Saturday night’s return of TLC’s Trading Spaces after a 10-year hiatus drew 2.8 million viewers in live+3 Nielsen ratings, the network announced Thursday.

The home renovation series, hosted by Paige Davis, also posted the most viewers on any show on cable during the evening, according to the network.

The lead in to the series’ premiere, Trading Spaces Reunion Special, drew 2.5 million total viewers. The combined airings led to the network’s highest-rated Saturday night in eight years, said network officials. 

'Trading Spaces' host Paige Davis discusses the return of the home decoration series to TLC in a new MCN Original Videos "One Question For ..." segment. 

In New York’s Times Square last month, WE tv drummed up support for the March 2 launch of a series by opening a pop-up “Museum of Natural Hysteria,” replete with a scream booth, a Rage-O-Meter Punching Bag, cranial massage chairs and a rogues’ photo gallery of viral brides to be, including an infamous one in 2012 who was left at the altar. (Google it.)

Few shows might be deemed worthy of such an oversized promotional presentation, but the cable network deemed the return of its series Bridezillasafter a five-year hiatus to be one of them. The AMC Networks outlet is resurrecting the reality show for fans who want to watch, again, as women lose their grip prior to their nuptials, as well as a new generation that wants to know what the fuss was about.

WE tv is one of several cable channels resurrecting TV franchises previously thought buried in the graveyard of cancelled shows. While the broadcast networks are generating headlines with reboots of such classic shows as Roseanne, Murphy Brown and Get Christie Love!, cable networks are also looking to mine ratings gold by resurrecting nostalgic programming.

Related: Broadcast ’Boots Bring Back Buzz

Heading Back to the Beach
Networks say bringing back popular series, from TLC’s Trading Spaces to MTV’s Jersey Shore, which comes back in April with the original cast, including JWOWW, Snooki and The Situation, in Jersey Shore Family Vacation — already green-lit by MTV for a second season — generates instant viewer recognition in a crowded and noisy environment.

“There’s so much television these days, and so much entertainment for people — you have to find a way to hook them quickly — and I think there’s a built-in interest and excitement around a [rebooted] series that provides a different way to tap that existing passion,” said Tom Ascheim, president of Freeform, which will reboot the 1990s Fox series Party of Five. “We definitely hope it makes it easier to promote and taps into an existing fan base, as well as attract people who haven’t spent so much time with the show or vaguely heard of it and want to see the new one.”

While TV programmers have long sought to relive the glory of classic shows through remakes and movie takeoffs, the trend has exploded over the past year as networks look to offer content with built-in audiences to counteract a Peak TV dynamic that featured more than 450 scripted television shows in 2017 and is expected to grow this year.

More than a dozen shows from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s are scheduled to return to the air in 2018. Some will be completely new versions of the original, others will feature the shows’ original casts. They come in a variety of genres, including comedy (CBS’s Murphy Brown), drama (CBS’s Magnum P.I.), and unscripted fare (History’s In Search of …).

Even streaming services that haven’t been around very long are tapping into the past with reboots of classic shows like The Twilight Zone (CBS All Access), Lost in Spaceand Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Netflix).

WE tv executive vice president of development and original programming Lauren Gellert said social media has changed the dynamics of preparing for a wedding day, which has allowed the network to bring back popular series Bridezillas.

After a 10-season run, the series was benched, replaced in the lineup by Marriage Boot Camp.

With social sites such as Pinterest and Facebook becoming major platforms for brides to shop and showcase themselves, Gellert said the network saw an opportunity to reboot the franchise for a new generation.

“Bridezillas was obviously a fan favorite when we rested the show, but it certainly didn’t leave the zeitgeist and pop-culture lexicon of words often used in the press and by celebrities,” she said. “We thought it was a good time for a little nostalgia and to tap into some of our roots.”

Gellert said the show will draw former Bridezillas fans as well as social media-savvy millennials looking to connect with the franchise.

“There’s a new ‘better find me my selfie stick’ kind of bridezilla out there that thinks everything should just be fine if she orders flowers she saw on Pinterest,” Gellert said.

TLC will also look to shake the dust off of one of its most popular series, Trading Spaces, which returns with new episodes on April 7 after being off the air for a decade. The series, arguably the granddaddy of the home-renovation genre, premiered in 2000, but new episodes for the show have not aired since 2008.

TLC president Nancy Daniels, upped last week to chief brand officer, Discovery & Factual, at Discovery Communications, told TV critics in January that the series, which will bring back many of the show’s stars (including host Paige Davis) was a cornerstone show for TLC that fans had for years inquired about returning.

“From the moment we announced it, we knew it was the right time,” Daniels said during the Television Critics Association tour. “Just the interest, the excitement and the people coming out of the woodwork to tell you their favorite episodes and favorite stories … I’m thrilled and excited, and I just feel like it is the right time.”

Davis said the Trading Spaces brand remains popular with viewers despite the proliferation of home improvement shows that have aired since the series left the air. She added that the return of the show’s original crew as well as the addition of several new professionals will help the show’s appeal beyond its fan base.

“Trading Spaces will offer viewers the same thing it offered when it first came into the landscape — creativity, resourcefulness and approachability — and we created a catalyst for a new genre of television,” she said. “I’m not concerned that Trading Spaces will not break through the clutter; one of the benefits of all of that stuff being out there is that our viewing audience is much more educated, and they’ll appreciate what we have always offered.”

Reviving a popular show with its original cast isn’t a guarantee of ratings success. For reboots to work, the show has to remind people of the past but reflect today’s society and culture, Freeform’s Ascheim said. The Walt Disney Co.-owned network’s reboot of Party of Five, in which five brothers and sisters are forced to raise themselves after their parents die, changes the dynamics of the original by following the lives of five siblings after their parents are deported.

“The basic construct is the same, but this time updated to reflect the culture in which we live now,” Ascheim said. “It feels like it’s up to this moment in our world when it launches.”

Familiarity Breeds Success
The show’s familiarity, coupled with its ability to address some of today’s societal issues, could be a recipe for attracting young viewers who may or may not have streamed episodes from the original series on Hulu.

“Just in the same way that we often base a television series on a movie, book or some other pre-existing or intellectual property that people already have a relationship with, taking a familiar series makes viewers more likely to pay attention on the way toward making the show,” Ascheim said. “And then once it’s made they create a disposition and affection for it.”

WE tv’s Gellert said reboots appeal to viewers exhausted by the constant drumbeat of controversy and drama in the current breaking-news cycle and want comfort television, something safe and familiar. “I think there’s some innate goodness in Bridezillas, because there’s a lot of humor and it really is an over-the-top reaction to what is the biggest day of many of these women’s lives,” she said. “We see a wedding at the end and we feel good about that. We laughed with her — we thought she was insane — and yet we see that he is really marrying her, and how happy this crazy bride is. There’s humor, a lot of lightness and a celebratory moment, and I do think we need that in today’s fast-paced media environment.”

Ascheim doesn’t believe the reboot phenomena is in danger of running out of steam in the near future, adding that these reimagined shows can thrive side by side with the plethora of new, original scripted and reality shows.

“I don’t think we’re in danger of going overboard yet,” he said.

TLC has created a digital spinoff series of its iconic Trading Spaces franchise.

The six-part Training Spaces series, which will be hosted by Trading Spaces host Paige Davis, will be released on the TLC Go TV Everywhere service in Spring 2018 and will follow three new designers and carpenters and they go through a series of challenges aimed to strengthen the skills they will need to transform rooms across America, said network officials.

TLC will return Trading Spaces to its lineup in 2018 after a seven-year hiatus. The network earlier this week announced the new cast of designers for the series, including Doug Wilson, Carter Oosterhouse, Frank Bielec, Genevieve Gorder, Hildi Santo-Tomas, Laurie Smith, Ty Pennington and Vern Yip, said network officials.

“We are thrilled to welcome back Trading Spaces with a brand new multi-platform content experience,” said Scott Lewers, Senior vice President of Multi-Platform Programming and Digital Content at TLC in a statement. “Training Spaces will give fans a unique introduction to the talented designers and carpenters we’re adding to the roster of one of our most classic series.”

Cable networks are looking to breathe new life into classic reality series in an effort to get a leg up in a very crowded and competitive television environment.

Iconic reality series such as Trading Spaces (TLC), Cold Case Files (A&E), Cash Cab (Discovery Channel), Cold Justice (Oxygen), Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Netflix) and Biography (A&E) will return to the small screen later this year and into 2018, hoping to trade on their familiarity with viewers to recapture old fans and draw in new viewers, according to network officials.

“There’s a nostalgia about it,” TLC president and general manager Nancy Daniels said of Trading Spaces, the network’s popular home design and decorating series that ran from 2000-11. The network will resurrect the series next year.

“It’s a brand that people know and love,” Daniels said. “In a world where it’s so hard to break through with something new, to have something that has an automatic, built-in fan base is a gift.”

Indeed, the reality genre is joining its scripted brethren in creating updated versions of classic shows. Decades-old sitcoms such as One Day at a Time and Full House have been resurrected into more contemporary versions by Netflix, while movies such as Lethal Weapon and Westworld were turned into successful scripted series this past fall by Fox and HBO, respectively.

Discovery Channel Group president Rich Ross said bringing back a well-known franchise like Discovery’s unscripted game show series Cash Cab — which will return to the network later this year after a five-year hiatus — provides a network with a built-in marketing advantage that other new shows don’t give it.

“There is no doubt that familiarity gives you a leg up in a crowded universe, and when you don’t have to resell a premise its much easier,” he said. “It’s a simple premise, but seemingly timeless.”

Other networks are bringing back shows that resonate with some of TV’s hottest programming-genre trends. A&E this past February relaunched its documentary series Cold Case Files after an 11-year hiatus, amid the growing popularity of true crime programming within the TV marketplace.

Advancements in crime-solving technology — along with good, old-fashioned detective work — have created new interest in the series, Elaine Frontain Bryant, A&E executive vice president and head of programming, said.

“Good ideas are good ideas, and when they can be revamped in new ways and come back as fresh, it can work again,” she said. “The show had been off for several years, but given this renewed interest in crime programming, we thought this was the perfect time to bring it back.”

The surge in popularity for home improvement-themed content in recent years was the catalyst for TLC’s decision to resurrect Trading Spaces, according to Daniels.

“The home and property shows are huge and everybody has their favorites,” she said. “We absolutely think there’s still a rabid consumption of property shows, and with Trading Spaces we can draw in those viewers that are nostalgic about the show as well as new viewers.”

TLC is just starting the process and has not made any decisions on the reboot, Daniels said, including who will host the reality series. She did not rule out bringing back the original Trading Spaces cast, including host Paige Davis.

“There’s such an affinity for it, and it just felt like the time was right,” Daniels said.

TLC will look to build on its property and home improvement lineup with the return of its classic series Trading Spaces, the network said.

The series, which ran on TLC from 2000-2011 and helped usher in the popular home improvement genre on cable, will make its return to the network in 2018, according to TLC president and general manager Nancy Daniels. She added the network is “open” to having the stars from the original series return in the reboot -- including former host Paige Davis -- although no deals have been reached. 

The announcement comes on the heels of the network’s recent launch of home improvement series Nate & Jeremiah bBy Design.

“We are thrilled to expand in this space, and what better way to do that than to bring back Trading Spaces, the series that put property on the map,” Daniels said.

The network also said it will launch later this year, This Is Life Live, a four-day live event that will follow the personal journeys of families experiencing an extraordinary circumstance, said network officials. 

In other TLC news, the network will spin off its relationship-themed series 90 Day Fiancé with the development of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days and a digital series 90 Day Fiancé: What Now?Also in the genre, the network will develop new series Hear Me, Love Me, See Me, said network officials.

The network will also develop several documentaries, including The Fall, which relives the controversy surrounding the collision between Olympic runners Mary Decker and Zola Budd during the 1984 Olympics, and Diana: Tragedy or Treason, focusing on the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death.