GLAAD Media Award nominees Keith Bynum & Evan Thomas are taking their show Bargain Block from Detroit to Louisiana — New Orleans to be specific.
The pair, who are also a couple off-screen, have made a name for themselves by taking rundown houses on a single block and transforming them into starter homes. They were looking forward to switching things up by moving the show from Detroit to New Orleans for the season.
“The winters in Detroit kind of finally got to us,” Bynum told GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos. “We’ve been working a lot in Detroit through will push through the winters and it really does start to wear on you…”
Thomas chimed in, “… when you’re trying to figure out how to paint a house and it’s 10 degrees out… you really start to question your life choices and figure out ‘how can I make this better?'”
With Bynum originally from the south, he saw it as an opportunity. “I’ve always kind of wanted to reconnect with the South,” he said. “[New Orleans] is kind of perfect for us. It’s not necessarily like the rest of Louisiana. And for us, that works really well. I love it down there.”
The couple has trimmed down since the show started and Thomas admits that they had to “put down the beignets.”
“The beignets were very difficult to give up,” said Bynum. “New Orleans in the winter was a lot more active. We biked to work every day. We’ve walked to work a lot of the times if it wasn’t raining. And it’s just like, it’s a great place to be for the winter. It’s definitely an active city and I will say I love the gym there. It’s like we’re working out in like Hogwarts or something.”
“I’ve never been a super fit person,” said Thomas, adding that he has been more aware of his fitness saying that he “feels a lot better.” However, that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy the Louisiana cuisine. “We have enjoyed the food.. it’s not an everyday thing.”
There are a few differences in the logistics when it comes to Bargain Block to New Orleans because it isn’t Detroit.
“For one thing, the prices are just higher,” said Thomas. “So it’s sort of like what we do back in Michigan, but just like multiplied by like two or three times, just in terms of cost.”
Bynum continued, “The ground — we’ve learned so much about the actual city topography. So the ground is essentially like a little sponge and it swells and expands when it takes water and then it gets dry and it gets smaller.”
The last time GLAAD talked to Bynum and Thomas, they were celebrating their 10th anniversary and it seems that they are still going strong as a couple that lives and works together.
“Honestly, I feel like we’ve kind of worked out those kinks like years ago,” said Thomas. “I mean, we have been spending every waking minute together for a long time actually.”
He said that their relationship is a balancing act. “We always say that you really have to just learn how to compromise… and just kind of like roll with what’s what’s happening.”
“Like today… it has been an unbelievable roller coaster,” said Bynum. “We got some of the most life-altering news ever for me and then moments later, we got some of the worst news in for the business… I think that’s a big part of why the relationship is okay… our personal world is very calm and our business is wild. We ride those waves on a different one than our personal lives.
New episodes of Bargain Block New Orleans debut Wednesday nights beginning October 9 with episodes streaming the same day and time on discovery+ and Max.