A lot of people have a love-hate relationship with House Hunters and similar shows. But right now, a lot of people are only feeling love.
The HGTV series featured a throuple — a committed polyamorous relationship of three people — and fans are showing the episode with praise.
The House Hunters episode, "Three’s Not a Crowd in Colorado Springs," showed a throuple whose relationship added a layer to home-shopping.
Brian and Lori met, were legally married, and had two children.
Then, they met Angelica — and they both fell in love with her.
Though polyamorous marriage is unfortunately not legally recognized in the United States, they held a commitment ceremony with Angelica.
Their throuple status may make their lives richer and happier, but it does make things a little complicated when it comes to house-hunting.
The family is moving from Texas to Colorado Springs, Colorado. They want a house that suits their needs.
On top of everyone’s very specific desires for the home, they simply need to have enough room.
That means a three-car garage. That means a kitchen with enough space for three adults. And that means a sizable bedroom for their very big bed.
Polyamory in its various forms is rarely represented on television, let alone reality TV.
Viewers were overjoyed to see a throuple home-shopping, finding it encouraging and, frankly, educational.
"I was legit about to change the channel until I heard throuple," one fan tweeted. "You have my FULL attention now!"
"I have never sent a tweet about #HouseHunters until tonight," another confessed. "Bravo #hgtv, you got me with the throuple."
"Holy s–t a poly couple and the word bisexual used on #HouseHunters ???? WOW NICE I DIG," another tweet praised.
Notably, a lot of television treats "bisexual" as a no-no word. On scripted television, even overtly bi characters describe themselves as "flexible" or "open-minded."
"HGTV really might be the most progressive show on TV," one tweet opined. "About to watch a polyamory couple fight over a house!”
Another admitted on Twitter: “Honestly I feel like I learned a lot #HouseHunters."
Twitter continued to pile on the praise, including giving HGTV for "storming into 2020" with such positive representation.
"Literally perfect television," one tweet pronounced.
"Wow, shocked that this house hunters episode not only showed a poly relationship, but they called them a throuple the whole episode," another said.
The tweet continued: "And outright said the women were bisexual. Guess we gotta stan!"
"This throuple on house hunters… good for them," another tweet read. "Representation matters."
Bestselling feminist author Roxane Gay even gave House Hunters a Twitter shoutout.
"Oh my god," she marveled. "A throuple on House Hunters!"
"Great episode!!!! Educational," Roxane appraised.
Unfortunately, some people will always object to seeing anything other than monogamous, monoracial, heterosexual, cisgender couples on TV.
They’ll say, for example, that this throuple is somehow inherently inappropriate viewing for children, because there are three of them.
Polyamorous relationships aren’t inherently more sexual or less appropriate than monogamous ones. They just have more people.
A marriage bed is a marriage bed. Sometimes it just needs to be a little roomier. Way to go, House Hunters!
