HGTV ratings will likely hit the roof as the home improvement network breaks ground on its latest offering — a gay version of its hit show “Property Brothers,” featuring an explosion of six pack abs courtesy of its hosts, a married same-sex couple from Tennessee.
The network recently aired a pilot for “Down to the Studs,” starring husbands PJ and Thomas, who refer to themselves as the “Property Lovers.”
Thomas is the designer and PJ is a realtor. Together the couple — along with their neighbor and Thomas’ sister — find and then flip houses in their hometown of Chattanooga.
The network used the June 24th episode as a test run. It’s unclear whether the show will get picked up. In the meantime, PJ and Thomas have been building up buzz on their Instagram account with a flurry of half-naked pictures along with the hashtag: #HGTVDowntotheStuds.
The couple told a local TV station that they had “a production company contact us because of a social media account that Thomas and I started. The account at the time was called the ‘Property Lovers,’ and we had a pretty big following on that so it kind of just developed from that.”
The news hit the gay blogosphere like thunder on a hot Tennessee summer day.
“This gay couple is hoping to take HGTV by storm,” proclaimed Queerty in its headline. While the Gaily Grind went with: “HGTV’s Newest Hosts Are An Adorable Married Gay Couple.”
The network, which has a large gay audience, has been under fire recently after Chip and Joanna Gaines, stars of HGTV’s hit show “Fixer Upper” made headlines last year for their association with a Texas church whose pastor had advocated converting LGBT people into being straight. In 2014 HGTV was forced to cancel “Flip It Forward,” a show starring twins David and Jason Benham, after the brothers told a right-wing site that “homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation.”
You can watch a Q&A with the couple below: