I'm beginning to get a bit irritated with both HGTV & Food Network. They both seem to be moving away from their "base". They need to remember that most of us are working class people, not the "high rent rich" folks. HGTV is moving away from us more so than Food Network though. I want shows I can relate to, rather than shows that either are in for a sale, or show me how to remodel spending as much money as many spend on the entire home. On HGTV, I want to see more like Room by Room, Decorating Cents, Design on a Dime, etc. Give me shows that teach me how to do more with little. More trash for treasure.

Same thing on Food Network. Teach me to prepare meals on less money, less time. Stop with the shows that are so focused on the "chef" and how "pretty" the food looks. LOL Stop with the dishes that requires ten thousand ingredients that I can't even find in my town.

Seriously, I'm sadly falling away from these two networks which were my two favorites by far. Is anyone else getting frustrated as I am?

I think the only shows HGTV has are shows about selling houses. Food Network chefs irritate me when they talk about buying seafood at the fish monger, meat at the butcher shop, etc. I live in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky where those shops aren't available - especially a fish monger!

I have to agree that I am watching less and less of these 2 channels. HGTV used to be on a lot in my house, but now, not so much. So many real estate shows! I used to enjoy House Hunters but now it seems they run it 4-5 times a night. There doesn't seem to be much variety in their programming anymore. All the shows use the same format/formula. Boring.

Same complaints about the Food Network during prime time. They tend to run multiple episodes of the same show all night long. And I am not a big fan of competitions which seem to be showing up more and more.

I would like to see more diverse programming on both HGTV and the Food Network.

Bingo! LOL
I'm with you. Rural Tennessee is where I am and the nearest town is not that big either.

I've seen many threads of people getting really tired of all the shows about selling houses on HGTV. I do like House Hunters, but geez, some moderation please? It's on all the time and what makes it worse is that 90% of them are reruns! And what's up with the Selling NY show? It's like they can't decide if they want to do a show focused on personalities of the realtors, showcase the million dollar condos, or have some kind of contest between real estate companies. These folks are waaaay too full of themselves too. LOL My hubby usually is good about watching HGTV with me, but he refuses to watch that show. He does however, still like Food Network most of the time.

Yes, yes, yes!!! My mom and I were talking about this over the weekend. That "Selling New York" show was on, and I had to come out of the bathroom to verify that they had just said that rent was $23,000 per month. Twenty-three thousand per month!!! How is that relatable in any way? Actually, when I heard that rental amount, I just felt ticked off. I think that I find the Selling NY show to be offensive. We're in a frickin' recession, for crying out loud. Twenty-three thousand a month. Ridiculous.

And I'm sick of all the House Hunter shows. Ugh. I feel like it's on all the time, both the domestic and the international versions.

I like the design shows, but I feel like they are few and far between these days. I miss Sensible Chic, Design on a Dime, Curb Appeal, and Design Remix. Maybe those shows are still on, but if they are, they come on during the weekday, during "working hours." They aren't available for my viewing.

I watch Food Network more than HGTV and really like some of the new cooking shows like Sandra's Money Saving Meals, 5 Ingredient Fix with Clarie Robinson, and $10.00 a Day (Food Network Star winner from last year, Melissa, is the host).

I rarely watch the Food network. The contests do nothing for me. I'm watching the Cooking channel more. It's what the Food Network used to be.
Selling New York, I love that show. Getting a glimpse into the homes of the wealthy fascinates me. I'm tired of the reruns tho'.

Haven't watched much of anything on either channel in ages... although the hubby will watch "Diners Drive-ins and Dives" 'cause he likes diners. But we used to watch HGTV a LOT; but it's just dullsville lately. And the Food Network? Alton Brown's fun (although we watched one on pizza the other night, and my son commented, "Heck, by the time you make the dough and let it rise ten hours and all, a person could starve to death!"). And his French toast? Yeah, right. I can have delicious French toast on the table in ten minutes, not overnight!

They just don't seem to focus anymore on the blue-collar people who do their own home renovations and home cooking because that's what they can afford.

I really wish the Food Network would do a show for diabetics. You know, recipes that diabetics could actually eat that was within their carb range.

So do I Sandi! My husband is diabetic and it can be really hard to cook for him.

Food Network is focusing way too much on competition type shows nowadays. I do still watch The Next Food Network Star, but never watch any of the others.

I guess our favorite still on that network is Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Mainly because as mentioned before, it focuses on blue-collared places that average folks would love to try out.

I wish I had a cooking channel to watch make up for the rubbish that I am stuck with (no I don't have Pay TV/Cable) oh well more time to read and garden.

I have to agree with you about FoodNetwork I loved watching , but then they went and glammed it up, Claire no longer wears her wedding ring, no longer talks about her husband on air and wears to much freaking makeup and her hair is all over her face and almost hanging in the food when she leans over.


I stopped watching it almost 24/7 after the whole New Year's eve pulling of both channels from Cablevision because I felt that they screwed the loyal viewers more than Cablevision.

As for HGTV, most of the design shows are repeats with and shows from the DIY network, they have jumped the shark with Selling NY because yep most of the people that watch that channel will not be in the market for a 18 million penthouse in NYC, so why they show these shows boggles my mind.


I do like the Rent Show and Remodeling Disasters, and the show with the bald guy who takes the sellers around to two other houses one that sold and one that is still on the market and try to get them to price their home at a price where they can sell it in that area.

I totally agree! I was just thinking about this recently, especially HGTV. Decorating Cents was my favorite show....I watched it for years, now it's nowhere to be found. You can still catch Design on a Dime now and then. I am not interested in House Hunters International - when am I ever going to be buying a house in Europe or the Caribbean or even better - TURKEY????
I do like the show For Rent (which is Canadian) because they take crummy apartments and fix them up for less than $1,000!
HGTV needs to get back to its roots and stop being a voice for the rich and famous!
Same for Food Network. I want real meals, please! Even Rachael Ray is getting outrageous. I don't buy imported cheeses, or all the stuff she cooks with now. She used to make easy meals in 30 minutes - now it's like the mini-gourmet. I do't evenlike to watch her program anymore.

I don't want to watch cooking for less- I just want good recipes and cooking advice. Today I watched Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and she showed how to make a whole baked fish, how to see if the fish was fresh and then how to make banana flambe. I hate fish and banana flambe does not interest me but I loved watching how it was done!


HGTV- I loved Room by Room cause they did things I could understand on houses that were kind of like mine. When designers go into these big mansions- well, those people pay designers. we are looking how to do it ourselves. I hardly watch HGTV anymore. I hate the selling shows but someone must like them.

We don't get cooking channel yet.

I don't watch the cooking shows as I do not like to cook. That said, I was always a big fan of HGTV. My favorite show was Designed to Sell. When I got ready to sell my house three years ago I used many ideas from watching the shows. I had a contract on my house in five days.

But now, the shows are about people spending $70 thousand dollars to remodel their kitchen and will they get more bang for their buck. Or something like that. And the NYC show is just plain awful.

I agree they need to get their head out of the clouds and come down to more realistic shows for ordinary, working people.

Reading all these posts made me remember something I had read awhile back about HGTV. Someone had said that they believed HGTV should take a lot of the blame for the housing crisis. They said that people watch these high priced homes being bought up by people, so they also believed they could do it. They believed it caused too many people to purchase way over their budget and then pretty soon lost the homes when they couldn't pay the mortgages. I know many times my husband will watch House Hunters and say that young couple can't afford that house.

Interesting food for thought anyway.

Food Network lost me a long time ago. While I love to cook and bake, the vast majority of the dishes are just not something we'd even eat. Neither I nor anyone I know entertains the way they show on many of the programs and I wish Giada diLaurentis (sp?) would stop grinning so much - all those teeth are distracting! I love their website however, and I always check it out when I'm looking online for a recipe. (Try Paula Dean's Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars!)

HGTV has way too many re-runs and show the same episodes repeatedly. My favorite shows are Candace Olsen and Color Splash. I usually have HGTV on while I'm working in the kitchen - as long as I haven't already seen that episode 16 times!

That's very interesting. I can't count the number of times I've watched "House Hunters" and the real estate agent shows the couple a house that is over their stated budget. It probably happens in every episode
Why can't they adhere to their price range, instead of always going over?

Also, I could scream every time I hear one of the house hunters complain about there not being any stainless steel appliances, or the house "needs work" (when it looks perfectly fine to me). Or, if they're in an older house and they complain that the charming aspects of the house need to be "modernized". GRRrrr...

I agree with vol fan about House Hunters. So unreasonable some of those house purchases are/were. If they're going to show reruns all the time, and reruns from a few years back too, I think they should do an update on the couple/family that bought the house. Bet most of those people either resold as soon as they realized they couldn't afford it or they're in foreclosure.

Since I'm on a roll with House Hunters, if it wasn't a couple buying a house out of their league then it was a couple that bought a fixer upper and put another $75,000+ into renovations! Those episodes always got me! Really?! Who has that kind of money laying around for a renovation?

Income Property on HGTV is another one where they sink loads of cash into a rental renovation and I can just never fathom where they come up with the money.