Extreme Makeover Home Edition Television Program

IT was the perfect cast for an uplifting reality TV show: five orphaned siblings and the loving family friends who took them in. The story line certainly appealed to the producers of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." After learning that Phil and Loki Leomiti had opened their doors to the Higgins clan -- their former neighbors and fellow church members -- the show's executives proposed transforming the couple's modest Santa Fe Springs house into a nine-bedroom showpiece.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has rejected five orphans' claims that producers of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" owed them a permanent place to live after rebuilding the house of the family friends who took them in. Higgins siblings Charles II, Michael, Charis, Joshua and Jeremiah were ages 14 to 21 when their mother died of breast cancer in April 2004 and their father succumbed to heart failure two months later.

HOUSE No. 85 has just come tumbling down, and the popular, hyper host of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Ty Pennington, makes a surprising confession about his feelings toward his job: "I don't really know how to explain this thing because the \o7worst\f7 part of what we do is a television show." ABC's Emmy-winning series ranks 15th among most-watched shows and places 11th among the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-olds. So why does Pennington lament his livelihood?

Rodney Anderson looks forward to the future. This future will not be the one in which he has a surprising and starring career at Cal State Fullerton then moves to the NBA, where he makes lots of money and buys his parents a house in a safe place. There is a new house. Two new houses, actually. But they haven't come from NBA money. Tonight, the Andersons will be the stars on the weekly ABC television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

A Downey family has sued ABC and the producers of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," claiming that there is a tale of greed and deception behind the scenes of the heartstring-tugging reality hit.

Facing criticism that he appeared disengaged from the disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina, President Bush has been looking for opportunities to show his concern. But the White House will take the effort a step further today, venturing into untested waters by putting the nation's first lady on reality television. Laura Bush will travel to storm-damaged Biloxi, Miss., to film a spot on the feel-good, wish-granting hit "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Mrs.

When residents of Costa Mesa's Rosemary Place peeked out their windows Wednesday and saw the small army of TV cameramen, city officials, makeup artists and police, they knew it had finally happened: Reality TV had moved in next door. But instead of voting someone off an island, producers had picked a family to move out of the neighborhood for a week while construction crews and celebrity designers demolish and then rebuild their house.

Coming soon: a "reality" TV series starring Sears tools and appliances. In a new partnership that underscores the widening reach of product placement, Sears, Roebuck & Co. has signed on as chief sponsor of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," a six-episode series that is in production and expected to air beginning in early 2004.