Viewers receive an inside glimpse at the lives of regular individuals who soon become just as famous as A-list celebrities on reality television, which has become a national obsession in the United States. The shows are (allegedly) unscripted, so anything might happen at any time for drama that makes for great television. As actual individuals who make errors like the rest of us, network producers also take a risk by putting these folks on-air. Without conducting adequate background checks, things may quickly get extremely ugly. (Consider homophobic insults, anti-Islamic epithets, and cancelled TV programmes.) The HGTV network was shaken by the following scandals.
Fixer Upper, a TV show created by Chip and Joanna Gaines, centres on the historic houses that Magnolia Homes in Waco, Texas, is restoring. Many of the properties they work on date back to before 1978, when lead-based paint was outlawed for use on residential buildings, and some are more than 40 years old.
Following the broadcast of a few episodes that raised concerns about whether the Gaines were properly disposing of the hazardous paint, the Environmental Protection Agency looked into Magnolia Homes’ handling of lead-based paint. 33 properties that Magnolia Homes worked on were determined to be in violation by the EPA. The pair is resolving the matter by paying a $40,000 fine and finishing $160,000 of lead abatement work.
“Classic Fourth of July Table Setting Ideas” was a special feature that HGTV aired in the summer of 2013. When they decided it would be a good idea to utilise an actual American flag as a tablecloth in the show, they made a very significant mistake.
The fact that the flag was selected “so spills can be easily wiped off and the flag can later be displayed with pride on a flagpole” only served to add salt to injury. This obviously outraged a lot of viewers, who criticised the show online. After that, HGTV issued a formal apology for improperly exploiting the flag.