HGTV’s Ben & Erin Napier on Unexpected Baby Bombshell, Family Dramas, and ‘Home Town’ Season 10

Home Town is back on January 4 on HGTV with 16 brand new episodes. As the juggernaut series returns, the show’s stars Ben and Erin Napier are opening about what viewers can expect as they continue to revitalize homes and historical properties in their small town of Laurel, Mississippi. 

In the new season, things get especially personal as the couple helps transform Ben’s brother Jesse’s house. Others on the list include a makeover for a hospital maternity ward and waiting room. A newly engaged couple also come to the Napiers to remodel a home they plan to make their wedding venue. 

The season premiere brings what is billed as the largest Home Town overhaul yet. They take on one of Laurel’s most well-known abodes  for the homeowner who has lived there for five decades. Ben and Erin work through a series of hurdles over the course of two episodes to update the historic site while still preserving the house’s original features. 

Here the Napiers get candid about what unfolds, family dramas, and a huge baby surprise. 

You’re going on 10 seasons after renovating more than 100 houses. Talk about the journey and how you feel about approaching this milestone. 

Ben Napier: It’s weird because on paper we’re on Season 9, but on TV it’s Season 10. 

Erin Napier: One season got broken into two along the way. 

Ben: Yeah, I don’t know if it was because of COVID or what. We’re looking toward the next season as this big milestone. It’s great. When we started, I can remember the conversation. We didn’t know how long a show would last or run. The owner of the production company, I remember her saying at least 10 seasons. We’re right there with it. We’ve already filmed Season 10 or about to film Season 10 depending on how you look at it. 

Erin: They told us two percent of shows make a hundred episodes. 

Ben: And is that just on HGTV or scripted? 

Erin: That’s a general rule apparently. It’s very hard to believe. Who would ever imagine that you would live in Laurel, Mississippi, and make a TV show about it. And not just a few episodes, but more than a hundred. It’s incredible. 

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The premiere sees you tackle one of your biggest projects and longest, which is why it spans more than one episode. What does this one mean to you? 

Ben: This house in particular as far as our community, our district, our family, this is one of those iconic houses, that for Halloween every year, it’s their favorite house. It’s the one they want to see. It’s got a little bit of cedar shake siding on it, so it feels, you know, sort of New England-y. 

Erin: It’s just special. It’s always been a special house on one of the most special streets in town. And no one knew that it was in disrepair. They kept it so beautiful on the façade. It was like, at all costs, we must keep the façade perfect so they’ll never know. But the house was about to fall in, and they couldn’t find a contractor who would agree to do it. And I don’t think that they were especially thrilled to share this with the whole world on TV, but we were the only ones who said yes. 

Ben: Yeah, the dynamic of making a national television show in our little small town is that we know all these people. We, you know, go to church with some of them, we see them at the grocery store, we bank with them, and so we’re gonna interact with them. So, for these homeowners particularly, you know, it’s a small town, and people are going to talk. 

Erin: They were nervous about how they would be perceived, and the thing is…

Ben: Everyone was excited to see how the house would be saved. And how Chris Galaher was finally gonna have a kitchen. When I tell you, she did not really have a kitchen before. Have you seen this?

Yeah, I think she mentioned her son called it a closet with appliances or something like that. 

Erin: Yeah, a closet with a few appliances. 

Ben: It’s the smallest kitchen I’ve ever seen, ever, anywhere. The kitchen was the same size as the kitchen in our Airstream. It’s crazy because they host a lot of parties. Like, they’re famous for hosting parties and people coming over and eating, and they raised three sons who were all, you know, so close in age that there were just kids there all the time. So getting them a house with proper HVAC, getting them proper insulation. It’s crazy. I told them toI told their sons, and I don’t know if this made it, but I told them they are one of the few people who can actually say, “yes, I was raised in a barn.”  

Erin: It was an architecturally gorgeous barn. 

Ben: It was a beautiful barn, but was built like a barn. It was just a rough old house that quite literally nearly fell in.

Pictured are Jesse and Lauren with Erin and Ben Napier. Erin and Ben helped with then newlywed couple’s dream home during ‘Home Town’ Season 5. (Laurel Mercantile Co.)

Later in the season, you renovate your brother’s house. That surely brings its own set of challenges when it’s family. 

Erin: Okay, this is the realist thing in the world. They had no intention of doing this house on TV. They went and bought a house without telling us. 

Ben: No, they showed us a house, and  they put in an offer. I said, “Woo, that thing needs a lot of work. And he said, “Well, we just put in an offer, and we think they’re gonna accept it.”  I’m at the moment of, “Whoa, you’re my brother, I do this for a living. Why didn’t you not come and talk to me about this?” 

Erin: [He] says, “Because we can do this! Because we’re young. We have the rest of our lives to renovate it.” And then they dropped the bomb on us, “And also, we got another baby on the way. Baby number 3 is coming,” and we were like, “Listen, you can’t. You can’t do this right now.” And, we forced them to let us help.  We did their house right when they got married, years ago. 

Ben: In a year-long span, they got married, bought a small business. No, they were already married. They’d been married for a minute, but they bought a small business, bought a house, and got pregnant. They brought a baby home and then almost immediately got pregnant again. Within just a few months, they had outgrown the house that we had renovated, this beautiful home where we used to go over and have coffee and everything. So then they sold that, bought this other house, got pregnant again.

The part about the houses that they loved so much is that it’s got six acres, and it’s a beautiful six acres. And I get that. It’s got a great shop out back. It has got fruit trees on the property. I get it. That’s all wonderful. But you own a small business, and you have two toddlers and a baby on the way. You’re pretty overwhelmed already, and the crazy thing is, I was talking to Jesse last night. Because Jesse famously puts up tons of colored Christmas lights every year, I said, “Did you get your lights up yet?” And he said, “No, I don’t know if it’s going to happen this year. I still haven’t mowed the grass since before it got cold.” So, he’s a little overwhelmed, as is. But yeah, getting to do their house again..

Erin: And seeing visually how they’ve changed as far as what they wanted. The way they live. their taste, it’s just really interesting to see the way they evolved in five years. 

Ben: Renovating a house for a new married couple versus renovating a house for a family of five is very different. 

Erin: Yep.

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There was a point where you weren’t sure if Home Town: Inn This Together would move forward after the fire. What does it mean to you to see this still happening? What can viewers expect? 

Ben: We actually don’t know when it’s gonna air, but it’ll be later this year. 

Erin: I hope what people feel is how enormously proud we are of our friends for what they did. I mean, it was such a massive undertaking for them. I hope that people see and are inspired to see how much they can do for the town where they live.

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Erin & Ben Napier Share Big Update on 'Home Town' Spinoff After Fire

When it comes to Home Town, what else do you want to tease about this season? 

Ben: Our crew, we pushed them to the brink, because of the projects that we took on. There are two particular projects that stick out that felt impossible once we got into them. 

Erin: It’s gonna be probably the first and last one towards the end of the season, but… 

Ben: There’s one that we’re not finished with right now that we are desperately trying to finish. 

Erin: We’re this close, literally this close, but it’s challenging. This season was extremely challenging.

Home Town Season 10 premiere, January 4, 8/7c, HGTV