‘Ugliest House in America’: Retta Reflects on ‘Scary’ Season Premiere, Her ‘Cute’ Outfits & What’s Next

Retta has hit the road again for HGTV’s Ugliest House in America. The actress brings her signature comedic reactions as she steps foot into more eyesores across the country. For Season 7, she takes in 15 properties judged on three main criteria: ugly appearance, awkward factor, and most surprising feature. 

Each episode sees one home chosen from a region that goes on to the finale. It’s then where an “Ugliest House in America”  winner is crowned with the owners receiving a $150,000 renovation completed by designer extraordinaire Alison Victoria. 

During the January 7 premiere, Retta started her tour in the Great Plains. The Blanca, Colorado residence dubbed “Mirrored Mayhem” came out on top. This one stood out right from the stairless stairway and slanted wall. Though competition was fierce with other cringe-y contenders like the “Man-Made Metal Mutt” in Ransom Canyon, Texas, and Morrison, Colorado’s “Rocky Mountain Light Switches. All could be filming locations for a Blumhouse horror. 

We caught up with Retta, who also hosts Scariest House in America, to break down the off-the-wall designs and layouts. 

I always think it’s funny you’re going to these houses dressed to the nines walking through these places. 

Retta: First of all, I just want to look cute in general. I am on TV. I’m supposed to represent, but at this point, I feel people do talk about it. They’re like, “I tune in for the outfits. I love the outfits.” I’m like, “Let’s give them something cute to look at because they’re about to see some craziness.

“Mirrored Mayhem” won during the premiere. How do you look back on that episode kicking off the season? 

The one with the light switches! That was one where we walked up, and I thought, “This place is nice. What are we doing here?” This was from the outside, but when you go inside, there is one room where work had started in the bathroom. But it was the scariest room I’d ever been in. This was the scariest space. I don’t know what it was. It was just so dark. It had no walls. That house was weird because when we walked up, it just looked gorgeous. I could see why someone would want it. Then you go inside, and things are not right. We didn’t go to the third floor because I’m not going up another floor. I’m not doing any more stairs. 

That’s the thing with some of these places. You can’t be older than 35 living here. How are you all doing this? The dog one that was another one that was weird. It  was interesting. It looked pristine, but did not look safe. There were so many levels that if you had one-and-a-half martinis, you were falling somewhere. There was no way you could keep your eye on all the different levels and steps. You can’t put curtains because it’s curved and weird. I need blackout curtains to sleep. That’s another place that had stairs after stairs after stairs. I don’t know how you decide to design in a room that’s half a crescent with two different levels where the walls leave in so if you sit up in bed, you’ll hit your head. It looked interesting, but I wouldn’t have to deal with it. 

And then there is “Mirrored Mayhem”…

“Mirrored Mayhem,” burn it to the ground. I was scared for [the mom’s] kids. I was like, “What is going on here?” There is a room upstairs, but there were no steps. You have to walk uphill. I was really nervous about that one. Like how am I going to get down here. I’m going to have to slide down here. It was intense. 

Many of these places are such small and remote towns. How is travel? 

It has been a true challenge because I already have trouble sleeping on hotel beds. When you go to a town that does not have a chain. To at least know what to expect at a Fairfield Inn, to know what to expect at a Red Roof Inn. To know what to expect at a Marriott Courtyard. That part and not having that. Then it’s finding food. Finding food is really hard. As much as I like fried food, I don’t want fried food every day for a week. 

But we do love Domino’s Pizza, right? 

You would think Domino’s is everywhere. It ain’t. It ain’t. When you go to some place you feel is in the middle of nowhere and have three options. Two of the options are Chinese food and Mexican food. And you’re like, “There is not a Mexican person within 300 yards of here. What kind of Mexican food am I getting?” You know what? If there was a Taco Bell, I’d take that Mexican than what I’m having here in the middle of nowhere. 

This season we’re going to be seeing your 100th house. What can you tell us about that? How do you take in this milestone? 

Everyone asks did I think there would be this many ugly houses. Yes, I did. I just didn’t think people would be interested in this long to actually get to the 100th one. When we were shooting, my producer kept telling me we’re going to hit our 100th house. But because we don’t shoot in order, we don’t know how HGTV is going to decide how to air the regions. We don’t know what is going to be the 100th. So, basically every time I’d go to a house, I had to do a spiel about the 100th house. When they pick which house it’s going to be, they can throw all that other footage out the door because we didn’t know. The thing is I feel we did a whole region before the producer said, “Oh, we’re going to hit our 100th house this season.” I still don’t know what the 100th is because I don’t know the order it is in. 

What can you say about what’s to come? 

This one house had a thatched ceiling for their drop ceiling, so it was like straw stuff. The wife said she gets nervous because there is stuff above it. There is 100 percent stuff above that. There is no way there is no stuff living up there because you are in the middle of nowhere, in these mountains, and first of all, we’re so scared. Our biggest concern has been ticks because we’ve had three people who had ticks on them this last season. I know for this one, at the very least there are small critters up there. She says she feels like she could hear sounds. I’m like, “Mhhm, we can.” I can.  

It’s interesting to see the influx of folks who want to be featured on the show. And it’s to be featured for having an “ugly” house. A lot of it of course is motivation to win for the renovation. 

For sure. It’s so funny the more seasons we do, the more I feel like they’ll do a bit of pleading. In the “Mirrored Mayhem,” it was like, “Help me [whispering].” So yeah, 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. 

What do you make of Alison’s efforts and the work she does to help these people? How has it been getting to know her? 

First of all, we laugh a lot. If you can laugh with someone, you can spend your day with them. God bless. I don’t know how she does it. She does try to change it up. You can’t do the same thing over and over. In her other work, she shows the owners what she wants to do. They can say yay or nay. That way the owners get what they want. They don’t have that option here. They give her an idea of what they’re interested in. They can’t say yay or nay. It’s yay, this is what you’re getting. And I do feel like every homeowner has been happy. Granted, it’s free too. I do feel like she does make them happy and gives them what they may want, certainly need. Who knows what their pie in the sky wishes are. A lot of times they just want doors. They just want a ceiling that doesn’t have bats living in it. When that’s your happiest moment, you’re going to be thrilled with walls and a ceiling. 

You’ve done ugliest and scariest. Anything else you see that you haven’t done yet and want to do? 

I just hope to spend time in the coziest house and spend time in those homes because these houses really put me through it. There is no competition. I just want to sit in people’s beautiful comfortable homes. 

Maybe taking the show international? 

Oh, I’ve brought that up. I don’t think it’s a cheap show, but I definitely have brought that up. 

We’re here in the new year. What are the goals you’ve set for yourself? 

I don’t do resolutions, at least not in the last couple of years. I do want to travel more. So, I’m making a conscious effort to get more travel in. I feel like because I’m traveling for work so much, I feel like I need to stay home. This year I’m planning on getting out of the country. 

Anywhere in particular? 

I’m definitely going to Paris. I’m hoping to go back to Rome. Then once the season is over, I’m hoping to check out some Opens. Australian, Wimbledon, maybe the French. 

Ah, a tennis fan. 

I’ve never been to Wimbledon. I’ve gone to the U.S. Open a couple of times. Last year I went for the first time in a while, and that got my juices going. So I want to keep going. 

Ugliest House in America Season 7, Wednesdays, 8:30/7:30c, HGTV