'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' executive producer Brady Connell calls building homes in 7 days a worthy purpose
'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' makes you want to become a better person and pushes one to embrace one's community, according to executive producer Brady Connell. Apart from good kitchen cabinet ideas, the HGTV show also gives people hope, inspiration and the faith that humanity still exists.
"I think it's universal and timeless. Our lives have more meaning when our communities come together... a show like 'Extreme Makeover' proves that to us. When we cry when that bus moves, sure it’s because we're happy for the family that deserves it, but I believe deep down it’s because a caring community came together to make it happen," he told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) in an email interview.
Building houses from the ground up, giving spaces a fresh spin and helping families move into their new homes might not be something we have not seen before. But getting all of that done in a matter of seven days is an idea the viewers would love to watch.
Most of the families on the show have dealt with a lot in the past. Be it emotional struggles or financial ones, they nearly gave up on the hope that they would get to live in a bigger space, free of infestation and plumbing issues, and that every member would get individual rooms so that they could sleep in peace.
It takes a lot of time to build a house from scratch or renovating it through and through. But on 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition', it takes only seven days. And that is what changes lives. Elaborating on this, Brady shared that part of the reason families react so strongly is because their lives are transformed in just a matter of days.
"Many of them look around to make sure the new house is actually on the same lot where the old house was because it is just unbelievable that something so extraordinary could have happened in such a short period of time. For some people it is beyond extreme — it's incomprehensible," Brady said and added that there are plenty of renovation shows but no one delivers under such tight deadline.
He feels content to have witnessed how scores of hard-working people come together for such a "worthy purpose." He calls them his family. "We cry together, we get sick together, we cheer together... it’s impossible to not feel extremely close – familial – with every person who works on the show," he said of his experience working on the show. Brady said that arriving at a small town and then blending with a larger community helps everyone grow.
Brady has been at the forefront of reality television for a long time now, which is why he understands the need to know the story structure and how chalking out all the plot points on the show would help film better and hence, craft a story better. Even though everything changes once the taping begins, still everyone on board is aware of the basic storyline, he added.
'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' airs on HGTV every Sunday.