‘Home Town Takeover’ Makes Record-Setting Debut Among All Cable Series

Home Town Takeover earned some huge numbers for HGTV after its debut on Sunday, despite also being available to stream on the new Discovery+ platform. The show features husband-and-wife team Ben Napier and Erin Napier taking their home renovation talents to Wetumpka, Alabama, giving the city a full makeover. Home Town Takeover is a six-episode limited series, with each episode airing Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on HGTV. Episodes are released early Sunday on Discovery+.

Overall, the first episode earned 6.5 million viewers since it debuted on Sunday, HGTV said Friday. The episode also drew a 0.93 live plus three-day rating among the 25-54 age demographic, a 1.18 L+3 rating among women 25-54, and a 0.63 L+3 rating among men 25-54. The show also attracted “upscale” viewers, earning a 1.0 L+3 rating among the 25-54 group in that demographic. Home Town Takeover was also the top-rated show in the 8 p.m. ET timeslot Sunday among households with two or more people. It was among the Top 5 cable programs Sunday in the 25-54; women 25-54, upscale 25-45, and upscale women 25-54 demographics.

“HGTV is uniquely positioned to inspire small town revitalization,” HGTV president Jane Latman said in a statement. “Ben and Erin Napier care about this work and want to take what they’ve learned in Laurel, Mississippi, and use it everywhere. Fans who watched the premiere episode of Home Town Takeover have already helped a Wetumpka fashion boutique nearly sell out of their online inventory and that’s exactly the kind of impact we want.”

Home Town Takeover also did very well on other platforms. It is the most-watched series on the HGTV GO app. HGTV also pointed out that the videos promoting the show have earned over 1.6 million views on the network’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. The show is accompanied by the digital series Road to the Takeover and Tales from the Takeover, both hosted by Jason Pickens. Tales features interviews with the Napiers, who share more details about their projects. Both shows are available on HGTV’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

While the original Home Town series is set in Laurel, Mississippi, this new show is set in Wetumpka, located just north of Montgomery, Alabama. The season also features several HGTV stars, including Ty Pennington, Mina Starsiak Hawk, Jon-Pierre and Mary Tjon-Joe-Pin, Steve Ford, Wendell Holland, and Tamara Day.

During a stop on our series PopCulture @Home, the Napiers said their goal for the new show was to help viewers see the potential in their own small towns. “So many people want to do what has happened in Laurel in their town, and they’re coming to us and asking us for advice and so we felt like this would be a good way to kind of say this can happen anywhere,” Ben said. “It doesn’t have to be Laurel.” Erin said they wanted to share the “universal truths in revitalizing small-town America.”