Ed Pawlowski wrote:

Most of the families need help. A few though, just seemed to negegted
their own house and let it fall apart around them. I agree on the
size too. The go from tiny to something huge to take care of.

I like it when they help families that have sacrificed their own comfort to
help others. On the other hand the family that had ended up with a pile of
kids because two divorced people got married and brought all their rug-rats
with them--not so much.

I also don't care for the totally phony premise that the family
doesn't know they've been chosen until they hear their names being
called over Ty's bullhorn--hogwash. If you pay attention you can
occasionally see wireless mic packs on some family members as they
run out of their old house screaming, obviously they already knew
what was up.

According to my source, the family is told they are a finalist, one
of three in the area that may be chosen. This allows the planning
crew to have access. They may know before the bus pulls up, but only
by a very short time. They have to meet certain guidlines in
awarding the prize to be a charitable setup for the show.

Interesting, I hadn't heard that. I read an article about the show where Ty
and the rest tried to stick to the story that it's all a surprise, and
clearly it couldn't be. However they did explain those in-ear monitors Ty
wears are so the producer can coach him on things to say while they're
taping, helps keeps the emotions spontaneous and cuts costs so they don't
have to re-shoot scenes.