I used to watch Rehab Addict, Nicole Curtis’s show on what was then the DIY Network. DIY is now the Magnolia Network, and it’s been taken over by Chip and Joanna Gaines and their people, which means that Rehab Addict moved over to HGTV. Curtis was one of the rare house-renovaters and flippers to actually rehab older homes without gutting them. In Rehab Addict, she often dedicated an entire season to meticulously renovating one or two homes, usually in Detroit, Michigan or in some other city or state with a lot of dilapidated or would-be tear-down homes. Well, bad news for the few of us who enjoyed Rehab Addict. It turns out that Nicole Curtis is racist and thinks nothing of dropping the n-word on camera. Jesus.
HGTV has canceled Rehab Addict after its star, Nicole Curtis, used a racial slur that was caught on camera while she filmed the series. In addition to canceling the show, the network has also scrubbed the entire series from streaming platforms HBO Max and Discovery+.
“HGTV was recently made aware of an offensive racial comment made during the filming of Rehab Addict. Not only is language like this hurtful and disappointing to our viewers, partners, and employees – it does not align with the values of HGTV,” the network said in a statement shared with Deadline.
“Accordingly, we have removed the series from all HGTV platforms. We remain dedicated to fostering a culture of respect and inclusion across our content and our workplace.”
Rehab Addict originally premiered in 2010 on the DIY Network before moving to HGTV with Season 4 in 2014. The series centered on Curtis advocating for the preservation and restoration of existing architecture rather than demolition. New episodes of the series were scheduled to begin airing on February 11, but the schedule has now been canceled.
HGTV has scrubbed the page dedicated to Rehab Addict on their website, and searching for the show on streaming platforms like HBO Max and Discovery+ leads to an error message that reads, “Oops! Looks like this link isn’t working.”
A video from the set of Rehab Addict leaked to Radar, which shared the clip online. While working on a project, Curtis used the n-word before quickly realizing what she just said and swiftly asked to “kill” the moment, which evidently didn’t happen.
My God. Not only saying it but immediately trying to cover it up and keep it from the network. I’m pleasantly surprised that HGTV acted so quickly and that the network has “canceled” Curtis so thoroughly. It reminds me a bit of the Paula Deen situation with the Food Network, only I doubt Curtis will get the same level of (racist) support Deen received after she admitted to using the n-word (not to mention forcing her Black employees to dress like Antebellum servants). This is something else I’ve been thinking about in the Trump occupation too – even though Trump and MAGA have tried to make it “okay” to be openly racist, it turns out that corporations by and large still *want* to have DEI policies in place and they want to have a hardline on firing people for racism.
Photos courtesy of Nicole Curtis’s Instagram.
