There was a time, not so long ago, when HGTV wasn’t a cable juggernaut, when the Property Brothers, Erin and Ben Napier, and the whole city of Waco were but a glint in the Scripps Network’s eye. Though it officially launched in 1994, the network plodded along for years with shows like Curb Appeal, HGTV Star, and Design on a Dime, all punctuated with a seemingly unending loop of House Hunters episodes. In the early 2010s, though, the network launched a slate of combination real-estate/home-renovation shows, including Love It or List It, Property Brothers, and Flip or Flop, the success of which gave the network new momentum. Today, HGTV is the fourth-most-viewed cable network, reaching 94 million American households, plus countless waiting rooms, airport lounges, and nail salons. It’s the network that all of America seems to agree on, its programming so routine that it’s essentially pleasant white noise at this point.
Behind the scenes, though, that gentle monotony can be less than soothing. It’s certainly part of the reason Hilary Farr says she’s leaving Love It or List It after 19 years. “It was becoming boring,†she told Vulture, “and I don’t want to be bored.†Though fans will miss her clipped British accent and banter with chipper real-estate agent David Visentin, Farr had been with the show for 258 episodes — some of which haven’t even aired yet — an impressive and momentous run for any show, let alone one that hits the same beats over and over again.
Why are you leaving Love It or List It now, after all these years?Â
You know that saying, “If not now, when?†That’s truly it. I’ve been doing the show for years and I have loved doing it. But in the last season, which we did in Canada, it just felt too much like work. It felt very stale. It’s a very formulaic show.
You’ve done 250-plus episodes, and you’re right, they do all follow a similar format. I have to imagine that there are different challenges off-screen with materials and locations and homes, but even that has to get old after a while.
Off-screen, there are challenges, and that’s another part of all of this, because the pandemic played a huge part in my decision. The degree of difficulty has been huge. We were in the middle of filming Love It or List It in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I am right now, when suddenly the pandemic hit, and because I’m actually based in Canada, we were getting these alerts that said, “If you don’t come now, you may never be able to get back into the country.†Suddenly I was in Armageddon. Then, because we were trying to keep Love It or List It doing something for the network during the pandemic, we did some shooting in Toronto near the end of 2020. Then, in 2021, we went back to Raleigh to shoot, and I started to do my other show, Tough Love, in Philadelphia, and that went through the end of May 2021. I was bouncing back and forth, and in between that I couldn’t get to Canada because of the pandemic. It was an extraordinarily stressful time.
Then we decided to do the next, and my final, season of Love It or List It back in Toronto. Doing that and Tough Love back-to-back, I realized how much more meaningful the latter was to me because it was much more personal and driven by a true need. There was no competitiveness in it, there was no aggression or contentiousness, which is part of the formula of Love It or List It because it is a competition, ultimately. That kind of show doesn’t always bring the best out in people, just by virtue of what it is. I’ve always loved working with David and the actual work was great, but as you say, behind the scenes, the design, the difficulty, the supply-line issues, the delays … everybody was stressed, and it just felt different. It was taking up too much of my life and it was boring.
Love It or List It is one of the shows that helped make HGTV what it is today. How does it feel to be part of that legacy?Â
Honestly, it’s not part of my mind-set. It’s a by-product of it, but it doesn’t drive me and it doesn’t mean anything to me. I suppose I am happy to have contributed to the success of HGTV, though, because when we started in 2008 in Toronto and then the show was finally picked up in 2011 by Scripps Network, who owned HGTV at the time, they were on a slippery slope downward. They’ve acknowledged this; our show literally brought them back. I will tell you, though, that the only reason it took so long for them to pick up Love It or List It in the U.S. was because they were convinced that everybody would hate me because of my snippy accent and my semi-snippy personality. And then they finally went for it, and obviously it worked very well for everyone.
People like Hillary Clinton have come out as big fans of the show, and it’s syndicated in more than 15 countries. How does that level of recognition affect you? Are you swarmed every time you go to Norway?Â
I am still gobsmacked sometimes by the people who tell me that they are fans. They’re incredibly successful, high-profile, busy people, and yet they watch my show. That is gratifying and mystifying and extraordinary to me.
In terms of the exposure and the success globally, that elicits a combination of wonder and hilariousness. For instance, when I last went to Kenya, I went via Geneva and I was swarmed there. I went to St. Lucia for a vacation, and I was swarmed. I also just bought a little property in Italy, and everybody sees the show and knows us in Italy, too, but the funny thing about that is because I’m dubbed very well on their version, everybody assumes I speak Italian.
Because we were the very first combination design and real-estate show and because of the relationship between me and David, I think it has resonated so deeply with people. It’s crossed over to men, too, so it’s all people, no matter of gender, blue-collar, white-collar, ages … I meet young adults now who’ve been watching the show with their parents since day one when they were young kids. I once met a very, very high-powered lawyer who watches the show with his kids and he told me that it’s the only show that the kids are allowed to watch before they finish their homework because he thinks it teaches his children anger management.
You reportedly made this decision a year ago. What has it been like to sit with the secret, or has it not really been a secret at all?Â
It’s been perfectly fine. As far as I knew, it had been put to bed, but then the network came back, and they were lovely and flattering and friendly, and they made a very generous offer on all levels. It was very nice, and I had to think about it. But I still came to the same answer. I just can’t do it again. They’ve been very gracious, though, as has David.
Do you still want to do your other show, or is this a sort of easing into retirement?
I don’t think it’s a retirement at all. It’s simply an exodus from Love It or List It, which is a beast of a show to film. There are so many moving parts. It’s so consuming on all levels, and exhausting. I still want to do Tough Love, though, and I have all sorts of irons in the fire on other projects. I just need to do them on my terms.
You’re a designer, but you also did some acting early on in your career. How did doing a design show play into your particular set of skills?
Well, I will tell you, the show came along in 2008 when I was still in the middle of a divorce that was horrendous, and it was a godsend because it meant I could pay the lawyers and because it was a diversion, which I needed. I had no expectations that it was a show that would go on forever, or become what it did. At that time, though, I had my own design company, but I was also completely comfortable just being me regardless of the cameras because my background is theater. I was a little too theatrical for a camera then, though, so I had to learn to really dial it back a bit.
I also have a mind that is snippy and quick. We do not have a scripted show. It really pisses me off when people say, “Oh, it’s all scripted.†No, actually, it’s off the cuff. Being an actress, I understand timing, though, so I think that’s a skill set that made doing the show a degree easier for sure.
Much has been made about what home-renovation shows have done to the real-estate and design markets, whether it’s the rise of flipping culture or the ubiquitous “modern farmhouse†trend. Having been involved in renovation TV for over 15 years, what do you make of that?
I have always talked about the fact that you should never forget what a home truly is, which is four walls and a roof, but it’s also a safe place and a sanctuary. Ultimately, that is the bottom line. It should function for the people within it, and it should be harmonious. The design needs should follow that because if a house doesn’t function, that element can cause irritation within the inhabitants.
That being said, I think that home-renovation shows have created a desire to have everything (a) perfect, which doesn’t exist, and (b) on trend, which is a joke, in my opinion. To not have the wish to truly personalize it to who you are or who your family is? To be influenced by television shows, magazines, etc.? I think that’s been a disservice generally, because it’s caused discontent in people who have a perfectly nice, lovely, functioning, ordinary, slightly messy house. I really do.
I worry about people going away from their true selves to emulate something that they have seen. I’ve met people who have done a renovation and two years later, they decided to do it again. That sort of thing upsets me on the sustainability level, and it upsets me on the spending-of-money level. I don’t know what the solution is, though. I really don’t see any design ennui coming any time soon.