HGTV Still Successful At 20

       Hollywood - The network relies heavily on shows featuring duos of "real people," knowledgeable in real estate.  The so-called property brothers, identical Canadian twins Drew and Jonathan Scott, have three shows with a fourth on the way and have become the de-facto faces of HGTV.  Tarek and Christina El Moussa are featured on "Flip or Flop."  And, Chip and Joanna Gaines are the husband-and-wife team on "Fixer Upper."  For many fans the relationships are as funny as the real estate they are viewing. 
     HGTV launched December 1994 as a TV equivalent of niche lifestyle magazines like Better Homes and Gardens.  It was initially a tough sell with cable operators, who questioned whether the public would be interested in watching 24 hours of  "paint drying and grass growing," as one HGTV executive joked at the time.  But, by 1999 HGTV was reaching 57 million homes and turning a profit, after only three years of broadcasting on cable television.  HGTV has built a lineup full of quiet consistent performers - most notably the 15-year old House Hunters franchise.  The network's pleasantly formulaic programming, which includes "Property Brothers," "Flip or Flop," and "Fixer Upper," offers ever-so-slight variations on the same theme:  people buying, renovating, and selling property.  For many fans the relationships between the duo-hosts are as intriguing and funny as the properties. 
     The launch of "House Hunters" in 1999 marked a pivotal moment in the network's evolution.  In 2006, "House Hunters International" was added to HGTV's lineup and quickly became as popular as the original show, spawning yet more spinoffs (shows revolved from a similar previous show):  "House Hunters Renovation," "House Hunters on Vacation," and "House Hunters:  Where Are They Now?"  The L.A.Times says, some 2000 episodes of "House Hunters" and its various incarnations have been made by Pie Town (the production company co-founded by Jennifer Davidson) and other independent production companies, using bare-bones crews and budgets that are on the lower side.  Jennifer Davidson along with Tara Sandler conceived "House Hunters," when they discovered a niche in the early days of reality television with such low-budget documentary series' as "A Baby Story" and "A Dating Story," for TLC.  The pair, also life partners, were inspired by their own stressful experience buying a home.  HGTV's tidy unwavering formula of programming is probably one of its greatest selling points.  Aside from a few small script changes, including adding the prices of the homes for sale and over the years shifting to bigger characters (more interesting hosts and guests), the programming has remained unchanged.  According to the television ratings company Nielsen, in June the typical week-end tune-in to HGTV was 25% longer than the cable average.  Unlike other cable channels that rely on a few breakout hits, HGTV built a lineup of shows with solid ratings.  Other reality networks have tried their own versions of real-property improvement programming.  "Flip That House" on TLC, "Flip This House" on A&E, and "Flipping Out" on Bravo.  All of these shows played up the idea that with a fresh coat of paint and some stainless steel appliances, practically any home could be re-sold for a profit.  Compared with these shows HGTV's programming is tame, soothing - even polite.  This relaxing escapist television viewing is heightened by the number of Canadian accents heard on several shows.  "We call it property porn, said Drew Scott of "Property Brothers."  That's what people want to see.  They'll never get enough of it."  See also, www.hgtv.com.