Mild spoilers below for the Season 10 premiere of Home Town, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched on HGTV or via HBO Max subscription.
When it comes to HGTV’s lineup of home-renovation teams, I’m a total sucker for the Down South vibes on Home Town. Watching Ben and Erin Napier work their way through so many homes in Laurel, Mississippi has always been a joy, in large part because of how amicable and relatable the couple have remained for all these years, despite consistently heavy workloads and unfortunate issues like having to shoot down divorce rumors. They’re total all-stars even while facing their most challenging season to date.
The Napiers spoke with CinemaBlend ahead of Season 10’s premiere that aired January 4, featuring their troubled attempts to fix up a classic Laurel home belonging to their friends Geof and Chris. From needing to get the job legally approved by the Historic Preservation Commission to discovering massive amounts of unchecked water damage and beyond, the first project of the season turned into a lengthier effort than predicted, to the point where it couldn’t be limited to a single episode. As Erin put it when I asked:
This [premiere] episode does have a cliffhanger. The end of the episode is the halfway point.
Erin Napier
You’d think helping your friends out might result in a slightly less tumultuous task, but not in this case, as the Home Town team faced one unexpected issue after another within the otherwise gorgeous home. Anytime the word “foundation” comes up, you just know that means high stakes and brittle nerves.
As it happens, Geof and Chris’ house wasn’t exactly a standout anomaly for the Napiers, who unwittingly went on to tackle even more high-difficulty projects while filming the rest of the newest season. Both Ben and Erin spoke to the uptick in struggles, saying:
- BEN NAPIER: This season accidentally - not on purpose like, ‘Oh, this was planned,’ - it's the largest group of extremely difficult projects we've ever taken on.
- ERIN NAPIER: It really pushed our construction teams to their absolute limit.
So that should serve as a mild warning for anyone who watches Home Town specifically for low-stress home renovations and good vibes between the hosts. The good vibes are presumably still present, but there won't be much time for appearing calm and casual amidst all of the work needed.
Here's the kicker that totally blew my mind, though. When I talked to the Napiers about Season 10, it was around a month prior to the premiere episode hitting HGTV, and they technically hadn't wrapped yet. As Ben put it:
We are currently not [done]. We were supposed to have been finished two weeks ago.
Ben Napier
What the what?!? Considering so many unscripted TV shows (that aren't competition-based) have episodes locked down and finalized before they're set to hit the small screen, it honestly hadn't even occurred to me that a show like Home Town could legitimately still have crew members in post-production depths.
Not that the end of the road was still on the distant horizon or anything. It does appear as if they finished everything ahead of the holidays, at least hopefully. They continued:
- ERIN NAPIER: We're gonna reveal the last house tomorrow. We're so close.
- BEN NAPIER: Yeah, that house is still not ready. It's almost ready. It's basically ready.
There's no pressure like show business pressure, amirite? If Home Town's projects didn't test the mettle of its hosts and construction teams, then it might not have kept enough viewers tuning in to justify ten seasons of the mothership series, not to mention the various spinoffs that have aired, as well as the ones yet to come.
Speaking of, the Napiers are heading up one upcoming spinoff that unfortunately turned tragic, as the central establishment being fixed up for Home Town: Inn This Together was largely destroyed in a fire before the episodes could air. As well, announced back in August amid other HGTV renewals was another new spinoff that the Napiers won’t actually be hosting, Home Town Takeover Canada, though neither one of the new series has a premiere date set for the 2026 TV schedule just yet.
The newest season kicked off on January 4, and the premiere cliffhanger will get resolved when Episode 2 hits HGTV on Sunday, January 11, at 8:00 p.m. ET.
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