Despite their personal differences, exes Tarek El Moussa and Christina Anstead are back in business on a new season of “Flip or Flop.” Considering their very public divorce and the fact that both of them got individual HGTV shows (“Christina on the Coast” for her and “Flipping 101” for him, plus the “Tarek’s Flip Side” digital series), why go back to the original well?
“The other stuff wasn’t really in the works when we started shooting. We’ve been filming it for about a year,” El Moussa told TheWrap. “Plus, ‘Flip or Flop,’ that’s how we got to where we got. That’s our foundation, that’s what we’ve been doing for years, that’s what we know, that’s how we support our families, you know? That’s our job.”
“I talk about not letting personal issues ruin the business side of things that we worked so hard for,” he added.
That’s when this reporter questioned aloud whether or not I could be that mature.
“You’d be surprised how strong you can be when you need to be,” El Moussa, who said about 25% of the houses he and Christina flip together make it to TV, reassured me.
(One more fun statistic from our conversation: El Moussa said the most he ever lost on house he flipped on television was about $4,000. So, not a huge “Flop.”)
We’re betting that the money the Discovery-owned cable channel threw at El Moussa and Anstead helped ease any personal pain. Once Chip and Joanna Gaines walked away from “Fixer Upper,” “Flip or Flop” took the HGTV throne as the network’s highest-rated series.
Finally, we asked El Moussa if he would ever buy a flipped house for himself and his family to live in.
“Yeah,” he responded. “But let’s be honest, you have different quality. Like, there’s other flippers out there that do s— work, they don’t pull permits, everything’s illegal and it’s awful.”
“You go to someone like me, I hire people who are licensed, bonded, insured, I use high-end materials — I produce quality,” El Moussa said. “It’s all case by case.”
The new season of “Flip or Flop” premieres Thursday at 9/8c on HGTV. “Tarek’s Flip Side,” which will be available on the HGTV app, its Facebook and YouTube channels, and on HGTV.com, also premieres tonight.