Catch a Contractor
| Catch a Contractor | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Reality |
| Starring |
|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 31 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
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| Running time | 22 minutes (1st season), 44 minutes (future seasons) |
| Production company(s) | 3 Ball Entertainment |
| Release | |
| Original network | Spike |
| Picture format | HDTV (1080i) |
| Original release | March 9, 2014 – August 30, 2015 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Catch a Contractor is an American reality television home improvement series that premiered March 9, 2014 on Spike. The show features former carpenter Adam Carolla, Skip Bedell and his wife Alison, a private investigator. The series premiere was the most watched debut of a Spike original series since March 2011.
Prior to becoming a star, Adam Carolla gained construction experience working as a carpenter. Skip Bedell is a licensed home improvement salesperson in the state of New York. Bedell represented himself as a licensed contractor on the show, however.
Each episode of Catch a Contractor follows a similar formula. At the beginning of each episode, Adam and Skip meet with the homeowner for that particular episode. They receive a rundown of what was supposed to be done, inspect what was left from the work that was done, and learn about the contractor and how much he was paid to do the work. Once they have all the information they need, they pass information along to Alison, Skip's wife, who is a licensed Private Investigator. She then goes to work tracking the elusive contractor down.
After observing the contractor for a few days, Alison sets up an appointment with the contractor, which is actually a sting operation, where the contractor is lured to a house with the expectation of giving a new job estimate. Alison makes sure the house is rigged with hidden cameras, so that when the contractor arrives, he will not suspect that he is being set up for a confrontation. While the whole camera and production crew are hiding, Alison lures the shoddy contractor into the house and gets (him) in position to be pounced upon by Adam and Skip. In the first season, she would do the luring herself. In the second and third seasons, she has an assistant do the lure due to her becoming more recognizable as a result of her work with the show. Once the contractor is placed into position, Adam and Skip confront the contractor with the camera and sound crew, and questions him about what they know while the homeowner watches on monitors from another room. The contractor is ultimately given three options. The first is to return the money that the homeowner paid him, the second is to go back to the unfinished job and complete the work properly while Adam and Skip supervise. The third is to walk away and do nothing, in which case the homeowners would file a suit in civil court with the assistance of the show. In most cases, the contractor agrees to return to the homeowner's residence and fix the job. Once there, the homeowner can confront him about his shoddy work and the arguments often get heated. The homeowner is then led off the property and put up in a hotel for however long it takes to do the job, which is performed by Skip and his crew, with or without the cooperation from the contractor. Once the job is done, the homeowner returns home to see the finished product, and the episode closes with one final confrontation where the contractor has an opportunity to apologize for his actions, regardless of whether or not he is sincere, or whether or not the homeowner accepts it.
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