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Who owns those reality show houses?

Tue., Apr. 10, 2007 4:58 PM PDT by Leslie Gornstein

On reality shows, the tacky but enormous mansions belong to whom? The networks? Or do they give them to (shudder) the "stars"?
—Margo, Washington, D.C. The B!tch Replies: The following information may just get you thinking...

There are people in our midst who spend millions to buy and restore beautiful houses in the Hollywood Hills, only to turn around and let TV producers in thick Italian glasses and pointy elf shoes run amok with their interiors, vomiting absinthe-era wallpaper and pink shag rugs and rhinestone chandeliers.

These homeowners apparently don't care that screaming women in synthetic weaves are smoking 75 packs of Newports a day in their pool and spilling nail glue all over the hardwood while fighting over who will bear Flav's 80th child or which weepy college student really holds favor with Nigel Barker and Tyra Banks.

You see, most of the houses used on reality shows are rented.

"And they're usually the same houses year after year," real-estate agent Jodi Dirk tells this B!tch. "They range from about $10,000 a month to $50,000."

And that doesn't include another deposit of $80,000 to $100,000, just in case the pool gets clogged with all that cigarette ash.

Dirk, who has helped find homes for shows including The Simple Life and Starting Over, says that, occasionally, a network will purchase a home if it plans to use it for more than a year or two, but not often. (The I Love New York house was reportedly built specifically for the VH1 show and later used for Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School.)

Instead, a production company or network pays rent for, say, six months, using three months to redecorate and another three months to shoot. Homeowners trust the producers to leave their abode exactly as they found it, which can be quite an achievement, given that even garages can be completely repurposed.

For one show, Dirk explains, "they added walls in the garage to make the confessional booth."

And remember: a typical Big Brother-like reality show involves close to 50 cameras and 80 microphones stashed all over a house—which means drilling holes in walls for wires or mounts.

For the fifth season of Surreal Life, producers took over a home owned by a pair of doctors and turned it into a carnival—literally—with a gaping clown mouth surrounding the front door. Before the owners moved back in, the producers reportedly had to replace the carny colors with the home's original Benjamin Moore Cottage White.

Assurance that the house won't smell like smoke: $80,000. Getting Omarosa out of your bathroom: Priceless.