As with most of life’s defining moments, I remember exactly where I was the first time I saw HGTV.
It was in early spring of 1995, and I was at my soon-to-be husband’s apartment. He was eyeballs deep in tax forms (It was tax season and he was an accountant at the time) and I was channel-surfing, which was something I never did at my own apartment because I couldn’t afford cable.
I was working my way through the channel list, passing up hockey, ESPN, “Law and Order,” and then there it was, hiding among the higher channels: Home and Garden Television. If I remember correctly, the first show I watched was about gardening but the idea of one channel devoted exclusively to homes and decorating had me at hello.
Today, it’s hard to imagine life without “Fixer Upper,” “House Hunters,” and “Beachfront Bargain Hunt.” HGTV is a behemoth among cable networks, the third most-watched channel behind Fox News and ESPN. But 24 years ago the idea of watching someone tear down a house, let alone eavesdrop as couples duke it out over paint colors and light fixtures, was unfamiliar territory that, as it turned out, made for great television.
HGTV premiered in December of 1994 as the Home, Lawn and Garden Channel. Launched on a (relative) shoestring budget, HGTV purchased a small video production company in Knoxville, Tenn., and over the years added 30 more independent production companies to keep pace with its growing slate of original programming. A Canadian version launched in 1997, bringing some of our northern neighbor’s most popular shows (“Divine Design with Candace Olson,” “Love It or List It” and “Property Brothers”) to the United States.
While Chip and Joanna Gaines rule the HGTV roost today, who can forget the network’s first design stars:
Matt Fox and Shari Hiller, the hosts of HGTV’s first show, “Room by Room,” whose easy DIY projects and kitschy theme ideas fit their one-room re-dos;
Joan Steffend of “Designing Cents,” who enjoyed a whopping $500 budget for her DIY rooms;
Michael Payne, a licensed interior designer and amateur mediator of couples’ decorating disagreements on “Designing for the Sexes”;
Carol Duvall, host of the network’s first arts and crafts show (which still airs on DIY Network);
Kitty Bartholomew of “You’re Home,” the first well-known designer to host a television show.
And who can forget Chris Harrison, the host of “Designers Challenge” — three designers, one room, the client picks the winning design — who moved from HGTV to a little show on ABC called “The Bachelor.”
With a reach of more than 94 million US households, HGTV shows no signs of slowing down. The network’s programming mix of house hunting, renovation before-and-afters, house-flipping, lottery dream homes, tiny houses, log cabins and DIY competitions like “Beach Flip” (weirdly, my son’s 7th grade baseball coach won that one) pioneered home and garden reality TV.
But that’s not all. There’s also an HGTV website, HGTV magazine, a home makeover sweepstakes and an annual contest to win the HGTV Dream House. There’s also been a bit of controversy over the years, most famously that “House Hunters” buyers have already made up their minds and only pretend to tour properties they’re never going to buy.
Those are just bumps in the road though, as HGTV is launching more than a dozen similar networks in other countries. As Joanna Gaines likes to say (and will soon be doing so in several different languages): “Welcome home.”