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The Property Brothers is a Canadian reality television series that follows identical twin brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott. Drew is a real estate expert and finds homes to renovate, while Jonathon is a contractor who does the renovations.
For years now, however, fans have questioned the validity of the show. Is it real? Fake?
Here’s what we know.
As a 2018 New York Times article points out, many aspects of the show are not as they appear. The article starts with a quote from the producer saying, “Let’s do it one more time,” and chronicles Mr. Scott walking into the bathroom multiple times, acting surprised.
It’s moments like this that lead fans to question why there is so much acting involved in a supposed ‘reality’ show.
As another Reddit thread (obtained by Total Morgate) points out, many of the show’s potential clients have already “zeroed in on a house.”
The outlet also notes that the casting call for the show requires candidates “be outgoing, energetic, opinionated and fun”, meaning there is some level of cultivating the people who appear on the show. They call it “a little fake.”
This isn’t the first time that HGTV shows have found themselves at the center of scrutiny. House Hunters, for example, was accused of being fake in a 2012 blog written by a family featured on the show. They wrote that their blog post, “They didn’t even ‘accept’ us being a subject for the show until we closed on the house we were buying. So then when they decided to film our episode we had to scramble to find houses to tour and pretend we were considering.” They continued, “The ones we looked at weren’t even for sale…they were just our two friends’ houses who were nice enough to madly clean for days in preparation for the cameras!”
Regardless of whether or not some acting goes into the series– and, understandably– most reality series involve at least some recreating– all proceeds from the show go to charities like Habitat for Humanity.
Property Brothers airs at 9pm ET/PT on HGTV. The show is currently in its 14th season.