Ben And Erin Napier Told Me Why Home Town’s New Season Goes Beyond Everything They’ve Done Before, And One Detail Totally Threw Me

by

Be careful! This contains minor spoilers for the first episode of Home Town Season 10. If you haven’t seen it yet on HGTV or HBO Max, you might want to avoid reading further.

I absolutely love watching Home Town on HGTV. Ben and Erin Napier consistently bring a charming, down-to-earth energy as they renovate homes in Laurel, Mississippi. What’s really special is how genuine and likeable they remain, even with demanding schedules and having to deal with untrue rumors. They’re true professionals, and it’s been wonderful to watch them, especially during what seems to be their most difficult season yet.

Before the season 10 premiere on January 4th, the Napiers discussed their challenging renovation of a historic Laurel home owned by friends Geof and Chris with TopMob. The project quickly became more complicated than expected – they needed official approval from the Historic Preservation Commission, discovered significant water damage, and more. It turned into such a large undertaking that it couldn’t be completed within a single episode, as Erin explained to me.

This [premiere] episode does have a cliffhanger. The end of the episode is the halfway point.

Erin Napier

You’d expect helping friends with a home renovation to be straightforward, but that wasn’t the case here. The team working on this beautiful house kept running into one surprise problem after another. And whenever issues with the foundation arise, it always means a lot of stress and potential complications.

Geof and Chris’ house wasn’t the most challenging project for Ben and Erin Napier, who later took on even tougher renovations during the rest of the season. Both agreed that they faced more difficulties, and explained:

  • BEN NAPIER: This season accidentally – not on purpose like, ‘Oh, this was planned,’ – it’s the largest group of extremely difficult projects we’ve ever taken on.
  • ERIN NAPIER: It really pushed our construction teams to their absolute limit.

If you enjoy Home Town for its relaxing renovations and the friendly connection between the hosts, be aware that upcoming seasons might be a bit more hectic. While the hosts will likely still be positive, they’ll have less time to appear calm and collected with so much work to do.

Here’s the surprising part: when I spoke with the Napiers about Season 10, it was about a month before the first episode aired on HGTV, and they hadn’t actually finished filming yet. Ben explained it like this:

We are currently not [done]. We were supposed to have been finished two weeks ago.

Ben Napier

I was surprised to learn that even shows like Home Town sometimes have editing still happening close to the air date. With most reality TV (that isn’t a competition) being fully finished before it airs, it just didn’t cross my mind that post-production could be ongoing so close to the premiere.

It didn’t seem like they were close to finishing, but it looks like they managed to wrap things up before the holidays, or at least they’re hoping they did. They went on to say:

  • ERIN NAPIER: We’re gonna reveal the last house tomorrow. We’re so close.
  • BEN NAPIER: Yeah, that house is still not ready. It’s almost ready. It’s basically ready.

The stakes were always high on Home Town. The show’s demanding renovation projects really pushed the hosts and construction crews to their limits, and that drama likely kept viewers hooked for ten seasons—and fueled the success of its spin-offs and future projects.

The Napiers are working on a new spinoff, but one project faced a setback when the building being renovated for Home Town: Inn This Together was severely damaged by a fire before the show could air. In other news, HGTV also announced another new spinoff, Home Town Takeover Canada, which won’t be hosted by Ben and Erin Napier. Currently, neither of these new series has a confirmed premiere date.

The new season began on January 4th, and the exciting cliffhanger from the first episode will be resolved in Episode 2, which airs on HGTV Sunday, January 11th, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

Read More

2026-01-12 00:13