Television may seem like an ideal medium for "couch potatoes," but one hot trend in "reality" TV has been the home-redesign show, in which people frantically pound nails and paint walls to meet an artificially imposed TV deadline to unveil a beautiful new room or house. That's hardly "reality" TV, since home renovations typically drag along through months of procrastination or aggravated home loan finagling.

 ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" takes the home-redesign formula and improves it with a very uplifting dose of humanitarianism. Each Sunday night, ABC wows audiences as carpenter Ty Pennington and a crew of designers, contractors and workmen completely renovate the home of a deserving family. Unlike other reality shows that emphasize and exploit the cast's worst qualities, ABC goes hunting for deserving targets of its charity: people and families who have either suffered deaths in the family, or work around disabilities or chronic illnesses, or lead ministries or troubled communities.

 In the first season, ABC's home renovators created a livable space out of a home riddled with dangerous mold; renovated and paid the mortgage on the home of nine orphaned siblings being raised by the eldest children; and added space to the cramped home of a couple who already had two children and were expecting triplets.

 Not only do the builders create a bigger and more efficient space for these families, but they also design warm rooms that reflect the personalities of the parents and the children they help. In case the show didn't seem super-nice enough, usable items taken out of the renovated homes are donated to other charities, including Habitat for Humanity and women's shelters.

 Have no fear that Nice is the only "reality" option. The networks still serve up enough scheming bachelorettes and plotting survivors for the seamier, nastier side of so-called unscripted television. But it's a rare breath of fresh air when the networks can offer a little hope and happiness on their TV menu to balance out the sleaze and greed.