Interview: Ty Pennington Talks ‘Makeover’

His network bills him as the modern-day Ed McMahon, who routinely showed up on people’s porches back in the day with big, stinky, life-changing Publisher’s Clearinghouse checks.

Kicking off his seventh season as host of ABC’s ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ on Sunday, Ty Pennington has become that guy – if you come home and the former model turned ultimate handyman is standing there with his friends, chances are you’re going to lose your Egg McMuffin and you’re going gush like Niagra Falls in front of some television cameras.

You’ve been down for so long… but here’s this guy and his crew, and they’re going to cut you a huge break – not just because they sell advertising on a TV show and they win Emmys (two for reality TV show back in 2005 and 2006), but because Pennington, his builder buddies and celebrity hangers-on really do like to help people out.

Amazingly, after building homes for the down-on-their-luck in record time since 2003, Pennington told Fancast that he isn’t at all burnt out by the gig. In fact, he’s charged up about the upcoming season.

So you’ve got a lot of good celebrities on the bus this year. Who’s coming on the show?
We’ve got Mary J. Blige, Clint Black, Kelly Pickler, David Duchovny, Patricia Heaton and Tyler Perry, just to name a few. We’re getting a lot of people who call us who just want to be involved. You can’t see our show and be totally unaffected. In the past, we’ve had celebrities who’ve come on who would just do a concert. This season, the people who come on are involved start to finish.

You guys do a lot of backbreaking work. Which celebrity was the biggest complainer?
(Laughs a hearty “not going there” laugh). I everybody has a lot of fun this season. They’re really experiencing something they’ve never experienced before.

What’s the hardest project you’ve done so far on this show?
It was in Washington, D.C. for this upcoming season. We did a home and a school at the same time – almost 10,000 square feet of living space. The weather was rough, and it was just very difficult trying to pull it off in the time we had. You really test your limits. We were building this huge house in four days. We still finished it, but it took a little longer than we thought, and we were just absolutely worn out at the end of it.

Come on, you must be getting tired of this by now. I mean you’re a 44-year-old dude. Sure you’re in great shape, but still…
We all really enjoy the job we do. In all honesty, besides helping people, it’s the rush to try to pull this thing off, to try to outdo yourself. But there’s nothing like it. I try to raise the bar each time.

But building all these homes under tight deadline can’t be getting easier.
That’s true, especially with the economy the way it is. It’s been tough finding builders and volunteers to come on the show. In many categories, we’ve had to work a lot harder. But when you really want something, you figure out how to get it done. And at the end of the day, it always restores my faith in humanity.

More on These Topics: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition | Ty Pennington