The 'Flip Or Flop' Couple Getting Divorced But Wanting To Continue Doing The Show Is A Tremendous Idea
TMZ – Tarek El Moussa has filed for divorce from wife Christina, but we’re told they are resolved to continue their show, “Flip or Flop.”
According to the divorce docs, obtained by TMZ, Tarek cites irreconcilable differences as the reason for ending his 8-year marriage.
He’s asking for joint custody of their 2 kids. But this is interesting … he wants her to pay him spousal support but wants the judge to block any move she makes to collect it from him.
A source close to the couple tells TMZ, “It’s civilized, or as best it can be under the circumstances. They have to make it work if they want to continue monetizing what they do.”
Talk about must see TV as far as loosely-based-in-reality shows about flipping houses go. As someone trapped in New York City unable to buy property anywhere I want to live, I get a lot of joy out of watching/hate-watching these HGTV shows with people trying to get their dream houses across the country. But on a lot of these shows there’s just as much enjoyment to be found from how the hosts seem to low key hate each other after god knows how many years working through contrived situations on camera. And with this show, now you know that every cross eye, every biting remark said through a smile, every awkward moment you see on this show is driven by their real-life divorce and the fact that they’re both trapped doing this show together. You get people tuning in for the house flipping, you get people tuning in to watch two people testing the brinks of sanity thinking it’s a good idea to spend 18-hour shoot days with a person taking them to the cleaners in a divorce, or passive aggressive remarks about how Christina is already fucking another dude. This is like the glory days of The Real World when reality shows were actual social experiments, a 50% chance of ending up like OJ’s divorces but a 100% chance of entertainment.
Also if we’re ranking HGTV shows since who knows when this’ll be a topic to discuss again:
1) House Hunters – Lets you see the country and some of the loathsome people therein (a 23-year-old West Virginia couple looking for ‘a home they could grow into, four bedrooms, a pool, and at least five acres’ with a $175,000 budget sticks with me like a PTSD sufferer), great discussion fodder to decide which house you’d pick when watching with someone else, and it’s the shortest show. Variety and no recurring hosts make it a strong pick to tune in and out of, even if it is fake as shit.
2) Property Brothers – You get the moment every episode where they show a couple a wayyy nicer house than they can afford to illustrate the point that they need to renovate a shittier house instead to stay in the budget, twin brothers being kinda charming but also mockably corny at times, and couples who either seem to hate each other or are focused on hamming it up for the cameras that it’s a perfect hate watch. And one of the brothers can dunk, that’s enough to solidify the #2 slot for me:
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3) Love It Or List It – A bitchy British lady and a possibly gay bald man who seem to hate each other or want to hate fuck each other make a couple choose between ditching their current house with a renovation or moving to a newer nicer house. The bonus of the British lady often doing a ton of work fixing up a house and taking all their annoying changes and criticism only for the couple to be like “Yeahhh fuck this shit, we want out” at the end adds a fun wrinkle but mostly the forced banter between the two and the couples puts it over the top.
4) Flea Market Flip – I watched this one hungover on a Sunday at some point and couldn’t have enjoyed it more, people find shitty things at awful flea markets and then fix them up or reimagine them and then resell the items usually at a hipster flea market in my neighborhood of Brooklyn. Plus bonus points for being a half-hour long like House Hunters. I fully understand how awful it sounds but it deserves a chance.
And I guess Flip or Flop could take the #5 spot with these new divorced-based wrinkles (sorry to sexy Nicole Curtis from Rehab Addict who has no problems popping a tit out on the internet). And there we have it, a robust and indisputable top five ranking of HGTV shows. Glad I could answer this question no one had.