HGTV host and former “Parks and Recreation” star Retta is lifting the lid on some of the most gruesome downsides to filming hit series “Ugliest House in America“—from discovering creepy-crawlies inside the dwellings to the “scary” locations she has to visit in search of the country’s least appealing abodes.
Retta, 55, whose real name is Marietta Sangai Sirleaf, began hosting the show in 2022 and has seen more than her fair share of disastrous dwellings in the three years and six seasons since.
But, she admits to Realtor.com®, her long-running role on the show—which recently debuted its sixth season—didn’t stop her from being left open-mouthed in shock over some of the properties she visited for its most recent installments.
As in previous seasons, Retta can be seen in the latest episodes traveling across the U.S. in search of a home so “ugly” that it earns a very handsome prize: a $150,000 renovation courtesy of HGTV star Alison Victoria.
The hunt for a home worthy of such a title is long and arduous, and sees Retta driving to some very remote locales—a journey she admits has its “scary” sides.
“Let me tell you something, some of these places, I’m like: ‘Do they even get cable out here? And Wi-Fi? How do they even know about this show?'” she jokes. “Because it can be so remote, sometimes we have to do a caravan drive, where everybody’s together, because we don’t want anybody to get lost.
“That’s because of 1) terrain, and 2) there’s no way to connect. There’s no cell service. They don’t have Wi-Fi, so we’re essentially off the grid and roughing it. It’s only a day; but still, to have zero connection for the day is scary.”
Nonetheless, traveling to some of America’s most remote areas has its upsides—namely the opportunity to discover once-unknown territories, particularly those that boast quaint or unusual details.
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“We do enjoy a little town. Nothing makes me smile harder than a downtown that is really just two blocks long; it makes me laugh so hard,” she says. “So we’ll pop into all the shops.
Don’t let them have a pawn shop, because we’re going in! If there’s an antique store, we’re going in! You know what I mean? So it can be an adventure, if there’s a small town with shopping.”
Once she’s inside the homes, Retta has to contend with a few more unpleasant surprises—admitting that she never knows what she’s going to find at each of the dwellings, particularly when it comes to some less-than-appealing pets.
“The snakes, especially when the snakes are missing, that’s always problematic,” she reveals. “I can’t remember if there are any critters in [this season], but there’s a home in which, in the daughter’s room, which is in the basement, there’s a curtain in her room—and behind the curtain, basically a hole into darkness. I don’t know why it’s there.
“But like, you know, there’s always critters in a house, whether you see them or not; and to know that that hole is there, and they can come visit at any time, is very distressing. I was like, ‘Girl, what are you doing?'”
Beyond the creepy-crawlies, Retta comes across a fair few bizarre “themes” during the latest season of the show, revealing that the new episodes feature everything from a “Flinstones”-inspired abode to a spaceship-shaped property.
“There are more homes that have odd themes that I didn’t expect,” she shares. “You know, this season has a bedrock home—a home that looks like it should be on ‘The Flintstones.’ There’s another home that literally looks like a ship that’s run aground. There’s a home that looks like a spaceship in the stone age—it’s a spaceship shape, but it looks like it was put together by a 4-year-old.
“The one that looks like a Flintstone home, I don’t know that you can make that look any better, other than, you know, putting down wood floors. And I don’t even know because the walls are not smooth. They really do look prehistoric”
For any viewers concerned about how the homeowners featured in the series deal with Retta’s blunt—but hilarious—remarks about their dwellings, she is quick to insist that they’re all “in on the joke,” noting that almost every person who appears in the show has personally submitted their property for consideration.
“They did submit their home, and they are aware of the title of the show,” she points out. “So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m going to be pointing out things that I find particularly ugly or dysfunctional about the space.
“And now, because we are on Season 6, people watch the show and they enjoy it. So a lot of times, you know, they’re killing themselves to point out something that I’m going to think is crazy—especially something that I’ve noticed before, like carpeting in the bathroom. They’ll be like, ‘We know this is your favorite. How about this carpeting?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s gross too.’
“So I think particularly now they’re, they’re in on it. They’re familiar with, you know, how I feel about some of these things, and they want to make sure that I don’t miss anything.”
Of course, while each season of “Ugliest House in America” features an array of odd-looking properties, there can only ever be one winner—though Retta admits she wishes they could make over all of the homes they feature.
“There’s so many [houses I wish had won a renovation],” she says. “You know, I’ve seen some midcentury homes that were high-end designs for their time. I’m like, if we could just update this but keep this, it would be so dope. I mean, I want to do all of them.”
Still, Retta has some words of warning for anyone who is planning to take on a potentially “ugly” project with the aim of redoing it: Based on her experience with the show, there are some homes that simply cannot be rehabilitated.
“My only tip for homebuyers is, just because it’s got great bones doesn’t mean you have the wherewithal to be able to fix it,” she cautions. “It takes a lot of planning and budgeting. A lot of people don’t realize that, and so they’re stuck with these ugly homes.”
Carol McDaniel is a dedicated and results-driven professional with 5 years of experience and US News. Known for her strong problem-solving skills and collaborative mindset, Carol has built a reputation for delivering high-impact results across diverse teams and projects.
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