HGTV is sending six designers to live inside one of Ohio’s most notorious haunted houses for a month, and the network is betting the fear factor sells as well as the renovation does. A Very Haunted Renovation premieres Tuesday, September 15, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, according to HGTV’s official press release, and centers on Bihl Manor, a long-abandoned mansion in Fremont, Ohio that was reportedly on the verge of demolition before producers stepped in.
The six-episode competition series is hosted by actress Anna Camp, who called Bihl Manor “one of the most haunted homes in America” in the network’s announcement, adding that the property is “unoccupied, falling apart and on the verge of demolition” and that “no one is brave enough to step foot inside — until now,” per the release.
Key Points
- Six interior designers live inside Bihl Manor for 31 days, competing in teams of three for a $50,000 cash prize.
- The mansion is said to be haunted by the spirits of former residents Lizzie and Alvie Bihl, whose presence reportedly lingers in the home’s sleeping quarters, according to Dread Central.
- Design mentor Michel Smith Boyd oversees the competition, with guest judges including Jack Osbourne, Billy Porter, Cassandra Peterson, horror director Eli Roth and actress Lulu Wilson.
- New episodes air weekly on HGTV and stream on HBO Max the following day.
The show pairs off six competing designers — SK Stokes Kennedy, Patrick Peel, John Ryan, Bershan Shaw, Logan Wright and Diana Vogel — into teams of three for elimination challenges, each with a four-day completion window, according to HGTV. Rather than the usual before-and-after formula the network is known for, producers are leaning into the mansion’s dark reputation as a driver of the drama, with judges brought in specifically for horror-adjacent credibility: Roth is a genre filmmaker, Peterson is best known as horror-hostess Elvira, and Osbourne has spent years investigating reportedly haunted locations on unscripted television.
Bihl Manor’s deterioration is central to the show’s premise: the mansion had sat empty long enough that demolition was reportedly on the table before HGTV’s production team intervened, per Dread Central’s reporting on the property’s history. That gives the series a genuine preservation stake underneath the ghost-story marketing — a real, structurally troubled historic home that either gets restored on camera or continues its slide toward the wrecking ball.
The series arrives as part of a broader wave of new HGTV programming rolling out this fall, with September marking one of the network’s busiest premiere stretches of the year. Whether or not viewers buy into Bihl Manor’s reputation, the renovation stakes are concrete: a historic Ohio property, six designers, and a monthlong deadline before the cameras stop rolling.
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