The Big Picture

Kitchen Glow Up
sets itself apart by focusing on both homeowners and renters to make home renovation accessible.
Ellen brings relatability to the show by working with real people from different walks of life, not just affluent homeowners.
Tastemade’s
Kitchen Glow Up
emphasizes practicality and encourages viewers to take actionable steps with their content.

If there’s one thing millennials understand, it’s the struggle of going from being a renter to homeownership. While homeownership is slowly on the rise, it is still certainly much lower than prior generations in American history. Despite this, nearly all home makeover and renovation series still focus on people who own their own homes, which makes sense, as renters are usually very limited on what they can and cannot do. The homeowners featured on these other networks all have reasonable budgets that are often tight for the project but better than any regular person could imagine.

It is this precise thing that makes Tastemade’s new series, Kitchen Glow Up, so unique in comparison to series of a similar ilk. Hosted by Ellen Marie Bennett, Kitchen Glow Up follows Ellen as she assists homeowners and renters who want to maximize their kitchens for space and efficiency. The clients that she works with come from all walks of life, and she understands how to adapt her projects based on the opportunities and limitations of the client’s kitchen and space.

Collider had the opportunity to speak with Ellen before the series premiere of Kitchen Glow Up. She also provided some useful tips for renters who want to maximize space without major renovations. By expanding the idea of who can do their own homemade remodels, Tastemade is making content for everyone, not just those with the means to do so.

‘Kitchen Glow Up’ Goes Deeper Than the Average Home Renovation Show
Image via Tastemade

There’s this classic joke in reference to the HGTV series House Hunters, where the clients often have ridiculous jobs to match their high budgets. A joke in which a “freelance hamster trainer” and a “part-time harmonica tuner” can have a budget of $1.2 million dollars. The primary undertone of this joke is that the show is setting unrealistic standards for the kinds of people who can become homeowners. This joke, started by millennials, makes sense considering that they are the first generation to lag behind prior ones in regard to home ownership; likely because there was a massive recession that began as a good portion of them began entering the workforce.

Because of this, many of the people who watch and enjoy HGTV skew older. According to the Wall Street Journal, the median age of its viewers is 66 years old. While there are plenty of millennials tuning in, many probably skip it because there is nothing in their lives that can relate to its content. Tastemade, on the other hand, has mastered the art of attracting viewership from a younger generation, thanks to starting with an online presence before expanding into streaming. The network may technically be more food-focused but shows like Kitchen Glow Up are broadening their horizons.

Related How Chip and Joanna Gaines Evolved the HGTV Style It all started to shift with HGTV’s most popular couple.

On Kitchen Glow Up, Ellen focuses on every aspect of the kitchen’s conditions when working with her clients. “A lot of home remodeling shows are very like surface level. And there’s nothing surface about what we were doing,” she shared and continued, saying, “We were going into every cabinet, every drawer, every nook and cranny of the kitchen and like organizing the hell out of it. So you couldn’t hide anything.” What Ellen said touches on a complaint from many real-life contractors and designers who have long called out other home makeover shows for working on a surface level. According to a Life Hacker article, the majority of these shows use cheap materials and focus only on looks rather than functionality.

Ellen Marie Bennett Says a ‘Kitchen Glow Up’ Is Possible For Anyone

When discussing some of the things she encountered in this inaugural season, Ellen gave a nod to the unrealistic expectations and the affluence of the people often featured on popular home makeover shows. She said, “They’re very aspirational and not real people,” adding, “​​Like, [Kitchen Glow Up] was the full gamut of real-life people, versus, ‘I live in Beverly Hills, and I have half a million dollars to spend on my renovation.’ It’s like, that’s not real life.” Kitchen Glow Up stands out because it features the average person, not those in a much higher tax bracket.

Not only are the people relatable, but their stories as well. “Of the eight episodes, it’s like we had a 75-year-old lady who was retired, a family of five kids,” Ellen shared. She added, “[And there’s] a single lady that was older and had lived in a place but like hadn’t done anything to it because she was a workaholic.” Ellen’s goal with the show is a simple one; to prove that anyone from a variety of backgrounds can have, and deserve to have, a nice kitchen in their home. She said, “I want to do something where I connect my professional background in cooking and my love for design and bring them together to bring dignity and pride to people’s home kitchens.”

The best part about the series is that it’s not just applicable to homeowners. Renters are often constrained in their decor and use within the apartments they live in because they should always remain ready for the next tenant. Ellen provided one example of a kitchen workaround involving creating detachable structures. She shared, “A lot of renters don’t have great pantries or don’t have a pantry at all. So then you have food in like five or six different cabinets.” The lack of space in the average apartment is a common issue and one she encountered on the show. “We created a pantry, and we did that by going to either Ikea or Lowe’s and getting the base from there,” she said of the project, adding, “And then we had the front made to match the cabinets that already existed. So it was like an extension of the kitchen but in a very low-cost way.”

‘Kitchen Glow Up’ Is One of the Many Ways Tastemade Is Turning Its Viewers Into Doers
Image via Tastemade

Tastemade grew in popularity during the time when 30-second to minute-long cooking videos began growing in popularity. Now they have their own TV channel and a streaming app, called Tastemade+. What makes Tastemade so engaging to watch is that it’s built for true food enthusiasts. They have a series focused on travel and, of course, various cooking shows from a diverse group of chefs and cooks. It provides knowledge and insight into food without depending on hokey tropes.

This is something that Ellen loves about the network. “I love Tastemade because they’re totally like nerds like me, and they want people to not just watch the shows, but actually walk away and do something with it,” she said. Tastemade’s network logline is “turning viewers into doers,” essentially saying that the content they’re creating has practical value in addition to informative content. When referencing Kitchen Glow Up, Ellen said, “I’m busting in like a bat out of hell. Let’s go, let’s purge your cabinets, let’s empty things out.” Organization is incredibly important, but Ellen says there’s more to it. She said, “ It’s under the guise of, like, ‘We’re gonna make you cook better,’ but really, we’re changing how they approach their life a little bit.”

Kitchen Glow Up is available to stream on the Tastemade app and other live TV streaming apps, with new episodes on Tuesdays.

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