Trading Private and Public Spaces @ HGTV and TLC: On New Genre Formations in Transformation TV

Abstract

This article considers the amazing commercial success of the HGTV cable TV network, its tremendous influence on shows produced for the Discovery network’s The Learning Channel (TLC), the Arts and Entertainment (A&E) network, Bravo and BBC America, and their collective contributions to reality TV’s new global programming gold rush. Of particular interest in this analysis are the innovative ways that the HGTV network and its progeny remake key elements of traditional women’s media genres, reconfigure audience participation, and recode familiar televisual structures and narratives featuring identity politics vis-à-vis race, class, gender and sexuality.