By India McCarty
UGLIEST HOUSE IN AMERICA host Retta is still surprised by what she sees on the show, seven seasons in.
“There’s always [something],” she said during a recent appearance on TODAY. “I mean, a shelf on a slanted wall. What are we doing? And the shelf wasn’t [level].”
The PARKS AND RECREATION star added, “But every once in a while, I’ll see something. There’s the tried-and-trues — the carpeting in bathrooms, the cabinets that are right next to something so you can’t really open it, that kind of thing. But every once in a while, you’ll find a hallway with no stairs, and it’s just a hill you have to climb, and I had no gear.”
UGLIEST HOUSE IN AMERICA follows Retta as she tours some of the most bizarre homes in the country — and chooses one winner to get a home makeover. She told TODAY that, while she always goes in blind when seeing the house for the first time, the production crew does give her a few warnings.
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“The only thing that they will warn me about is pets, because I’m allergic. So, usually, they try to clear it out, so they’re like, ‘Be aware, they have a dog that’s never left the house,’” she explained. “Or if someone [is] super chatty and I need to kind of jump in, or if they don’t talk and I need to encourage. But other than [that], I don’t want to see anything because if I think about it too much, I won’t be quick.”
In an interview with TV Insider, Retta reflected on a major milestone coming up: seeing the 100th house featured on the show.
“Everyone asks did I think there would be this many ugly houses. Yes, I did,” she said. “I just didn’t think people would be interested in this long to actually get to the 100th one.”
Retta also remarked on the influx of people applying to be featured on UGLIEST HOUSES IN AMERICA, saying, “It’s so funny the more seasons we do, the more I feel like they’ll do a bit of pleading…I think people watch the show, and they see what the transformations can look like. They are then asking, ‘Should we submit? It would be worth showing everyone the craziness we live in for a chance to fix it.’ I think people are more willing to submit their homes for the chance to get us to fix it.”
In a 2025 interview with Realtor, Retta shared that there are “so many” houses she wishes had won the renovation, adding, “You know, I’ve seen some midcentury homes that were high-end designs for their time. I’m like, if we could just update this but keep this, it would be so dope. I mean, I want to do all of them.”
The first two episodes of UGLIEST HOUSES IN AMERICA are now available to stream, with new episodes premiering every Wednesday on HGTV.
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