'NOT YOUR TYPICAL DESIGN SHOW'

'Queer Eye' alum Bobby Berk works with collectors trying to declutter on HGTV's 'Junk or Jackpot?'

- BY JIM HALTERMAN

JASON ARMOND Los Angeles Times BOBBY BERK was handpicked by pro wrestler and movie star John Cena to host "Junk or Jackpot?" The new series premieres Friday at 9:30 p.m. on HGTV.

Nobody does a jaw-drop reaction like Bobby Berk. It’s only surprising when you assume he’s probably seen it all after eight seasons traveling the world as the interior design expert on Netflix’s reboot of “Queer Eye”; writing his 2023 book, “Right at Home: How Good Design Is Good for the Mind”; making many TV appearances (including a Taylor Swift video) and selling pretty much anything to make your home shine on BobbyBerk.com.

But in his new HGTV series “Junk or Jackpot?,” premiering Friday at 9:30 p.m. Pacific time, genuine reactions come often from Burke as he enters the homes of Los Angeles collectors and sees not only rooms jam-packed with action figures, pinball machines, puppets and more, but also some jackpot items just sitting on a bookshelf. In one episode, for example, a collector shows Berk a trading card he has that is appraised in the $100,000 range. “I’m pretty sure I said, ‘What the f—?’ though I assume it was bleeped because it’s HGTV,” says Berk from his Los Angeles home. “I'm used to Netflix, where I could say whatever I wanted. But, yeah, that was just crazy to me.”

Reactions aside, the real marvel on “Junk or Jackpot?” is watching an enthusiastic Berk swoop into people’s homes to help them learn how to come to terms with a collecting hobby that has grown into something that’s stifling homes and putting a damaging strain on relationships. “Obviously, I’m not a therapist. I’m a designer, even though in our field, we often make the joke that we're not just designers, ‘we're marriage counselors,” he says.