'House Hunters: Comedians on Couches': Fans brand show as 'obnoxious, claim it promotes 'bullying'
Last week, HGTV aired the first episode of the special 'House Hunters: Comedians on Couches'. The show sees comedians Dan Levy and Natasha Leggero invite their comedian friends for a virtual watch party. The twist in this special based on the series that everyone loves making fun of is that it allows comedians to deliver unfiltered, no-holds-barred color commentary on classic episodes of the phenomenally long-running series. Whitney Cummings, Eliot Glazer, John Mulaney, JB Smoove, Chris Redd appear alongside Levy and Leggero.
The special was scheduled to air between June 2-5, with two back-to-back episodes per day. However, a change in programming led to the first two episodes been aired last week and the remaining six episodes (2 per day) were scheduled for airing between June 16-18. Tuesday night's episodes saw Whitney Cummings and JB Smoove joining Levy and Leggero and some fans are loving the show and relating to the commentary provided by the comedians. However, there's a certain section of the audience that believes that the show is outright obnoxious and promotes bullying.
Cummings featured in the first episode on Tuesday night, joining the duo to watch the episode 'Party Central in Waco'. It saw two friends looking for a house but only one out of them was about to pay for it and the comedians were seen fixating on it a lot. They also made fun of them for wanting a house with a space to entertain saying none of the people on the show look like they could have any friends but still speak about entertaining guests.
The second episode featured JB Smoove joining Levy and Leggero to watch the episode titled 'Cats First, Wife Second in NJ'. It featured a Jersey couple wanting to move out of their small rented apartment and were looking to purchase their first house. Both of them wanted different things from the house - the wife wanted a fixer-upper and a turnkey was what the husband was looking for. He also wanted a cat-tube that connected the house to the garage where he planned to spend most of his time working. The comedians made a lot of comments on the couple's relationship, including, "it'd be interesting to see which one of them gets the cats after they divorce in 25 minutes" and "they are not on the same page in anything in life".
The popularity of 'House Hunters' is inexplicable and it was natural that people would tune in to the special 'Comedians on Couches' too. However, fans do not seem to be in love with it and are finding it problematic instead.
"@hgtv I am your biggest fan but #comediansoncouches IS. NOT. IT. The concept was great, but the execution is a team of bullies tearing apart some honest lifestyles... Please just stop," read one comment.
While another wrote, "@hgtv your house hunters comedians on couches SUCKS. knock it off. Can't stand to watch unfunny a******s," wrote another. Another viewer wrote,"HGTV hit a new low in stupid, inane programming with Comedians on Couches. Must not be able to create anything new so they pull this out of their backsides. My wife and I watched our first AND LAST episode of this obnoxious, condescending blather. Please get your act together."
"@hgtv From a TRUE BLUE LOYAL FAN and said lovingly, please kill the #comediansoncouches version of #househunters I was 100% sold on the concept but it’s not good! It’s awkward, snarky, and just mean," wrote another. "@HouseHuntersTV the hate on HH Comedians on couches is very disappointing. If Hgtv is headed in this direction I am not interested," read another comment.