Iraqi Home Design TV

Home design and makeover shows are huge on North American TV. You can’t change the channel without bumping into some jocular chap instructing you on the finer points of retiling your loo. But who would have believed it: even in Iraq, the most popular show on television, Labour and Materials, is a home repair show.

One suspects an Iraqi show of this nature would demand more mettle of its hosts, and good deal more ingenuity, too. After all, we’re not talking about changing home decor but repairing houses blown apart by bombs and street fighting during the war.

According to the Washington Post, on one recent show, the show not only promised to rebuild a house occupied by four families, but to pay for eye surgery for a young girl injured by the bomb. Upcoming Iraqi reality shows (no joke): Looters, featuring families who became rich from looting after the war, and Iraq’s Most Melancholy Home Videos, which will show Iraqis watching footage of former neighbours now living out of the country.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 10:19 pm and is filed under web archives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.