HGTV Finds Family Touch

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 12/12/2011 12:01:00 AM

Call it HGTV’s version of All in the Family.

The Scripps Networks Interactive service is finding Nielsen success with series centering on family members working together on home construction or design businesses.

Consider: Property Brothers, in which the Scotts, real- estate agent Drew and contractor Jonathan, execute property search-and-rescue missions for potential home buyers; Selling New York/The Kleirs, where a family of agents push high-end Manhattan real estate; Home by Novogratz, in which a husband and wife juggle their design business while raising seven boisterous kids; and Decorating Dallas, where Donna Moss and daughters Ashley and Tiffany instill high-end styles to mansions and lavish homes in Big D.

“We’re presenting expert information from families who live together and work on real-life business,” HGTV senior vice president and general manager Kathleen Finch said. “These are generational businesses from Main Street, not corporate America. It’s people taking pride in their work.”

In many ways, these shows reflect the American dream of owning your own business. “They have fantasy, aspirational aspects,” Finch said. That doesn’t mean everything is always hunky-dory. “It’s the real-life of people working together, so there are disagreements and that comes across on the screen.”

In Junk Gypsies, Texas sisters and designers Amie Sikes and Jolie Sikes-Smith seek roadside treasures that fit their rebellious design approach. “The sisters teach one another, but they also bicker pleasantly,” Finch said. More than 1.1 million viewers tuned in for the sneak peek on Nov. 27; Junk Gypies is scheduled to assume its regular time slot in March.

On Kitchen Cousins, first cousins John Colaneri and Anthony Carrino work on a family-run, New Jerseybased construction firm that renovates and transforms troubled kitchens. “Guys are in awe of what they can do and women love the way they look,” reported Finch. The show, airing Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m., has scored a 29% rise over the prior-year timeslot among adults 25 to 54 and a 52% surge among women 18 to 49.

With My House, Your Money, tensions often run hot as adult children struggle to compromise about buying/ furnshing their first home, funded by their parents.

My House, Your Money’s Nov. 8 premiere at 8:30 p.m. notched a 32% gain among adults 25 to 54 over the prior- year period, and nearly 4 million viewers have tuned in since the debut, per HGTV.