Flip or Flop fans have cause to rejoice. According to Variety, the series hosts Christina and Tarek El Moussa, who are in the process of divorcing, will indeed return for the seventh season of HGTV’s hit show. Flip or Flop has proved to be one of HGTV’s most successful shows, attracting over 17 million viewers for the sixth season.
The show’s fate has been uncertain after it was reported last year that the El Moussa’s were separated, and in January filed for divorce. Christina and Tarek have been married since 2009 and have two children together. In 2014, the couple had to take a year off due to Tarek discovering he had thyroid cancer, thanks to a viewer making a suggestion he check out a mass on his neck.
Christina El Moussa said in a statement today:
Tarek and I have been working together for a long time and we look forward to continuing to work together on ‘Flip or Flop’.
Tarek El Moussa also made the following comment:
From the beginning, HGTV has shown Christina and me tremendous support and we are excited to go out there and flip many more houses for ‘Flip or Flop’.
First airing in 2013, Flip or Flop focuses on ‘The El Moussa Group’, which is based in Orange County, California, an area with one of the largest foreclosure rates in the country. There have been six season, with a total of 86 episodes. The series has also brought about the spin-off series Flip or Flop: Follow-Up, which checks back in on the family living in the renovated property.
With the announcement of their divorce last year, HGTV has been planning for the end of the El Moussa era by making Flip or Flop a franchise. Flip or Flop Vegas premiered a few weeks ago, and Flip or Flop Atlanta will premiere this summer. Flip or Flop Nashville, Flip or Flop Texas, and Flip or Flop Chicago will premiere next year.
HGTV has gotten into a habit of hiring couples to host their shows, given the success they’ve had with their shows featuring married couples. Starting with Flip or Flop, as well as Fixer Upper with Chip and Joana Gaines in Texas, both premiering in 2013, and more recently, they premiered Home Town starring Ben and Erin Napier in Mississippi, it is more common to see couples hosting their series. All the new Flip or Flop shows will also feature couples.
HGTV is known for capitalizing on the escapism that their house buying, selling, and renovating programs offer to audiences. According to an article in Bloomberg, as of 2016, HGTV is responsible for creating 900 hours of original programming a year, all on a $400 million budget. In comparison to others, last year Netflix spent at least $500 million on 600 hours of original content. Admittedly, HGTV’s reality television shows does not require as much production work as narrative television series, but they are able to give their viewers the content they want, and a great quantity of it.
Stay tuned for more details about season 7 of Flip or Flop, as well as the various spin-off Flip or Flop series set to premiere in the next year.