HGTV's The Flip Off Had Viewers Celebrating Josh Hall's Exit, But I'm Loving The Unexpected Tarek And Christina Appreciation

The wait is finally over. After months of intrigue (and quite a bit of uncertainty) about how The Flip Off would go down amidst Christina Haack and Josh Hall’s divorce, the new HGTV show has premiered on the 2025 TV schedule. Josh appeared in roughly half of the first episode, until it was revealed after an argument (and him saying that Christina was “pissing [him] off already”) that they had split. After all that, I’m not shocked that fans were happy to see Josh go, but I’m pleasantly surprised at the appreciation for Christina and Tarek El Moussa.

Midway through the first episode of The Flip Off — which pit Christina and Josh Hall against her first ex-husband Tarek El Moussa and his wife Heather Rae in a house-flipping competition — Christina asked Tarek to come over, where she told him she and Josh had broken up after a big fight. This led the Flip or Flop stars to look back at their own marriage, with both shedding tears and apologizing for past mistakes. It was an unexpectedly emotional scene, as one fan said on X (Twitter):

Others on social media were similarly not upset to see Josh Hall leave the show, as more posts read:

• Can they get to the part where Josh is kicked off the show, already 😳 – Michiiboo01
• Josh Hall has given me creepy, sketchy vibes since day one. – erikaxtc
• Okay how soon till we get Josh off the show. – jerzygirl45
• I'm so glad Josh is not on the new show – _kellyream
• Josh aint even make it 13 days through the flip off before he got kicked to the curb smh – 2Chingylover17

As depicted in The Flip Off sneak peek, Josh Hall did come off as overly competitive toward the El Moussas and quite insecure. But more than being relieved that we don’t have to endure an entire season of that, I was happy to see all the love being shown for Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa. These people on Reddit seem to really miss Flip or Flop, and I get it! They wrote:

• That scene was way more emotional and real than I expected. I started watching Flip or Flop a decade or so ago and it's my all time favorite HGTV show so that scene really got me. – callandra1121
• It wasn't just acting but it was raw emotions. I'm very surprised they showed Christina divorcing Josh like that during the actual episode. Her and Tarek crying was absolutely real with their history and I was surprised he was talking about his surgery and problems with drugs which he admits was a big reason why they divorced in the first place. – BrayIsReal
• I was surprised at how much I liked this! I enjoyed seeing the old footage of their audition tapes and acknowledge their troubled history. I was shocked that Tarek talked about being reliant on pain meds. They were vulnerable and I’m looking forward to the next episodes. – Admirable-Rent-3923

So it seems Josh Hall will not return to The Flip Off, and after a battle over their two kitchen flips has commenced, the competition advances to the primary bed and bathroom. We’ll have to see if the show continues to provide these unexpectedly candid moments between the former spouses.

New episodes of The Flip Off air at 8 p.m. ET Wednesdays on HGTV, and episodes can be streamed the next day with a Max subscription.