Heavy/HGTV/YouTube Ben and Erin Napier
HGTV star Ben Napier is benched. Ben and his wife/”Home Town” co-host Erin Napier celebrated the return of their fan-favorite HGTV show on January 7, 2024. Earlier that day, People published an interview with the Napiers where Ben opened up about the hardest part of filming the new episodes, which took place while he was recovering from shoulder surgery in March 2023.
“I need to jump in and help, and it was hard to not do that,” Ben shared.
“It still worries me when he’s like, ‘No, I can do this,'” Erin added. “He’s still not supposed to lift really heavy things with his left arm. I get nervous.”
Erin went on to explain that Ben’s shoulder injury does not get brought up all season long, saying, “There’s only one episode where his shoulder is a part of the story. At the beginning, when he had the surgery, that was the episode we were working on and so after that it has to just not exist, ‘cause it gets a little redundant to have shoulder problems in every episode for a whole season.”
Ben Napier Makes Up Fake Stories About His Shoulder Injury
The January 7 “Home Town” episode, aptly titled “Left-Hand Man”, showed the Napiers bringing in reinforcements while Ben was sidelined with his injury. For demo day, the couple called upon their financial advisor, friend, and Erin’s cousin Jim Rasberry, who has been seen on the series before.
During the episode, Ben explained why he needed shoulder surgery, saying “I have a bone spur that finally tore something in my shoulder.” This wasn’t the only reason he shared, however, as he felt “it’s not a very good story,” so he spent the rest of the episode inventing fictitious reasons as to why he was injured.
The first fake reason shown was, “fighting a bull in Tijuana.” He also claimed to have injured himself while skateboarding, wrestling at a secret fight club in Peru, and fighting off a bear to protect his family while camping.
Later in the episode, the show included home video footage of Ben in the hospital on the day of his surgery. They also included a scene of Erin FaceTiming him from the worksite while he was home on bedrest. During the FaceTime, Erin told her husband that he looked “glazed over” from his painkillers and suggested he take a nap.
Ben Took His Sling Off Early for the Cameras
Ben came back to the worksite in the second half of the episode, sporting a black sling while his arm recovered. Erin shared, however, in a January 8 post, that he took it off a little earlier than the doctor ordered. “[Ben] still needed to be in his sling at the end but took it off to emphasize the ‘passage of time.’ 😄 He is fully recovered now, this was filmed almost a year ago!” Erin explained.
Erin shared some other fun facts from filming in her post, writing that “the son of the family who lived [in the house we renovated] before went to high school with me and was the mascot, and also Helen and Mae were at the reveal impatiently waiting for my parents to pick them up.”
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