House Hunters International
| House Hunters | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Reality |
| Narrated by |
Suzanne Whang (1999–2007) Colette Whitaker (2008–2009) Andromeda Dunker (2009–present) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 126 |
| No. of episodes | 1,772+ |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | HGTV |
| Original release | October 7, 1999 – present |
House Hunters is an American reality television series that airs on HGTV, and is produced by Pie Town Production.
House Hunters follows individuals, couples, or families searching for a new home, with the assistance of a real estate agent. In each episode, the buyers must decide among three properties, ultimately choosing one before the end of the episode. The show concludes by revisiting the buyers in their new home a few weeks or months later, where they describe the changes they've made and the effect the new home has on their life.
Although the TV format is that of a reality show, producers usually recruit buyers who are already in escrow with one of the houses that is featured in the episode. One participant in the show stated, "The show is not really a reality show. You have to already own the house that gets picked at the end of the show. But the other houses in the show are actually the other houses we considered buying." The network director of the show at the time, Brian Balthazar, acknowledged that production required some advance knowledge of the purchased home.
In response to questions about the show's truthfulness, the show's publicist said,
In early seasons of the series, prices and locations were never mentioned. The viewing audience is now privy to where each property is located along with the amount being asked and paid for each property.
The series was originally hosted on-screen and narrated by Suzanne Whang. In 2008, the show was narrated by Colette Whitaker. The current narrator, Andromeda Dunker, began voicing the show in 2009, but does not appear on screen.
A 2016 Washington Post article said that the "milquetoast" and "proudly formulaic" series was "one of the most unlikely and unstoppable juggernauts on TV," consistently attracting 25 million viewers per month, nearly all through household television.
The show's 26 first-year episodes (1999) grew to 447 new episodes in 2015, with the number of new episodes tripling between the 2005 peak of the real estate bubble and the 2009 end of the Great Recession. As of 2016, fifteen camera crews were recording new U.S. episodes at any given time, with another 25 teams of directors, camera chiefs, sound technicians and local fixers producing House Hunters International episodes.
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Wikipedia