‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ Recipients Reveal Hidden Horrors in ‘Dark Side of Reality TV’ Clip (VIDEO)

For nine seasons, Ty Pennington went around the country and made dreams come true for deserving people on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. With every episode, he and his team would work tirelessly to give a family in need the house of their dreams, rebuilt and customized to match their individual needs and services. The beneficiaries were usually people who had huge hearts and did a lot for their communities and families, so it was always a sob-worthy moment when Pennington would say “Move that bus!” and reveal a spectacular new home for each group. For some, though, that dream soon became a nightmare.

On Tuesday (October 15) night’s edition of Dark Side of Reality TV, the Vice TV docuseries explores the hit spinoff of Extreme Makeover, which ran on ABC from 2003 to 2012. 

“The light bulb for the movie theater was $900 alone. How is that even possible?” one participant explained. “There was times when our power was cut off and people try to raid the house. I don’t know if they thought we had money.”

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“I don’t know if they just wanted everything in the house because I saw what was inside of it. People think we are rich,” another explained. “We’ve had people steal from us. People believe we have hidden money somewhere.”

One particularly horrifying experience came win one homeowner found themselves face to face with a potential intruder: “There was a time that we were locking the doors and as I go up to one of the doors, there’s a man and there was a hammer and I just start screaming like this isn’t real life,” she said. “Is this serious? I cannot tell you how many times the police were called for break ins and people trying to get in. It was traumatic for me.”

Dark Side of Reality TV, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Vice TV