A&E’sHoardersis one of a few television series that are so addictive yet so painful to watch.
Speaking withThe New York TimesMagazine,Hoardersproducer Robert Sharenow addressed the surprising popularity of the show.
“There’s something kind of Joycean about watching a hoarder,” he explained.
Prepare to dig deep and uncover the untold truth of A&E’sHoarders.
When the series returned for a second season, ratings were even bigger.
According to A&E (viaTheWrap), the Season 2 premiere attracted 3.2 million viewers.
As subsequent seasons aired, ratings never again hit those heights, but they remained solid.
What fans didn’t realize was that Season 6 would beHoarders' last for a while, at least.
In September 2013,Todayreported that an A&E spokesperson confirmed the show had been canceled.
As part of the deal, Paxton also became a media spokesperson for the company.
This new iteration ofHoarderstweaked the format, which would now throw live segments into the mix.
In fact,Channel Guidereported the season would kick off with an hour-long special focusing on two cases.
The latter segment concluded with a live intervention by the hoarder’s loved ones.
The eighth seasonkicked offby profiling a woman who was a bundle of contradictions.
A&E ranHoardersfor one more season, concluding in early 2017 before once again pulling the plug.
Yet that wasstillnot the end.
“You want bad?”
“That’s bad.”
As Paxton explained, hoarding hadn’t been officially categorized asa mental disorderuntil afterHoardershad already been on the air.
“We like to think that [the show] helped bring awareness,” he said.
That’s when I realized ‘Oh, this is national!
This iseverywhere…and it’s a secret.'"
“Would you want to live here?”
The couple presumably managed to avoid jail and remained in their home.
After years of neglect and hoarding, the home required extensive renovations.
“To the average person, the house looks done,” co-owner Michael Fuko-Rizzo toldNews & Record.
“But it needs various amounts of additional work and ongoing maintenance.
There,a comprehensive formcan be filled out, and there are alotof questions to answer.
“Does the hoarder have a compulsive urge to acquire?”
“How difficult would it be for emergency personnel to move equipment through the home?”
asks another pointed question.
This, he explained, marked a big difference fromHoarders' early days.
For example, is an auctioneer required?
What about tow trucks, or maybe a crew outfitted in hazmat suits?
These are just some of the factors to be considered when creating her plan.
“I react and organize according to the crisis at hand,” Breininger explained.
“They can stop right now.
They don’t have to bulldoze the house.”
“We’ve found tens of thousands of dollars, we’ve even found dead bodies in these hoards.
We find everything.”
“The biggest two reasons people hoard are depression and post-trauma,” he said.
Agreeing to letHoardershelp, Carter was apparently dissatisfied by what took place.
Carter admitted that her particular situation may have actually been beyond the scope ofHoarders.
“Truthfully, they did not realize how much stuff there was at my house,” she shared.
All told, the official discovered about two dozen animal carcasses during the episode.
The day after the episode aired, reported thePeoria Journal Star, police launched an investigation.
There was apparently a serious disconnect between that city official and the department he worked for.
