Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 1 - January 23, 2026
Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 49 - May 18, 2026
There is a
commitment on my part to be sensitive to the feelings and reputations of
others. And with that is ebbing and flowing that goes with asking and
receiving. Viewers have invested time watching the shows, leading to questions I’m
left to answer. This post, and the others before it in this Response series, have
been attempts to bridge some gaps. I’m not quite finished, yet getting close to
the end of what I’m writing for a diverse group of others, but as I’ve
discovered, also myself.
Standard advice cautions people of following in the footsteps of giants. Although it can apply to women, I’ve most often heard other dudes warning, “You don’t want to be the guy to follow the guy,” But in 2026, I’ll add, “Unless your name is Ryan Seacrest,” who’s been modern-day iconic enough to fill the legendary shoes of Dick Clark, Casey Kasem, Regis Philbin, and now Pat Sajak on Wheel of Fortune.
On my
first day working with the production company out of Minneapolis, the showrunner
casually directed me to look into the camera and say, “My name is Trent, and
I’m addicted to rehab.”
In the
moment, my response had come naturally. I shook my head, like a pitcher wanting
a different sign from his catcher.
Was it
Midwestern values hovering over me?
Had my faith,
the Golden Rule,
been activated?
Was it
American ideals of right and wrong instilled by the Brady kids and Happy Days
gang?
It wasn’t
just that I saw that claim as belonging to Nicole Curtis. It was also how the showrunner
had reacted in this moment. It seemed insincere, disingenuous, as if she was
straight up lying to me, and because I was unfamiliar to television she treated
me as if I should swallow her excuse of ignorance.
But that
horse pill would not go down.
It seemed
in a flash as if she was part of something below board and involved with trying
to suck me into whatever was happening. And to me that was very uncool.
Starting
in 2011, when people told me my approach to my project houses reminded them of
Ms. Curtis, I started to get more familiar with the HGTV and DIY networks
blitzing viewers with her episodes. The lineups of both channels were full of
shows focused on remodeling properties and showcasing inspirational real
estate. Some programs were on either one network or the other, but a select
number, like Rehab Addict, were featured on both, sometimes even at the
same time.
Yard
Crashers was
another show that had been so popular that it earned time on each of the
Scripps’ home improvement channels. For a lot of folks, the original host Ahmed
Hassan was synonymous with this series. But starting in 2011, a new guy
named Matt Blashaw was leading the efforts in people’s backyards. The show
moniker and format stood, but save for repeat episodes, the old host had
seemingly disappeared.
Something
similar happened with ratings darling House Hunters. Suzanne Waing was
the beloved face on the much-appreciated series from 1999 until disappearing
from new airings in 2007. In 2013, Suzanne would pass on, so the replacement
might have been in response to her cancer battle. Still, in the wake of what
had happened with Hassan and Yard Crashers, and the lack of some type of
explanation, HGTV viewers were left to wonder why the longtime hostess had been
replaced with a collection of other talent.
Property
Virgins serves as
another example of a popular series with an established host where the show
continued to move ahead when the mainstay was swapped out. Sandra Rinomata was
virgin’s established guide into the sexy world of real estate from 2006-2012
until she was replaced by radio host RE agent Egypt Sherrod.
Yard
Crashers, House Hunters,
and Property Virgins were titles in plural, referencing more than one
crasher onto a property, a tiny troop of people hunting houses, or novices new
to the real estate market. To me, and I’d imagine more than a few
others, Nicole Curtis was the Rehab Addict. Singular. The one and only.
Considering
network commander Kathleen Finch, I couldn’t see myself directing the
showrunner to look into a camera and introduce herself before declaring she was
“the President of HGTV.” I wouldn’t have felt right doing that nor would I have
expected the young woman to be okay saying it.
If the
name of the show had been “Rehab Addicts,” I may have felt and reacted
differently. If Nicole Curtis had been in the mix and let me know my saying I
was addicted to rehab was alright by her, I think I would have taken a swing.
Or if they were going to veer in some fresh direction, with more than one host
on the show, then perhaps it would have unfolded into something productive.
The behavior
in that moment was a red flag that in some ways I was sorry to have spotted, at
least so early on. And once it had grabbed my attention, I was unable to unsee
it.
I am not
saying that things had been bumpy because I’d lost trust in the production
company after the way they’d put me on the spot, asking me to cross something
that I saw as a bright line. It factored in, but I put it out of my mind and
kept taking steps on the path being laid out. And yet it may actually have been
that things had been chaotic and disorganized due to the production company being
distracted by turmoil created by them losing their brightest star and her hit
program. Trying to get me to say I was addicted to rehab like Nicole Curtis hit
me as strange, and it was even odder, at least to me, when her and her show
names suddenly became taboo sixteen months after the executive producer had
bragged about her before sending me Rehab Addict DVDs to watch.
I don’t think anyone should replace Nicole Curtis as Rehab Addict, especially now, except maybe, Ryan Seacrest. But then that would derail the nickname I’ve given him, “The guy who can follow the guys,” in plural.
Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 51 - Coming Soon
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