In a New TV Series, Former Owners Confront Buyers' Dizzying Changes

Well, it was only a matter of time before someone thought to create a TV reality show for just this purpose, another twist on the burgeoning number of home makeover shows. This show is "Moving Up," a new 15-part series scheduled to start Jan. 29 on TLC, one of the channels run by Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications.

The show is hosted by Doug Wilson, 40, the hip designer on the network's hit series "Trading Spaces," in which families have 48 hours to redecorate a room in a neighbor's house.

"Moving Up" focuses on a chain of three sets of homeowners who have recently moved. Families return to their former houses to visit and observe the sometimes seemingly heartless ways that the new owners transform the residences during the first three to six months.

Do the old owners really care about a place where they no longer live? Absolutely, Wilson said. "People move on, but they don't always let go," he said.

Here's how it works: Camera crews film the homeowners at the time of their move, once during the renovation, and a final time for the "reveal," reality TV jargon for when the former owners return to see -- and react to -- the results. Cast members are "very real people, not actors," though to be selected they need to be outgoing and articulate, executive producer Julie McCarthy said. Casting is decided through extensive telephone interviews and a video of each potential participant is required, she said.

Homes and apartments featured range in price from the low six figures to more than $1 million. All the properties shot are along the East Coast, including two in the Washington area (a house in Northwest and a condominium on Connecticut Avenue). Homeowners design and oversee the renovations themselves, with take-it-or-leave-it advice from Wilson. Unlike some other home makeover shows, families are not given a budget for renovations, though some labor and materials are donated in exchange for on-air or online promotions.

Michael Klein, interim vice president of production for TLC, describes the show as "an emotional journey where we explore how individuals and couples define their personal space -- and how it feels to see what someone else has done with the place you once called home."

In other words, do humans act like dogs that have marked their territory, even after they have moved?

Surprisingly enough, for a reality show, participants in a recent filming of "Moving Up" were on good behavior. On a Saturday in late November, Derek and Sarah Hyde returned from their new home in Milwaukee to visit their old 1954 rambler a block off Rock Creek Park in Northwest Washington. The current owners, Minh and Martha Le, had been busy changing the Hydes' old house since August. The Hydes left Tommy, 2, and Joey, 8 months, outside with a caretaker. (Would the toddler remember his room? Who knows, but they weren't taking any chances of an on-camera outburst.)

Then, upon hearing "Action!" the Hydes knocked on the front door, and Wilson greeted them like old friends. (In another sign of civility, the Le family was not present for the reaction to the changes, but later watched it on tape.)

"Oh my goodness -- it's modern," said Sarah Hyde, taking in the new decor.

"Oh, wow," said her husband, staring at the lilac-colored living room. "It's colorful."

They walked through and reacted to the hallway and each of four rooms that they had once known so well -- living room, dining room, kitchen and Tommy's former bedroom. Only now they were like tourists. Gone was their traditional decor; in its place was what Sarah Hyde called "modern chic." The living room contained a wall fountain. In place of the old wood fireplace with crown molding there was a contemporary blue stone one. Where you might expect to see a log was material that looked like a pile of glass from a smashed car window, with fire emerging from it.