a dream come true for many. Who wouldn’t want a new house, a new look, or brand new furniture sets for free? The idea is certainly tempting; a person in need is approached by people who want to meet those needs and then some. Since the nature of these shows seems so blatantly positive, it’s hard to believe that they have ruined lives with debt — or even death — in the past. Typically, the only catch is having the entire process filmed and then broadcast on national television once it was over. No one thinks about getting stuck with an awful designer who was only hired for their ability to fit into the show’s tiny budget, or being manipulated in television’s favor and then dumped out with the trash once the novelty has worn off.
Here are 12 of the worst reality television show makeovers to ever happen.
A House Too Large
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is an American television show that is designed to capitalize on the sad stories of families who have fallen upon hard times and are struggling to support themselves. It paints the saddest picture possible, emphasizing each negative detail as much as possible. Then comes the uplifting part. Extreme Makeover swoops in and surprises the family with an opportunity for a brand new, spacious home that will bring comfort and security back to the downtrodden group. Volunteers scurry to build a house from scratch and, in only two weeks, the new structure is revealed to the family in a segment just as dramatic as the sob story. Everything looks great, everyone is happy. The only problem is, after the show, who pays for all the bills they left behind?
A number of families needed additional donations to support the excess property taxes that came along with owning a large house. Some people even faced foreclosure, completely unable to pay the extra eight thousand bucks a year — meaning that their taxes were six grand before Extreme Makeover, and fourteen after the new house was built. One of the worst makeovers must be receiving a beautiful gift you can’t even keep. What a tease.
Orphans are Great for Getting Free Stuff
After five orphans were taken in by a family who attended the same church, Extreme Makeover couldn’t wait to pounce on their heartbreaking story. The family of six who had so graciously taken in five members of the Higgins family after their parents suddenly died, didn’t live in the most accommodating quarters either. All 12 of them were corralled into a tiny three bedroom home. They doubled and tripled up in rooms until Home Makeover gifted them with an enormous nine bedroom house. Although each child got their own room and all seemed to be well, the happy ending didn’t last long.
The Leomitis’, who had previously been so kind to the five children, were now brimming with greed. They drove the kids out of their new mansion-like house, physically and verbally abusing them until they were all but forced to move out and away from their new home, as well as gifts like stereos and computers that had been given by the show. Claiming that the Higgins family had no right to any of the property that had been built and wanting to keep it all for themselves, the Leomitis’ sent the Higgins back out onto the street. The Higgins proceeded to sue the family as well as the television show.
Extreme Makeover: Nightmare Edition
The original Extreme Makeover is different — and way more extreme — than the Home Edition. However, it is basically the same concept. Home Edition would rebuild homes, and the original kind would rebuild bodies using a ton of plastic surgery. At the beginning of the show, family and friends are asked to divulge their opinions about the candidates looks. This basically means that they’re asked questions intended to receive negative answers, and the comments are edited all together in the meanest way possible for the show. In a similar to What Not To Wear, the candidate is first given a good verbal thrashing before she’s worthy of her upcoming transformation.
Deleese Williams was no exception. She was supposed to receive a slew of surgeries the show claimed would “transform her life and destiny.” They planned to fix her small, sagging breasts, her droopy eyes, and crooked jaw. Deleese’s sister, Kellie, was recorded speaking about her sister’s physical shortcomings. She criticized Deleese’s deformed jaw and spoke about her crooked, ugly teeth. Everything was going as planned (for the show, at least).
The night before Deleese was due under the knife, the show suddenly dropped her from its plans. They canceled her show and left behind the shattered hopes of a woman they had built up with false promises, and all because her dental surgeon warned that her recovery time would be longer than expected. Deleese went home a broken woman, becoming a shut in who only left her house at night. She remembered all the comments others had made about her, such as “I never believed my son would marry such an ugly woman.” The worst part was yet to come. Kellie, a sister guilt ridden over her hurtful comments, committed suicide a few months later.
Ruin This House
A generally unheard of show called ‘Move This House’ was meant for A&E and had basically the same premise as Trading Spaces. Instead of trading anything, the show would help a couple move into a new home by furnishing and decorating it for them. It was supposed to be ‘edgy’ and ‘cool’ so they picked a hip couple — Aaron Starkey played in a band, and his girlfriend Jeannie Yandle was a radio producer. They seemed like the perfect, fresh faced candidates for the show.
But Move This House had a poor grip on ‘glam rock twist’, especially when it came to satisfying the needs of their subjects. They made the house look like a 70s porno. Jeannie herself says:
“I saw the dog-carcass rug in the bedroom… They painted the living and dining rooms in colors inspired by Hi-Liters…. Kermit the Frog green and bright yellow.”
Jeannie also says that the dining room was fitted with an enormous table which took up so much room, there wasn’t room for a single chair.
For Mental Patients Only
Trading Spaces was a show in which two people would trade homes for the purpose of redesigning them both. Usually long time friends, the swapping couple would be responsible for the each other’s homes. It was notorious for having a couple of awful home decorators who never failed to think up terrible DIY concoctions for each room. In one instance, a gay couple leaves their bright and friendly room only to return to a nightmare. They asked for warm, inviting colors that would make it more homely and compliment the hardwood floors and finishings — something they had worked hard to restore on their own. Instead, they were given a stark white room with no color at all. The “Whoa, White” room went over horribly, and Mark stormed out in the midst of a hissy fit.
Brown Town
Jessie asked her neighbors for one thing: Avoid the color brown. She hated brown, and didn’t want to see any of it in their redesigned living room. Unfortunately, the ‘please don’t’ on Trading Spaces almost always turned into ‘we definitely will’. Jessie was given a room themed in brown, grey, black, and beige. It looked awfully tacky, and Jessie’s reaction made her dissatisfaction very clear. She puts her hands to her face and begins yelling at her neighbor, smiling with a rage she struggles to contain. In another shot, Jessie is seen wrestling her friend on the floor in anger. “I just sort of went crazy for a second,” she claims.
G.I. Joe’s House
Army and Air Force families typically love what they do — meaning all things army are welcome and encouraged in their homes. However, being an American patriot with a passion for the US Army or Air Force doesn’t always equate to sheer obsession, and not everyone wants to think about Top Gear everywhere they go. In this Rambo style transformation, designer Kia Steave-Dickerson turned a tiny house on Scott Air Force Base into what looked like a child’s war playset. She tacked a cheap looking camouflage trim onto the dining room walls, and used parachutes for the window curtains. If that wasn’t enough to make the cottage look like a certified hobo-house, she added pillows with a different color camouflage to the living room as well.
Crying Pam
The name ‘Denim Deluxe’ sounds horrible even before attaching a meaning to it. It was what influenced the creation of Crying Pam, a character on Trading Spaces who became somewhat of a television legend in the makeover show circuit. Designer Doug did a number on Pam’s room. He covered all the furniture in various colors of denim, and, of course, ignored Pam’s request that he not touch the antique fireplace. He covered it with an ugly, beige colored facade that looked cheap and plaster-ish. When Pam sees the new room, her eyes widen as she exclaims ‘It’s great!’ and runs off to sob off-camera. Unfortunately, she left her microphone on and her sobbing could be heard through television sets all across America.
It’s Curtains for Hildi
Hildi is probably the most infamous designer from Trading Spaces, and is talked about as consistently coming up with the worst, tackiest, cheapest looking DIY projects imaginable. In one instance, she turns a plain-but-homely Pennsylvania cottage into a neon freak show. A purposeless, sagging curtain covers the wall whose window was responsible for the room’s natural lighting. The walls are painted matte black and the furniture she purchases is a vibrant neon yellow. A room appropriate for a K-Mart photoshoot, the homeowners are appalled. They hate the transformation so much that they ask the crew to undo all the damage by removing all their additions upon their departure.
Too Many Staples
Another of Hildi’s monstrous creations was her decision to transform a boring, bare white bathroom into something sensual and exciting. The idea sounds attractive enough, but Hildi took it in the worst direction possible. She purchased six hundred fake fabric flowers and used staples to attach them to the walls. That’s over a thousand staples. Although these would be the most tedious to remove (and we are sure they did get rid of them), they were not the only outstanding detail of the room. The ugly and crowded looking flower walls were complimented by red and gold furniture, making the bathroom look like it was part of Prostitute Barbie’s doll house.
Fur Cave
Jersey City saw yet another horrible Hildi house when they put their trust into Trading Spaces. Instead of painting the boring white walls another color, Hildi thought it would be appropriate to cover them with dark red faux fur. Hildi uses glue to attach it, and, apparently loving it, covers the flooring in the stuff as well. The water pipes, which give off a shabby-chic vibe and have a sophisticated urban decay style to them before being tampered with, are destroyed with bright reds and yellows. Finally, she creates “art” for one color of the room. The word “art” is used very loosely in this case, especially because her painting looks like something that would be inside a McDonalds playpen, or one of those creations made by an elephant slinging colors at a canvas. Come to think of it, we take that back and apologize to any elephants we may have offended with that degrading comparison.
Attic Turned Front Lawn
With Hildi’s endless terrible ideas, it’s no wonder Trading Spaces was canceled. In another episode of Hildi’s Hell House, the woman took a calm looking country attic-bedroom and turned it into another confusing picture of ugliness. The resulting room looks, again, like a dollhouse. She puts a porch swing in the room, and it takes up an incredible amount of space. To separate the bed from the rest of the room in an attempt to make each room feel a little more spacious and segmented, Hildi chooses a portion of a picket fence. She just plops that fence down right in front of the bed as if it were the entrance to the house. Finally, she adds insult to injury by making a bedspread out of astroturf. While this is both ugly and incredibly uncomfortable, she spices it up by sewing fake flowers onto it. The surrounding carpets are also turned into astroturf and lined with bricks. The only word that comes to mind is ‘Why?’
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