Downsized Archives - Channel Guide Magazine

“Downsized” finale: It’s time to move on

October 18, 2011 Lori Acken Comments Off

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA After a brutal season of medical scares, financial ups-and-downs and relationship crises and more, tonight’s Season 2 finale of Downsized (9pm on WE tv) seems to usher in a time of fresh starts for some members of the Bruce-Rumsey family. • MORE: Did Season 2 go the way the Bruce’s planned? We talked with Todd and Laura before the premiere. Bailey continues to insist to Laura that her bruises were caused by mutual roughhousing with her new boyfriend, leading her siblings and her friends to take sides on what actually happened. Unwilling to accept Bailey’s injuries, […]

Tonight on “Downsized”: It’s crying time

October 11, 2011 Lori Acken 1

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA After last week’s jewelry-sale-and-junk-van debacles, Laura thinks it’s time to enlist a third party to help her and Todd with their communication issues the way Dean has helped them with their financial issues. Todd balks at first, but gives in and agrees to go.

Tonight on “Downsized”: the Bruce’s emergency fund runs dry

October 4, 2011 Lori Acken 1

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA Everybody’s been there. You get a little cash in the bank — a tax return, an unexpected windfall, a little dab of financial breathing room — and the universe seems to sense it. Something breaks down. A kid need braces. And suddenly your cushion-cash is in someone else’s coffers. On tonight’s episode of Downsized, the Bruces are driven to the breaking point by escalating cash demands — and teaching the triplets to drive. Each parent makes a startling decision that reflects their vastly different ideas about when to save and spend.

Tonight on “Downsized”: Laura Bruce faces the reality of her MS

September 20, 2011 Lori Acken 1

On tonight’s all-new episode of WE tv’s Downsized, Laura participates in a charity run in support of people living with MS — the disease with which she was diagnosed six years before. But the sight of people driven into wheelchairs by multiple sclerosis forces the already stressed-out mom to face what the advance of the disease could do to her and how it will affect her family — and inspires her family to rally in support of her. Watch “Run For Your Life” tonight at 9pm ET/8pm CT on WE tv.

On “Downsized” tonight: divorce drama and Dean saves the day

August 30, 2011 Lori Acken Comments Off

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuide This week, we find out that the family’s insurance doesn’t touch the bills from Rex’s asthma attack, leaving the family with a brand-new, house-killing $24,000 debt. The ensuing stress, combined with the anniversary of her mom’s death, takes an emotional toll on the exhausted Laura — and ignites battles with Todd that the kids fear may lead to divorce. But it’s Dean to the rescue again, with proactive suggestions for the couple (you might want to take notes, too) on how to manage Rex’s medical bills responsibly, and dent — but not break completely — the […]

“Downsized” Sneak Peek: Rex is in the hospital and Bailey’s in big trouble

August 23, 2011 Lori Acken Comments Off

As the premiere episode made plain, even though there’s a dab of cash in the Bruce family bank account, it doesn’t mean that they’re free from financial and familial drama. After Rex’s “pyramid of Giza”-induced asthma attack results in a several-day hospital stay that the Bruce’s new insurance will likely not cover, Laura realizes that she was right and their finances aren’t stable enough to consider buying a home. She wants to cancel the bid she and Todd put on the fixer-upper Todd convinced her they could afford, but Todd believes he can make enough money to manage both. In […]

The Bruce family is back in the black — barely — on a new season of “Downsized” on WE tv

August 16, 2011 Lori Acken 3

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuide They’re not broke anymore. But that doesn’t mean life has gotten easier for Todd and Laura Bruce, the once-wealthy Arizona couple whose inspiring battle against the effects of the economic downturn on their blended family of nine is the subject of WEtv reality series Downsized, which returns for a second season tonight at 9pm ET/PT.