Heavy/Getty HGTV personality Nicole Curtis
When it comes to restoring old homes, Nicole Curtis believes in quality over quantity, sometimes spending years fixing up one old home to return it to its original glory. That’s why, she says, she’s not regularly on HGTV anymore, and has said she needs fans’ help convincing HGTV to keep her on the air.
The “Rehab Addict” host recently tried to assure fans via social media that she hasn’t “vanished into thin air from HGTV,” but that her strategy of working for a long time on one project doesn’t fit the mold of most HGTV shows. In the process, she threw a bit of shade at all the shows that do produce multiple home transformations in a season.
“We do one MAJOR restoration every few years compared to others who do a season on 8+ homes,” she wrote in her Instagram Stories on March 22, 2023.
“If only I picked the easy houses, flipping houses like pancakes – I’d give you a million episodes,” she continued. “But, I like the challenge of the houses no one else wants & I think they like me.”
Nicole Curtis Has Not Appeared Consistently on HGTV Since 2018
Curtis’ popular home restoration show, “Rehab Addict,” aired for a decade on the DIY Network and then HGTV until the fall of 2018, when she went on a two-year hiatus. According to People Magazine, she wanted to focus on parenting her youngest son, Harper, after she reached a 50/50 custody agreement with her ex, Shane Maguire, in October 2018 after a years-long custody battle.
Curtis returned to HGTV in January 2021 with the premiere of “Rehab Addict Rescue,” which featured eight one-hour episodes in which she helped clients whose home restoration projects had grown too overwhelming. After the first show aired, HGTV issued a press release calling it a “ratings winner right out of the gate.”
The show wrapped up in March 2021 and fans eagerly waited for news of a second season, but that never came. The following year, HGTV announced that Curtis would, instead, star in a series devoted to renovating one home — a 1904 house she bought in her hometown of Lake Orion, Michigan.
“Rehab Addict Rescue Lake House” was scheduled to premiere on July 13, 2022 — nearly a year and a half after her previous series aired. But on the day it was due to debut, Curtis abruptly announced on Instagram that the show wouldn’t premiere that night, after all, writing that she’d been pushed to the brink mentally and physically. She then took a rejuvenating trip to Paris, which she chronicled on social media.
In late July, she wrote in her Instagram Stories that “due to health issues, physical (not mental), I could not be on a job site for my usual 16-22 hours” to finish the new show, promising viewers that it would debut as soon as she could get it ready.
In the following weeks, fans frequently asked on social media when the “Lake House” show would air and whether her other series, “Rehab Addict Rescue,” would ever return. Curtis addressed their questions on August 22.
“So, I ditched the #rehabaddictrescue,” she revealed in her Instagram Stories. “While it was fun and rated great…I kept thinking why I am putting energy into houses that aren’t mine.”
Nicole Curtis Wants Fans to Contact HGTV About Putting Her Back On the Air
Meanwhile, after several delays, “Rehab Addict Lake House Rescue” eventually aired in November 2022, but as a three-part series, which was shorter than originally planned, according to Curtis. Similar spinoffs on HGTV — like Good Bones: Risky Business and Home Town Takeover — frequently consist of six episodes.
On November 17, the day that the third and final episode aired, Curtis fielded questions in her Instagram Stories and on a post about the show. Many fans said the series was too short and wondered why it wasn’t longer.
Curtis responded, “I have footage stacked ten stories high @hgtv needs to hear from you all.”
In a video she posted in her Stories that night, she said, “We need your support. I think HGTV needs to hear from you guys that you still want to see real, true, historic preservation. Our projects take a lot of time because we put a lot of detail into them and I’m on site. It’s not like I walk in and get on camera, then step back out. I’m on site every single day that we are under construction. You know, it’s my real occupation. We actually do the construction.”
At the time, she said she and her team were working on houses in Michigan and Wyoming, which they were filming themselves.
HGTV has not announced any other plans for shows featuring Curtis, but in January 2023, she responded to a fan on Instagram by saying “we are in talks about where the show is going next.”
“Rehab Addict Lake House Rescue” is available to stream on Discovery+.