For years, Bravo has had a lock on the traditional reality series with its Real Housewives universe, a franchise that has spawned 12 shows, nine of which are still on the air, as well as 25 standalone spinoffs.
But over the last year or two, The Walt Disney Company has been quietly building its own reality world, particularly on Hulu, one that it hopes can rival the NBCUniversal cabler, leaning into prettier young things that can flit between shows and flirt between casts.
This was evidenced by Hulu’s Get Real event on Tuesday night at Casa Lago – a sprawling estate in Beverly Hills with a private lake and polo arena – that saw cast members of shows such as The Secret Wives of Mormon Wives, The Kardashians, Love Thy Nader and Got To Get Out mix with the likes of Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper, executive producer of boat dating show Overboard For Love, and talent from longer running ABC shows such as The Bachelor and Dancing with Stars.
Overseeing the festivities was Rob Mills, EVP, Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment, Walt Disney Television, with one cheeky studio executive calling the event “RobCon”.
Mills kicked off the shindig by thanking the dozens of reality stars in the audience. “None of these shows would have been possible without you, literally none of them. So, thank you. These are your lives, your stories. You’ve invited us into all of them. Thank you for letting us tag along for the sometimes crazy, but always entertaining rides,” he said.
It’s quite the return for the reality genre. Some 15 years ago, anyone even somewhat connected to fame was handed a reality show. Remember E!’s Pretty Wild, starring Alexis Neiers, who after the pilot was filmed was arrested for being part of the infamous Bling Ring gang that robbed the houses of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan?
But outside of E!’s Keeping Up With The Kardashians, which eventually morphed into Hulu’s The Kardashians, and the aforementioned Housewives, the old school reality show had largely died out, fueled by the exponential growth of social media.
But this new approach, both on Hulu and other streamers and networks, is leaning into social media, taking talent that breaks through on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram and turning them into TV stars too.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (Disney)
Mills admitted that greenlighting a show like The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which began life as a TikTok dance craze, was a risk. But it was a risk that certainly paid off, becoming the streamer’s most-watched unscripted premiere of 2024, one that is thought to have even outrated The Kardashians, and got a broadcast slot on ABC.
This is also the case for Love Thy Nader, which follows Sports Illustrated model Brooks Nader and her three sisters, originally from the bayou of Louisiana, as they traverse the big city lights of New York city. Nader, who appeared on Dancing with the Stars, has over 1.6M Instagram followers.
These shows follow Hulu’s The D’Amelio Show, which followed the family, who have over 225M followers on TikTok, for three seasons.
Disney is already responsible for one of the longest running reality universes with ABC’s The Bachelor. The show has spawned multiple spinoffs including Bachelor in Paradise, which is heading to Costa Rica for its upcoming season, and The Golden Bachelor, which is back for its second season with a former NFL pro as its leading man – a man who lives in LA who has promised to date women his own age.
It’s a world that is searching for a new boss, following the fallout around Deadline’s investigation into a “toxic” culture, but Paradise will be run by Scott Teti, so there’s a little bit of time for Mills to make a decision as to who will take over as showrunner for The Golden Bachelor later this year.
But it’s also a world that recycles its stars; for instance, The Bachelorette’s Hannah Brown will be serving drinks on BiP alongside Wells Adams, who appeared on The Bachelorette in season 12.
Hulu has used this strategy for one of its most recent shows – competition series Got To Get Out. The show featured Bachelor Nation alum including Clare Crawley, Susan Noles and Demi Burnett and Dancing with the Stars alum Val Chmerkovskiy and Kim Zolciak-Biermann as well as the likes of Spencer Pratt, who Deadline understands is working with the streamer on a separate project with his wife Heidi Montag.
It is also starting to develop spinoffs of its reality crown jewel The Kardashians. Mills, joined by Khloé Kardashian and Scott Disick, who jokingly accepted a spot on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, revealed that Hulu was developing Calabasas: Behind The Gates, another series in the “Kardashian-verse”.
The Kardashians (Disney)
Hulu
“Remember when everybody was wondering, what is The Kardashians going to look like on Hulu, and you saw that first drone shot?,” said Mills. “Khloe and our partners at Fulwell are developing another show in the Kardashian-verse. As everybody knows, Calabasas is a gated community, and we all want to know what’s happening behind the gate of Calabasas. Who are all these people in the extended lives of the Kardashians?”
Disney is not alone in trying to create its own reality universes.
For one, there’s the Netflix Reality Universe. This includes shows like Perfect Match, which features contestants from other Netflix shows such Too Hot to Handle, Love Is Blind and The Circle, and Battle Camp, a competition series that features stars from The Ultimatum: Queer Love, Selling The OC, Cheer and Perfect Match. Take Chloe Veitch, who started as a contestant on dating show Too Hot To Handle before joining The Circle and then Perfect Match, before becoming a host in her own right with Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark.
Peacock has also done a solid job of expanding its Love Island USA franchise; in addition to the main show, it has Love Island Games as well as the recently ordered Love Island: Beyond The Villa, which follows stars from the breakout sixth season.
Hulu’s other big bet this year is a reality dating show from Alex Cooper – Overboard For Love, which Deadline revealed last month.
If the streamer can get it right, it could essentially become its own version of Below Deck with more consensual relationships, or The Bachelor on a boat with Cooper as its own Andy Cohen.
Cooper is the big draw – the host of the hit Call Her Daddy podcast, which ranks only behind The Joe Rogan Experience in the audio charts, has been building out her brands, including the Unwell platform, and her own media company, Trending, which she runs with her husband Matt Kaplan, who produced the To All The Boys franchise.
Mills said that Cooper was “shaping the future of entertainment”. “If you’re not on the Alex Cooper train now, get on, because you’re going to be late,” he added.
Cooper could have gone anywhere with her first TV show so it’s a coup for Hulu.
“From day one as a creator, something that I’ve always had to push up against is I am very outspoken, and I want my content to be the way that I want it to be. I totally know sometimes it’s not for everyone. Hulu has clearly allowed creators to know that you’re down to push the boundaries. You’re open to controversial moments. You’re open to things that maybe are a little bit more salacious, and that is where culture is going. People don’t want things just buttoned up and perfect,” Cooper said.
You might not expect Disney, a company that is traditionally pretty buttoned up, to be leaning into controversy, but when it comes to appealing to a new generation of reality fans, it may well be the engine that drives the boat.
