HGTV star Christina Haack’s new show The Flip Off is about to debut, and on the eve of its premiere, her mind was on her estranged husband, Josh Hall.

Christina sat down with American Idol alum Jennifer Hudson on The Jennifer Hudson Show, presumably to promote her soon-to-drop show alongside another ex, Tarek El Moussa.

Originally, The Flip Off – which, again, has not yet aired – had a very specific premise, as HGTV explained last spring:

“During The Flip Off, Tarek and Christina, along with their new partners — real estate agents Heather Rae El Moussa and Josh Hall — will compete to see who can find, buy, renovate and flip a house for the biggest financial gain (and a chance at major bragging rights).”

Honestly, it was pretty bold of HGTV to put so much stock into the longevity of a Christina Haack marriage — that blurb appeared on an HGTV blog post back on May 16, and a lot has happened since then.

Literally two months later, on July 16, a then twice-divorced Christina disclosed that she and then-husband Josh Hall were headed for a hat-trick divorce.

Naturally, that cast the future of the in-production The Flip Off in doubt, because its entire premise was a house-flipping battle royale between two exes, Christina and Tarek, and their new partners — and without Josh, the show’s basis appeared to collapse.

Christina and Josh have been at one another’s throats in the media since the split became public, so there was no real way to preserve the premise, either.

HGTV has been dropping sneak peeks of the reality TV competition in the lead up to its debut, and in late December, the network showed us the purported moment where Christina informs Tarek that she and Josh are breaking up — a scene with added tension, since Christina and Tarek have two children together.

During the sneak peek, Christina told Tarek that their kids wanted her to leave Josh:

“Things with Josh have been bad for a long time. The kids literally asked me to, to, to leave.

“They told me he’s not nice to me, [and asked] why would I stick around?”

In spite of the original concept, HGTV dropped Josh from The Flip Off, but the show is still going forward, and Christina says she likes it better that way.

Christina Said Josh Was ‘Weighing Her Down’

On Tuesday, Christina and Tarek were joined by Tarek’s wife, Heather El Moussa, for a segment on The Jennifer Hudson Show.

After explaining their relationships to one another to the audience, Tarek and Christina talked about filming The Flip Off.

Unsurprisingly, Christina found an in to complain about Josh’s overbearing behavior, and she said:

“It’s so much easier without somebody else bothering me. I mean, I don’t have to ask approval from anyone, no one’s, like, weighing me down.”

Per US Magazine, Christina has complained about working with Josh before, telling the outlet it was “very hard” to film with him before they broke up:

“[Josh] didn’t get it. He’d always get upset with me, like, ‘Oh, my gosh, you did this’ or ‘You did that.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m making a TV show.’

“Ultimately, it was better that he left after episode one because the show would’ve sucked.”

With respect to The Flip Off, Jennifer asked Christina if she thought Josh’s exit left her at a disadvantage, and she replied: “No, I think I have an advantage.”

The Flip Off premieres on Wednesday, January 29 at 8pm on HGTV.