Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Ty and the team make their way to tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri, for the series finale of one of the most life-changing show in TV history! On May 22, 2011, a catastrophic tornado ravaged the town of Joplin, killing approximately 160 people and destroying nearly 8,000 houses. Some of the Joplin families lost friends, some lost children, and all lost their homes. The Extreme Team will help create seven beautiful homes in just seven days. It's unbelievable. It's unprecedented. And it's going to happen.

Ty and the team head to Fayette County, Iowa to surprise the Gibbs family! Audrey Gibbs is a mother, a widow, a farm owner and a maternal optimist who won't let anything stop her from raising her six children, not even her blindness and her battle with a potentially fatal condition. The Gibbs family own and live on a farm which they rent portions of to local farmers for additional income. Their farmhouse is in need of significant repair, with no working toilet, a ceiling that's caving in and a layout that doesn't work for the family at all--especially for Audrey, if she loses her eyesight completely. The family needs help. Well, help is on the way!

The team helps Columbus, Ohio, grandparents who care for their adult daughter, who has a brain tumor, and her children in their small house that's home to seven people.

The team helps build a home for the family of a teenager who lost his hand while trying to do work on their current house.

The team helps build a home for the family of an 11-year-old who took his own life due to bullying.

The team builds a new home and storage facility for a family devoted to providing food, shelter and support to those in need; game-show host Meredith Vieira and chef Michel Symon visit with additional surprises.

“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and the Entertainment Industry Foundation are joining forces for a one-hour special fundraising event entitled.” Host Ty Pennington and singer/songwriter Jewel will take viewers on an inspiring journey back to some of the most heartwarming military stories featured throughout the series. The “EM:HE” crew will also pay a visit to select heroic families to find out what they’ve been up to since the makeover and how they are paying it forward by helping their fellow veterans. Throughout the episode, celebrities will highlight issues facing our military. The special will enable the television audience to give back and donate to the military families who give so much – a chance to rise up and honor those who have personally sacrificed so much to ensure our freedom. The special will air on Veterans Day.

Award-winning actress Glenn Close personally nominated the Hill family and appears in this episode. The patriarch, Staff Sergeant Allen Hill, an Iraqi war vet who suffers from crippling PTSD, was unable to return home, since it’s situated near a busy railroad and quarry with frequent explosions that can trigger his condition. With the help of the organization founded by Ms. Close, Bring Change 2 Mind, and a therapy dog program called Puppies Behind Bars, the designers from “EM:HE” will work to build the Hill family a new home in a quiet environment to be reunited with his wife and children.

The “EM:HE” crew travels to Medford, Oregon to help the McPhail Family, who started a local nonprofit to help children with special needs, never dreaming that someday their own two children would be need its services after the boys were diagnosed with autism. Acclaimed author, professor and animal behaviorist Dr. Temple Grandin, one of the most visible spokespeople for those with autism, helps the “EM:HE” design team create a new home for the family with sensitivities to the needs of the boys.

The team helps build a home for the family of a man who quit his job to take care of his paralyzed adult son.

The team helps build a home for the family of a girl with dwarfism.

The team helps build a home for the family of a 9-year-old girl whose leg was amputated as a result of injuries incurred while saving her sister from

The team builds a new home for a woman whose young son has a blood disorder.

First Lady Michelle Obama makes an appearance in the ninth-season opener in which the Steps-N-Stages Jubilee House for homeless female veterans in Fayetteville, N.C., founded by Navy veteran Barbara Marshall, is renovated with the help of armed-forces members.