With Thursday’s debut of “House Hunters: Comedians on Couches,” HGTV is officially in the business of making fun of itself. In the quarantine-TV show, hosts Dan Levy (not the “Schitt’s Creek” one, the other one), Natasha Leggero, and a revolving door of their stand-up comedian friends watch-party a classic episode of “House Hunters” and then take turns taking the home buyers down a peg or two.
“We have been making fun of these shows for so long,” Levy, who has performed stage shows mocking random Zillow listings, told TheWrap.
So why not do it on HGTV?
Perhaps the better question, or at least one that we asked Levy, is why specifically throw your jabs at “House Hunters”?
“They’ve made over 1,000 episodes, so there’s so much there to do,” he responded. “It’s so universal, everyone has seen it, everyone has [been in the buyers’ shoes] — it’s the easiest show to attack.”
Plus, HGTV probably didn’t want Levy, Leggero and friends roasting the “Property Brothers.”
Levy, who says bringing his stage shows (and really, his text message chains) to cable was HGTV’s idea, has a pretty great logline for the network’s longest-running series.
“The perfect episode of ‘House Hunters’ is a show that is a beautiful woman and her husband that looks like a pineapple, and they are shopping for a house that is $5 and they need 300 bedrooms,” Levy said.
He added: “I feel like we’ve really found those [episodes].”
What wasn’t perfect about self-isolation spinoff “Comedians on Couches” was its original title, “House Hunters: LOL.” Yikes.
“That was not my idea,” Levy assured us. “Respect everyone at HGTV, but I said, ‘If you want to have funny comedians on this show, we will not be on a show called ‘House Hunters: LOL.’”
“It’s their first foray into comedy, so, you learn as you go,” he concluded.
Go along with Levy, Leggero and HGTV when the event kicks off on Thursday, June 11 at 10/9c. Guest comics over the run include Whitney Cummings, Eliot Glazer, John Mulaney, Chris Redd and J.B. Smoove.