Orlando Soria Talks 'Underworld' of Being an HGTV Host: 'Rosy Picture' Is a 'Misrepresentation'

HGTV

Orlando Soria is sharing his less-than-camera-ready experience as a host on HGTV.

The Los Angeles-based interior designer served as the host of Unspouse My House and Build Me Up for two seasons starting in July 2019. In a highly personal essay posted on his website on Monday, he alleges that he was overworked and underpaid during his time making the show.

"I haven't chatted much about this stuff yet because I thought I'd get in trouble or burn professional bridges," writes Soria, who is also a popular Instagram personality, author of Get It Together and was formerly the creative director of Homepolish. But since the show ended, he's opening up about what he says really went into making it.

Build Me Up, his second show that included a repackaged version of the earlier 6-episode run of Unspouse My House, began filming in September 2019 and aired in July 2020. Soria recalls he was in the middle of production when COVID-19 took hold in March of that year — but the show had to go on.

"I worked continuously for the first few terrifying months of the pandemic with very little protection. While everyone else was isolating, my design team and I were going to every store possible before they closed down to get the furniture we needed in time for our show to meet its (immovable, even in the time of covid) deadline," he writes. "It's a miracle no one got Covid because there weren't any clear guidelines for safety. We just tried to wear masks and not stand too close to each other while we were shooting scenes."

During the same time, he says, he was asked by the network to self-shoot some footage of how he was making the most of lockdown at home for an uplifting commercial, which he links to. In the clip, Soria can be seen exercising in his backyard, while other network stars entertain their kids with crafts or do DIY projects.

HGTV

"The irony of them asking us to tout how we were all so happy to be safe and sound at home while me and my entire crew risked getting Covid every day with absolutely no network oversight was not lost on me," he writes of the request. "HGTV is a business and they needed content when they needed content, pandemic be damned."

Asked for their response to Soria's statements, HGTV said, "We are aware of the blog post and continue to wish Orlando well."

Still, Soria doesn't put any blame on the network's behind-the-scenes talent.

"While I'm not painting the prettiest picture of the underworld of HGTV," he writes, "I have to say that I have only positive things to say about everyone I came into contact with there, from the executive producers I've known for over ten years since working on Emily [Henderson]'s show Secrets from a Stylist, to the marketing team and the coordinators in the office."

He continues, "I'm not quite sure who the 'bad guy' (ie the person dictating that budgets for these shows be so unworkably small that they make life on set unsustainable for everyone from top to bottom) is in this situation but I'm guessing someone very high up."

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Build Me Up began airing in July 2020, but three weeks in, despite what he calls "honestly decent" ratings, he got a heartbreaking phone call: They were moving the time slot to midnight. "While the network said they were doing it in the hopes of finding a younger audience, I knew what it was. The show had essentially been canceled after three weeks. That time slot was a death sentence," he writes.

He adds, "It was a huge blow to me and the crew after we literally risked our lives to make a TV show for a network that was simultaneously using me to peddle its alleged covid safety protocols."

Despite having starred in two seasons of his own HGTV show, Soria says he still had to do sponsored content for Instagram on the weekends to supplement his income.

In an effort to be transparent, he disclosed his pay on the show: $5,000 per episode, which he equates to $40,000 for 10 months of work. "After taxes and my agent fees, my take home was $17,500," he writes.

And because he says he was paid by the episode, not the hour, and worked extremely long days — waking up at 4:30 a.m. and not getting home until around 8 or 9 p.m. every night — he calculates his compensation came to around $11 per hour.

Beyond his own experience, he claims other network stars may be glossing over some of the more unsavory parts of their own experiences.

"I've seen so many other HGTV hosts (seemingly feeling a similar sense of censorship) do posts about 'what it's actually like to have an HGTV show' that are all fluff and bulls--- meant to keep them in good graces with the network. From my experience, and from my discussions with a number of HGTV's on-air talent (we tend to meet each other) I think the rosy picture of the behind-the-scenes of these shows is a misrepresentation for almost all the network's hosts," he writes.

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Two of the HGTV big shots he admires are Property Brothers' Drew and Jonathan Scott, who he says "have earned their right to be treated like legit celebrities by producing the most popular shows for the network." He also shares his take on Christina on the Coast star Christina Haack, who he jokes, "has earned her right to be treated like an actual celebrity by getting married every year." (Haack has been married twice, to Tarek El Moussa and then Ant Anstead, and is currently engaged. Drew Scott's wedding was a TLC special in 2018. El Moussa's, in 2021, aired on HGTV.)

Someone he seems to have less admiration for is the head of Discovery Inc., the company that owns HGTV. "Sorry Discovery CEO David Zaslav, maybe you could distribute some of the $37.7 million dollars you make a year to pay the people appearing on your network a living wage. Just a thought," he writes. Discovery disclosed its top executive's 2020 earnings in a regulatory filing, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

While he notes the purpose of his post is to highlight the struggles of — and commiserate with — other freelance creatives who have suffered similar setbacks during the pandemic, he digs into some heavy personal matters, too.

Orlando Soria Instagram

He talks about the financial insecurity he faced over the last two years that had him wondering if his rent checks would clear. In addition to the loss of his HGTV gig, he calls out unpaid contracts from sponsored content he created for brands he says are in the tens of thousands of dollars. He also admits he made two big mistakes: buying a problematic fixer-upper he hopes to turn into an Airbnb and signing a lease on a Los Angeles apartment that, after some business deals were delayed, he can barely afford.

He also opens about his health and relationship with drinking during the pandemic.

"Getting further and further into debt, in the dark months of winter . . . the only thing that brought me joy was alcohol," he writes. "I've thought about it a lot and I do think I've had a troubling relationship with alcohol since Covid started. I don't think I'm an alcoholic though. If there's something called 'situational alcoholism.' I think I had that." He's since stopped drinking.

He admits, "I know all of this sounds incredibly bleak, but I don't feel bad about it.." And he does look ahead with some positivity.

"What I've seen in my own life is I always come out better on the other side of a personal/professional slump. There are periods of building that can be painful and overwhelming. But they lead to a richer appreciation of what comes next," he writes.

He continues, "While the past two years have been stressful, overwhelming, and filled with anxiety and depression, they've provided me with a sense of strength I didn't have before. When you are treated as though you don't matter, you believe it for a while. And then you get angry and start to rebel against that notion. I know exactly who I am and I know what my accomplishments are – I have worked hard for both."