The two most essential ingredients to any successful Los Angeles-based reality television show are mammoth multi-million-dollar homes and their sun-soaked, scenic views.
As drama has unfolded over sex tape rumors, divorces and petty arguments about “ugly leather pants,” palatial real estate has served as a glamorous backdrop for several binge-worthy series.
Over eight frothy, bright-skied seasons on Netflix, “Selling Sunset” has staked a claim as one of the most-watched reality television shows in the nation, thanks in large part to how it portrays luxury living in Los Angeles. And the opulent, lavishly decorated mansions featured extensively in Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” are also integral to the show’s success.
But last week’s catastrophic wildfires effectively upended that aspirational component of L.A. reality TV programming. Mountain views were covered by smoke plumes. The twinkling city lights surrounding the iconic Hollywood sign were overshadowed by red flames stretching over acres and destroying 12,000 structures in their path.
Some of the stars of these shows were among the evacuees. A few lost their homes and belongings. The destruction, their grief and their actions have cast some of the most well-known — and even most hated — reality TV stars in a different light.
Spencer Pratt, 41, first became famous in the early 2000s as the supervillain on MTV’s reality show “The Hills,” and is part of “Speidi,” along with his wife, Heidi Montag, 38. He is suddenly likable, with his frequent reports of how his family is faring after their house burned down.
The couple’s 2,300-square-foot hillside retreat featured stunning views of the Santa Monica Mountains, an extensive collection of crystals valued at more than $1 million, a hummingbird sanctuary, and a vast array of framed photos of the couple on various covers of tabloids. The couple bought the home in 2017 for $2.5 million.
Jason Oppenheim, 47, whose brokerage, the Oppenheim Group, is at the center of “Selling Sunset,” has been known for his multiple romantic relationships as much as his multimillion dollar listings. But he has stepped into the role of activist, appearing on news shows to call out landlords who are charging exorbitantly high prices for rentals amid record demand.
Gina Kirschenheiter, 40, a cast member of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” and her boyfriend, Travis Mullen, 40, drew viewers into their strained relationship after Ms. Kirschenheiter asked him to move out of her house.
In the wake of the fires, the couple, who are both real estate agents, appeared together on social media to announce that they would donate their sizable commission fees to the hundreds of thousands of displaced fire victims looking to buy or rent in Orange County.
“We just wanted to help,” Ms. Kirschenheiter said in an interview. “I would never profit off of somebody else’s tragedy. So, Travis and I were like, the only thing we can do is what we know how to do, which is relocate people, find them housing, and give them back this money and make that be our contribution to them.”
These reality TV stars are now experiencing life with no filters and no production crews, in a shift that could greatly affect upcoming seasons of current shows.
Season 19 of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” is scheduled to begin filming in the coming weeks, and the fires and Ms. Kirschenheiter’s current efforts to find homes in Orange County for displaced Angelinos could be a key story line.
“With the timing of everything, I would say that the L.A. fires are likely going to be covered,” Ms. Kirschenheiter said.
The eighth season of “Selling Sunset” aired in September. The show was gearing up to begin filming its ninth season — expected to air later this year — when the fires broke out. The quarrels, real estate listings and open houses could be jarring for fans well aware of how the fires directly affected some of the stars.
Chrishell Stause, 43, who has been on the show since it began, frantically fled her home in the middle of the night, like thousands of other Los Angeles residents.
She later learned that her home survived the blazes.
With no cameras there to capture what happened, Ms. Stause will likely recount the fear and adrenaline of the moment once filming picks back up and the show begins to grapple with a city that’s been indelibly scarred, said Adam DiVello, the executive producer of the show.
“We had a huge group meeting about how we’re moving forward, and it is something that we plan on handling on the show,” Mr. DiVello said. The horrific devastation, which scorched entire neighborhoods and turned homes and businesses into piles of ash, is something “we can’t ignore,” he said. “We make a show about real estate, and it’s beyond devastating.”
Mr. Oppenheim’s turn as a critic of landlords who are price-gouging will also be addressed. He said he was shocked, after several clients whose homes had burned down had asked for his help finding rentals, to see dozens of properties online with prices that had jumped 50 percent or more. California state law prohibits landlords from increasing rents more than 10 percent during a state of emergency.
“I have to bring attention to this,” he said in an interview, “because this is completely inappropriate — morally, ethically and legally.”
“We are a reality show. And this is our reality,” he said.
Bozoma Saint John, the newest cast member of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” was on vacation in Zambia when she discovered her roughly 2,500-square-foot beach house in Malibu was destroyed in the wildfires from a video shared to X. “At first I was like, you know what, this could not be real,” she said in an interview. “Because if a house burns, I think there’s stuff left. It doesn’t all just disappear, right?”
The show, which is in its 14th season, which was filmed last year, is currently airing on Bravo, but fans have watched her grapple with the loss on social media.
Ms. Saint John, 47, who also has a home in Hancock Park, said she bought the property in 2021 after her offers for four other homes in Malibu were rejected. “This is a reality for, unfortunately, a lot of people who are like me, is that even when you have the money to buy the house, you’ll get denied anyway,” said Ms. Saint John, who eventually bought her house in the name of a trust to conceal her identity from the buyer.
She said she has yet to see the extent of the damage to her property, outside of videos shared to social media. “Maybe it’s the fire, maybe it’s the images, maybe it’s the destruction that is left behind, but it feels like a hellish nightmare,” she said. “Everything is gone. I think there’s maybe a misunderstanding that because it’s my second home, that I don’t have anything there, and that’s simply not true. A home is a home.”
Alex Baskin, the executive producer of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” The Real Housewives of Orange County,” “Vanderpump Rules” and “The Valley,” wrote in an email that situations like Ms. Saint John’s will not be dismissed. “We document all events in the cast members’ lives. We’ll certainly cover this as it naturally impacts the cast and as they deal with the reality of and fallout from any situation.”
Some reality TV celebrities are no longer regulars on the shows that propelled them to fame or their shows have been canceled, but the fires have put them in a new spotlight.
Mauricio Umansky, 54, best known as Kyle Richards’s estranged husband on “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” was the anchor of his own show, “Buying Beverly Hills,” that featured his real estate brokerage, The Agency. His show was canceled last March after two seasons.
The brokerage has more than 120 offices worldwide, and he said at least 30 of his Los Angeles agents had lost their homes. Mr. Umansky’s mother had evacuated her home in Pacific Palisades and was still staying with Mr. Umansky earlier this week when he spoke with The New York Times; she did not yet know if her house had survived.
Within days of the fires breaking out, Mr. Umansky set up a relief center in Marina del Rey, filled with donations, including clothing, baby supplies, electronics, and toiletries. He had put out calls on Instagram for donations of new luggage for evacuees, and through a client who is close with Elon Musk, he secured several Starlink kits for high-speed internet, which he donated to emergency medical workers. And he was busy sending messages in a text thread for some of the city’s top luxury agents, including Kurt Rappaport, Tracy Tutor and Mr. Oppenheim, about how they can pool resources to help the thousands of residents who have lost their homes.
“I do have a platform, and I do have a voice,” he said. “In many ways, right now, real estate agents are also first responders. You have firemen and policemen, but what’s the next step? It’s us, the people who help people find new homes.”
Though Mr. Pratt and Ms. Montag have appeared on various reality TV shows since their star turns on “The Hills” in the early 2000s, they could largely be seen through streaming reruns.
But the loss of their Pacific Palisades home and openness about their feelings on social media have renewed interest in a couple who fans loved to hate. Visceral images have softened their image: A camera inside their son’s nursery showed how their son’s bed had burned in the shape of a heart. “Watching this live will haunt me forever,” wrote Mr. Pratt on Instagram.
Mr. Pratt has also used live social media streams to ask fans to stream Mrs. Montag’s 2010 album, “Superficial,” to help generate income so he can rebuild. Celebrities like Flavor Flav and the model Emily Ratajkowski posted about the album, which reached No. 1 on iTunes.
Though many people have criticized the couple’s frequent posts, the public now appears to be rooting for them. One X subscriber recently posted, “Someone needs to give Spencer Pratt his own reality show asap.”
“I need every check right now possible,” Mr. Pratt said in an interview. “Any opportunities for success to rebuild and turn the worst thing that ever happened to us into some form of hope and light is a (good thing). There is nothing like being with a television network, so doing a reality show would obviously be helpful for continuing our rebuilding success.”
The post Amid Wildfires, a New Reality for L.A.’s Reality TV Stars appeared first on New York Times.
