One of the most shocking moments in “The Bachelor” history ultimately became one of the most influential in reality television. In March 2009 during the 13th season finale, leading man Jason Mesnick broke off his engagement with winner Melissa Rycroft and asked runner-up Molly Malaney for another chance. The unexpected turn of events led ABC to offer Rycroft a spot on the forthcoming season of “Dancing With the Stars.”
The move ended up bringing a flood of “Bachelor” fans to the new season of “DWTS,” kickstarting a trend of talent crossovers that shaped how the industry could leverage their shows and talent to create a universe of reality TV that would expand beyond the individual programs.
“It wasn’t obviously something planned, but it was amazing to be able to continue that storyline,” Rob Mills, then the ABC director of alternative series and specials who now runs Disney’s unscripted division, told TheWrap. Mills pinpointed Rycroft’s casting as one of the first moments the team realized it could harness the power of crossovers.
Just as Marvel crafted a cinematic universe where characters like Iron Man or Spider-Man would pop up in other superhero movies or even further back, when MTV’s “Real World” and “Road Rules” would mix and match or “Battle of the Network Stars” pitted ‘70s and ‘80s television actors against each other in various sporting events, reality shows have employed the shared universe tactic as the genre exploded across television and throughout the various streaming services over the last several years.
The talent crossover is a surefire way to get fans’ eyes on the newest reality shows. It’s led to big ratings, with all-star shows like “DWTS” Season 34 marking the first time in measurement history that a fall show has grown its audience for five straight weeks following its premiere, and “The Traitors” Season 2, which boasts talent from “The Real Housewives,” “The Bachelor,” “Survivor” and “Big Brother,” seeing its viewing hours grow by 178% over its debut season, which featured a mix of celebrities and civilians.
One of the buzziest reality hits in recent years has been Peacock’s “Love Island USA,” which was put on the map thanks to host Ariana Madix, who skyrocketed in popularity in 2023 when her longterm partner, Tom Sandoval, was caught cheating on her on “Vanderpump Rules.” Madix joining as host in Season 6 drew Bravo viewers to the reality dating show, and it became an overnight sensation, gaining a massive audience that it managed to sustain as its seventh season ranked as the top unscripted series across all streaming platforms for nine consecutive weeks.
As a result, it’s become a standard tactic across the entertainment industry, whether at NBCUniversal, where “Real Housewives of New York City” star Dorinda Medley gears up for her second chance on “The Traitors” Season 4 after fans mourned her early Season 3 elimination, or at Netflix, where “Too Hot to Handle” star Harry Jowsey gets his own reality dating show, “Let’s Marry Harry.”
“The fandoms that get created from these reality stars are pretty astronomical — it’s pretty explosive,” Netflix VP of unscripted Jeff Gaspin told TheWrap. “We do so many reality shows and it’s oftentimes valuable to bring along those cast members that have fan bases already. It just creates a different dynamic in a show that fans really love … It makes perfect sense to explore using those fandoms in other ways.”
ABC took the crossover craze to the next level by announcing “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Taylor Frankie Paul as the lead of the upcoming 22nd season of “The Bachelorette,” a stark departure from the tradition of selecting a leading lady from the previous season of “The Bachelor.” The network is betting on Paul’s established fandom to save one of its most-prized franchises, which has been engrossed in controversy after controversy.
While this strategy appears simple — cast reality star A in reality show B — there’s actually a lot of thought put into how these crossovers work and how to create a sustainable strategy. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to construct a shared reality universe, according to the experts.
Step 1: Lay the groundwork and catch stars
Before crossovers are even possible, the foundation of any reality universe begins with identifying the integral talent that will draw audiences in for years to come. Luckily for legacy media companies like NBCUniversal, Disney and Paramount, successful reality stars and franchises are already in their back pocket with hits like linear unscripted programs like “The Bachelor,” “The Real Housewives” or “Survivor.”
“For us, it’s about … starting with making great programs that are buzzy and socially engaging and must-see, and then nurturing them and keeping them alive generationally,” Rachel Smith, NBCUniversal’s EVP of unscripted content for Bravo and Peacock, said, pointing to the “generational wealth” in Bravo programming that extends from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” into spinoffs “Vanderpump Rules,” “The Valley” and even “Next Gen NYC.”
“We’re acutely aware of what a meaningful bank of talent we have that we can populate across all these different platforms,” she told TheWrap.
But for Netflix, which started building its reality TV universe from scratch just five years ago with “Too Hot to Handle,” “Love Is Blind” and “The Circle,” the team was keenly tuned into which early contestants of its flagship reality shows could become the face of its unscripted division.
“You just know charisma when you see it … I mean charisma is just intoxicating,” Gaspin said, pointing to “Too Hot to Handle” Season 1 stars Jowsey and Chloe Veitch. “They just know how to treat people well, and that garners fandom and affection.”
Gaspin added that there are few barriers to developing a close relationship with reality stars early on in their career, noting that he and the team would sit with their stars on set and press tours, saying, “They love the access to network executives, and if you show interest in them, they really become very loyal to the network that helped give them their first chance.”
That’s certainly the case for Jowsey, who went on to appear in Netflix’s “Perfect Match” as well as host a “who wore it best” social segment that served as a promotional vehicle for other Netflix releases.
Even for legacy media companies with established franchises, the key to staying relevant and expanding the universe lies in crafting new opportunities for audiences to fall in love with fresh reality stars, like the trio of girlfriends lovingly called the PPG (Powerpuff Girls) on Peacock’s “Love Island” Season 6, or the chaotic but lovable ensemble on “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
While Disney already has an all-star vehicle to place rising stars on with “Dancing With the Stars,” as does Paramount with “The Challenge,” Netflix and NBCUniversal built their all-stars series in recent years, with Netflix launching “Perfect Match” in 2023 while NBCUniversal transformed “The Traitors” into its all-star vehicle with its second season.
While “Perfect Match” was a way for Netflix to bring together its talent from across its existing series, “The Traitors” served as a way to bring together fandoms across NBCUniversal’s offerings, from “Real Housewives” to “Love Island,” as well as fandoms beyond the NBCUniversal. “I like to think of ‘Traitors’ like the Super Bowl of fandoms,” NBC unscripted head Sharon Vuong said.
Another foolproof way to construct a reality series is by tapping into beloved IP, as Netflix has done with buzzy series “Squid Game: The Challenge,” or Warner Bros. Discovery has done with “Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking.” WBD Chief Creative Officer of U.S. networks Howard Lee applauded the latter program — which reached 16.4 million viewers across linear, HBO Max and Discovery+ — for marrying “the best of both worlds” with “Harry Potter” fans by bringing on the Weasley twins James and Oliver Phelps as hosts.
WBD will also soon be tapping into its “Bachelor” IP from Warner Bros. TV Studios for HGTV’s “Bachelor Mansion Takeover,” which features Bachelor Nation alum in a renovation series.
Step 2: Position your players strategically
While it might be tempting to utilize the talent bank without discrimination, Mills noted that any crossover must feel purposeful and “the right fit.”
“I don’t think we just want to do it just to do it just because of name value,” he said. “Once you have the stars and the hit, everything else starts to become much more clear — that’s when it’s really fun.”
When you have promising talent you’d like to use further, there’s several options you can choose: adding rising stars to a roster full of celebrities in all-star-esque series like “Dancing With the Stars,” “Perfect Match” or “The Traitors,” or put the established stars upfront as the center of their own reality series (take “Let’s Marry Harry”) or as the host of a new or established reality series, like with “Too Hot to Handle” stars hosting new Netflix series “Dated and Related” and “Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark” or Madix hosting “Love Island USA.”
The fandoms that get created from these reality stars are pretty astronomical — it’s pretty explosive.”
– Jeff Gaspin, Netflix’s VP of unscripted
“Once you know the concept and the ethos of a show, you try to see if you can match the reality stars that you have … who might be a good host versus who’s still a good contestant — there’s different skill sets,” Gaspin said. He revealed that after years of being a contestant on dating shows, discussions with Jowsey led to the creation of “Let’s Marry Harry,” which will ideally center on other reality stars in future seasons.
While reality star-hosted series like Netflix’s “Dated and Related” or Hulu’s “Are You My First,” hosted by “Bachelor” alum Colton Underwood and Kaitlyn Bristowe, didn’t make too big of a viewership splash despite the talent linked to their titles, no one could’ve predicted the massive audience brought in by “Love Island USA” Season 6, which boosted the series to rank as the No. 1 reality title on streaming.
While “Love Island USA” EPs have credited the massive viewership to the perfect storm of great casting and a number of other factors, Smith noted that Madix being at the forefront of the series fresh off of the #Scandoval controversy migrated the “Vanderpump Rules” fandom over to “Love Island.”
“We all, for the last decade, felt like we were getting to know her and her story and following her, but I think the real big firecracker for us is when she expressed how much of a fan of ‘Love Island’ she was,” Vuong said. “That was the perfect combination between the two worlds, and the show’s been great for both universes.”
Step 3: Stars head in and out of their orbit
With the growing amount of all-stars series across the industry, it’s inevitable that talent might go outside of the entertainment giant that gave them their start, a trend that kicked off with “The Traitors” Season 2, which featured just as much talent from CBS’ reality slate as from within the NBCUniversal family, and only continued with ensemble series like Peacock’s “House of Villains” and Hulu’s “Got to Get Out.”
“When we’re looking to cast ‘Traitors’ or ‘House of Villains,’ or one of these multi-ensemble shows, we’re looking to specifically bring in different fan bases so we can have the broadest possible audience,” Smith said, adding that they’re often approached by agents and managers after a star’s exclusivity to a host network has expired. “These people are so entertaining and people are just clamoring for more of them.”
“The Traitors” has constantly courted leads from “The Bachelor,” including Peter Weber, who extended his time at NBCUniversal by appearing in NBC’s “Destination X,” as well as Gabby Windey, who returned to Disney after “The Traitors” Season 3 to host Alex Cooper’s new dating show “Love Overboard.”
“You want to give them opportunities here, first and foremost, but certainly not deprive them of a great opportunity,” Mills said, noting that Windey and Cooper’s brands felt so similar that they could’ve placed her as the host even without her splash from “The Traitors.” “We really care about these people, and we want to make sure that they have every opportunity they have — hopefully it’s with us, but certainly it’s great to see them thrive on other reality shows.”
Likewise, Disney lured Lisa Vanderpump herself, for Hulu’s “Vanderpump Villa,” which featured “Vanderpump Rules” star Stassi Schroeder Clark for Season 2. Even Netflix’s “Perfect Match,” which was limited to Netflix-only talent for its first two seasons, opened the door to talent from outside of the streamer for Season 3, with talent from “The Bachelor” and MTV’s “Siesta Key” coming on board.
With an increasingly competitive unscripted arena, one way Smith and Vuong have kept talent within NBCUniversal is by reaching across the conglomerate’s wings to extend a talent’s lifespan on its platforms, whether that means pulling Bravo stars on “The Traitors,” moving “The Traitors” star Kate Chastain over to Peacock’s “House of Villains” or even exploring scripted roles for talent, with Madix appearing on NBC’s “St. Denis Medical” while “Housewife” Porsha Williams guest stars on “Brilliant Minds” Season 2 this fall.
“It behooves us to become a place where there is this opportunity for talent and that you are at home here and you can stretch yourself creatively, whether that’s in unscripted or scripted or syndication or hosting live from a red carpet event,” Smith said. “Our reality stars are multi-hyphenates and have talents that they’re really excited to explore, and the company is uniquely positioned to offer them different opportunities.”
