Local woman, son compete on ‘Ugliest House’ TV program

Donna Fluty (front row, center) and her son, Gregory Fluty (right), posed with the crew from the television program “Ugliest House in America” during their interview in July for participation as a contestant on the show.

By Lilly Adkins

BSN Associate Editor

LOUISA — A Lawrence County family participated in a contest on HGTV that features the ugliest homes across America.

One lucky family will win a $150,000 renovation designed by Allison Victoria from Windy City Rehab on HGTV.

“Ugliest House in America” host Retta travels the USA looking for ugly houses. Fifteen contestants do a full home tour with background information on the town where the home is located. Contestants are then narrowed to five finalists, and the winner from those five will be announced on the season finale.

“Due to confidentiality agreements, we are allowed to say we are on the show but we cannot disclose if we are finalists or winner or details about participation,” said Gregory Fluty, who is competing on the program with his mother, Donna Fluty.

Gregory Fluty said he applied for the TV program after he bought his house in 2020.

“I kind of just let it go and then they contacted me at the beginning of 2022 asking if I am still interested because they wanted the house to be on the show. I ignored them for a while thinking it wouldn’t go anywhere but after they sent me a text message, I figured they were really trying to get us on. We did a phone interview and they liked us so then we had to do a two-hour recorded casting interview. That tape was edited down to two minutes and that was then sent to the casting directors who had the final say. They liked us and contacted us saying we were chosen as one of the 15 contestants on the show.”

Gregory Fluty said they set a film date of July 15 and came to town in a large RV with a film crew, sound engineers, makeup artists and hairstylists. They spent all day filming the house and doing interviews and drone shots of Louisa and the surrounding area before heading on to the next location.

The episode that features the Flutys is scheduled to air on Jan. 5 at 8 p.m. on HGTV.