Drew and Jonathan Scott Talk Returning to Their Ranch Life Roots on HGTV’s ‘Chasing the West’ (Exclusive)

Drew and Jonathan Scott are saddling up and returning to their roots on their new HGTV show, Chasing the West.

Ahead of the new series’ July 30 premiere, the Property Brothers stars opened up to PopCulture.com about the “nostalgic” experience of returning to the ranch life of their childhoods while helping prospective home buyers decide if they’re truly ready to trade their city slicker ways for a life on the land.

Having grown up on both a farm in the Pacific Northwest and a family ranch in Alberta, Canada, Drew and Jonathan recalled developing a strong work ethic at a young age.

“With 160 acres, there’s always fences that need to be mended or painted, or animals that are sick, or something that’s happening,” Jonathan recalled. “You know, you learn about hard work and you get that work ethic young, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Looking back fondly on his bucolic childhood, Drew revealed that he and wife Linda Phan would “at some point” want to move out of the city with their two kids — son Parker and daughter Piper — and “be really in touch with nature.”

“Yeah, it would be special,” Jonathan agreed, joking that he often finds himself “doing the old, ‘I went uphill both ways to school’” routine with fiancée Zooey Deschanel’s two children. “But it was true,” he insisted. “I mean, we were on the ranch, and so even in the winter, when we would get snowed in … we would actually saddle up the horses in the winter and we would take them into town, in to [go] grocery shopping.”

It’s that kind of experience and expertise that Drew and Jonathan brought to their prospective home buyers, who may or may not have known about the realities of ranch life before they decided to leave the city behind.

“These families who have decided to leave the city, what a huge life change and a big decision that they’re making,” Jonathan told PopCulture. “So we just wanted to make sure that we were supporting them, and not only showing them multiple properties that we think would be great, but also being honest and saying, ‘I don’t think you’re taking this part of it seriously enough. You should really think about what you’re getting into.’”

“We didn’t want to kill the dream,” he added, “but we wanted to be realistic.”

There are plenty of “hilarious” moments of realization ahead, Drew promised: “If you’ve ever watched HGTV, and you wanted to reach through the screen and just, like, strangle, and you’re yelling at the screen, ‘Why are you making those decisions, homeowners?’ you will have many of those moments watching this show, because some of the decisions just don’t make any sense to us. But hopefully we’re able to guide them in a slightly better direction,” he said.

With the housing and cost of living crises prompting many city-dwellers to look toward more wide-open spaces, Drew said he hopes Chasing the West can show people “what your dollar can get you in other areas that are just outside your city.”

“Right now, I find the pace in the city and the cost in the city, it’s just getting faster and faster to the point where it’s ultimately going to break,” Jonathan agreed. “So my hope is that the audience will watch this and think about what’s important in life.”

“I know for us, it’s the kids,” he continued, “and we want to make sure that they have these memories, that their childhood is a positive one, and we want to foster any creativity or any growth that they want to experience. So that is what I want the audience to take away — think about what’s important, and if you have to make a big life change to make that happen, maybe this is it.”

Chasing the West premieres Wednesday, July 30, at 9 pm ET on HGTV.