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Natpe to honour ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’
MUMBAI: ABC’s reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which chronicles the lives of deserving families as their homes undergo a seven-day transformation, will be honored with Natpe’s third annual Innovator Award at the LATV Fest on 13 July.
The series is produced by Endemol. Endemol USA senior VP of Development Caroline Baumgard, ABC Entertainment Group’s senior VP programming Rob Smith and senior VP of alternative series, Specials and Late-Night Vicki Dummer will accept the award at a cocktail reception that evening.
Natpe created the Innovator Award to recognise outstanding achievement in unscripted programming. Recipients of the award demonstrate extraordinary passion and leadership, leveraging their platform in new, innovative and productive ways.
Natpe president and CEO Rick Feldman says, “The efforts made by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition exemplify the ability to empower viewers through television as they showcase the positive changes made in the lives of hundreds of families across the country. Natpe is proud to honor the show for its contributions and influence with this year’s Innovator Award.”
Each episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is self-contained and features a project that would ordinarily take at least four months to achieve, involving a team of designers, contractors and several hundred volunteer workers who have seven days to totally rebuild and decorate an entire house, including every room, the exterior and landscaping.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
