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The social media page that achieved viral fame by sharing the zaniest listings on Zillow is ready for its close-up.
Zillow Gone Wild, which counts over 2 million followers across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, is getting its own nine-episode HGTV series, with eight half-hour episodes and an hour-long season finale.
Each episode will take fans on detailed tours of unique homes that are on the real estate market. The episodes will each feature three quirky homes and share the backstories of their buyers, sellers and unique histories, according to an announcement by HGTV made Tuesday.
“Millions of people are obsessed with scrolling through outrageous and over-the-top properties on social media while dreaming about where they would like to live,” Loren Ruch, head of content at HGTV said in a statement. “Zillow Gone Wild will take the fascination a step further by giving fans a cheeky glimpse inside the most unusual homes on the market, offering those unexpected ‘wow’ moments that will keep viewers coming back for more.”
The series will tell whether each home has sold, to whom and for how much, culminating in the season finale where the wildest home will be revealed. The show will also focus on people who have embraced non-traditional homes and the methods real estate professionals use to market them.
Zillow, the behemoth online listing portal, offered support for the show, with a spokesperson saying more details would be released in the future.
“We are huge HGTV fans and are excited for this show,” A Zillow spokesperson told Inman. “We can share more details in the coming months.”
Zillow Gone Wild launched in 2021 and quickly earned popularity across multiple platforms. It now counts 1.8 million followers on Instagram alone. Run by New Yorker Samir Mezrahi, the account has found a loyal audience by digging up and sharing the most interesting homes listed on Zillow. Posts have included a house made out of huts in Virginia, a pristine midcentury modern home in Florida, and a “perfect modern home” in Sierra Madre, California.
The page is perhaps the most popular example of the growing ecosystem of online real estate content creators who mine real estate listings for entertainment value. The television show, meanwhile, may prove to be the most fruitful example so far of one of those creators monetizing their content.
A previous Inman deep-dive found this goal had proved elusive for most creators. Mezrahi had previously only been able to monetize the page through a handful of sponsored posts, he told Inman.
