Hi. I'm Paul Nixon, a designer living in Mountain View California. My days (and some nights) are spent designing websites for a little company in Cupertino. The rest of my time is spent with my beautiful wife and friends, road cycing and reading your blogs.

Extremely Good

Tuesday, November 9, 2004 01: 15 PM

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on ABC has Rebecca and I hooked. We've seen just about every episode since the show started.

Looking at it from a "recipe for success" stand point it has become a television anomaly where EVERYONE wins:

  • Audiences get a creative, entertaining and unsually fulfilling hour of television.

  • Home owners on the show get a new, often life changing home.
  • The hosts and crew get the opportunity to help change people's lives and the good will that comes from that.

  • And last, but not least, sponsors and advertisers are strongly and openly featured in product placements and commercials where their goods and services are shown doing some good.

  • Finally, the show is a ratings success


The question then is why isn't there more reality television like this? (Or is there and we're simply missing it?) I have no interest in "makeover" shows for the sake of making people more beautiful (though some people are truly helped in those shows) - but what about "makeover" shows for people's lives, businesses and problems - shows like this that help give them a fresh start.

It seems the model could be transposed onto a series of shows where all this studio and advertiser money could go to actually doing some good - sort of like "Pimp My Ride" but for people who actually need a decent car, not some 18 year old college student who bought a $200 junker just to send the video into MTV...