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Utah couple’s home renovation TV show will return after complaints of shoddy work, cost overruns

Magnolia Network say there was no ‘malicious intent.’ Candis and Andy Meredith call some clients ‘malicious.’

(DIY Network) Candis and Andy Meredith's home renovation show will return to TV after the Magnolia Network pulled it because of allegations of shoddy work, long delays and big cost overruns.

A home renovation show hosted by a Utah couple will return to the Magnolia Network after an investigation found no “ill or malicious intent” was behind shoddy work, delays and cost overruns some of the couple’s clients claimed they experienced.

However, “Home Work” stars Candis and Andy Meredith are calling some of their unhappy clients “malicious” for making their complaints public. Episodes of their show are scheduled to resume airing on Feb. 1.

Magnolia Network president Allison Page issued a statement acknowledging that some of the Merediths’ renovations had gone awry. “After speaking with homeowners as well as Candis and Andy Meredith regarding renovation projects for ‘Home Work,’ and hearing a mix of both positive and negative experiences, we do not believe there was ill or malicious intent,” Page said.

On Jan. 6 — two days after the Magnolia launched on cable and satellite systems — the network pulled “Home Work” after at least four Utah homeowners went public with claims that they signed contracts with the Merediths, but had experienced monthslong delays, ballooning costs, substandard work and a lack of communication. Magnolia did not dispute any of those claims. Page said the network has committed “to provide appropriate resolutions for those whose experience with ‘Home Work’ fell short of our network’s standards. While ‘Home Work’ will return to Magnolia Network, we recognize the responsibility we have to act on how we can better support not only our talent, but those who put their trust in them and this brand.”

Magnolia is a co-venture of Discovery and Chip and Joanna Gaines, the hosts of the popular “Fix Upper” home renovation show. It launched online in July 2021 — all 13 episodes of “Home Work” had been streaming for months. The Gaines have made no comment on the show getting pulled from and restored to the Magnolia schedule.

“Home Work” is the Merediths’ second TV series. In 2015, they hosted four episodes of “Old Home Love” on the DIY Network. (Magnolia replaced DIY on Jan. 4.) Their home renovations caught the eye of Joanna Gaines on Instagram, leading to their current series. The Merediths have been compared to the Gaines – both married couples who work together to renovate homes; both parents with a lot of children. The Gaines are the parents of five; the Merediths, a blended family, have seven — Candis and Andy each brought three children into their marriage, then had a seventh. The Merediths are Utah natives — she’s from American Fork; he’s from Bluffdale.

In social media posts, the Merediths “adamantly” denied that they had “scammed, stolen or lied to any of these clients. We have paid our own personal funds on every client project for our show and did not charge anything for the hundreds of hours we put into the projects.”

The Merediths said they “took on too much at one time” while producing episodes of “Home Work,” but placed much of the blame for their troubled projects on contractors. They also claimed that one of the unhappy clients who went public “has made false claims and is purposely trying to take anything she can from us.”

The couple posted on Instagram that they had been “warned that the ‘Instagram mafia’ would come for us, and we are in an extremely difficult position defending ourselves while not attacking or diminishing the feelings of others. At this point, due to the literal threat to the safety of our family, we have no choice but to share these things.”

The Merediths said their children had been bullied at school, and they had received death threats. They said they “understand the frustrations” of their dissatisfied clients, but — despite the fact that the renovations were undertaken for a television show — added that the disputes “should have been resolved privately … and not in this malicious and salacious attempt to take away our means of living.”

Although the Merediths have been working on additional episode of “Home Work,” Magnolia has not confirmed that there will be a second season of the series.