The great Multiverse of Madness-ification of reality TV
Evan Ross Katz is In The Know’s pop culture contributor. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram for more.
It happened for the first on April 15, 2014, when Brandi Glanville and Yolanda Foster stepped into frame at Sarabeth’s to dine with Carole Radziwill and Kristen Taekman. It was at that moment, for the first time, that Real Housewives from two different franchises (in this instance, New York and Beverly Hills) appeared together on screen. Prior to that, and mostly up until recently, the stars of their respective franchises are kept siloed only to meet up during the occasional appearance on Watch What Happens Live.
The resulting meet-up in 2014 fizzled. As did another attempt two years later. “A Great Real Housewives Crossover Opportunity Was Squandered Last Night,” read a headline after Bethenny Frankel attempted to cause waves on Beverly Hills. One had to wonder: Were these ladies best suited to being relegated to their cities, and their cities only?
Still, fans clamored for a re-structuring a la RuPaul’s Drag Race. “I need a Real Housewives: All Stars Edition,” read one tweet, while others mood boarded their dream casts for the potential show. Then came the announcement via the Jasmine Brand in February 2021 that a limited spin-off series featuring “women from various cities” was in the works. In November 2021, The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip premiered on Peacock, folding four franchises into one new one. The premise wasn’t unfamiliar: The ladies go on a trip, bond, fight, downward dog, yacht day, kiss and eventually make up. Seven months later, in June 2022, a second season premiered. A month later, while that season was airing, Peacock announced a third season was officially greenlit, indicating that Peacock was all in on making what was once dubbed a “limited spin-off series” into something with longevity.
“We always knew we wanted to deliver on the request one day,” says Rod Aissa, EVP of Unscripted Content at NBCU, who confirms the hope is to keep growing the series with new combinations of cast members, destinations and concepts. “With this dynamic group of women and an infinite number of extravagant trips and unique destinations for them to visit, the possibilities are endless.” Aissa noted that the format also gave them the opportunity to switch up the format. For instance, the ladies were given carte blanche to break the fourth wall and discuss their experiences as Housewives for the first time.
The premise of bringing reality TV worlds together is hardly a new concept and actually dates back to 1999 when the second season of The Challenge (then titled Real World/Road Rules Challenge) brought the casts of the two shows together into one new show. A few years later, in 2005, a pre-Housewives Bravo introduced Battle of the Network Reality Stars, its take on the popular 70s/80s series Battle of the Network Stars. That show brought together contestants from all walks of the reality sphere, from Survivor and Big Brother to American Idol, America’s Next Top Model, Project Runway and The Apprentice.
But there’s clearly something in the water, as Housewives is not the only franchise expanding its empire. Speaking of The Challenge: In February, Paramount+ made a similar move by announcing a new spin-off to its popular and long-running series The Challenge. The new iteration, The Challenge: USA, would bring together former contestants from three long-running CBS tentpoles (Survivor, Big Brother and The Amazing Race) and one breakout hit, Love Island (which actually jumped to Peacock a week after the spin-off was announced).
This was not entirely unchartered water for the flagship series, which widened its casting net beginning with The Challenge: Battle of the Exes II in 2015, when some former Are You The One? contestants were brought in to compete alongside former Real World and Road Rules stars. “Then from there, it became, ‘How do we make this competition even greater?’” says Dan Caster, EP of The Challenge. “And the leverage of knowing that Survivor and Big Brother audiences love reality TV and love the competitions and realizing some of those people are made for The Challenge made it a natural fit. “
Over the years, they’ve had on some reality titans, including Survivor winners Natalie Anderson and Michele Fitzgerald and Big Brother winners Josh Martinez and Kaycee Clark. “The audience is always like, ‘We don’t want those people from other shows,’ and then you give those people one season, and they’re their favorites,” says Caster.
Plus, he and his team observed that the gameplay became elevated by those contestants bringing in strategies from their other shows. For instance, Survivor players tended to play with no shame in blindsides, while Big Brother has a reputation as a whisper show in which everyone is always quietly talking game in close proximity. “All paths were leading to this moment,” he says of the decision to finally build out an entirely new franchise.
Another key factor: the re-merger between CBS Corporation and Viacom in 2019, which paved the way for a new opportunity to leverage all of their franchises together in what became The Challenge: USA. Could the 28 competitors on that series find their way to The Challenge proper, or its other spin-off, The Challenge: All Stars, in future seasons? It’s something they are currently working through, says Caster, noting that there are pros and cons to the possibility. “Something that we need to make sure is that we’re really differentiating what you’re going to each of these series for. Do I think that they will probably end up coming over? Maybe.”
With RuPaul’s Drag Race now umbrellaed under Paramount as a part of the merger, could that mean Monét X Change might finally make her Survivor debut, or Kameron Michaels could make her way onto The Challenge? Of course, only time will tell. What’s clear for now is that in addition to the fourth wall crumbling, doors are opening right and left, and the great reality television multiverse that so many have long dreamed of is now here.
The post The great Multiverse of Madness-ification of reality TV appeared first on In The Know.
