How Reality Stars Are Taking Over Hollywood’s A-List

Where were you when West and Amanda announced in a joint Instagram post that they were pursuing a romantic connection? Or when Rob broke the news to Maura that he was, in fact, lying to her all along? How about when Brinity (Bryce and Trinity, for the uninitiated) was named America’s favorite couple?

For millions, these questions will immediately conjure up the past year in reality television. Buoyed by years’ worth of steadily won viewers, and thanks in large part to a recent spate of headline-generating scandals, 2026 has been a banner year for audiences dedicated to the unscripted arts.

With Peak TV having, well, peaked, and the monoculture being a quaint vestige of pre-COVID nostalgia, there has been a decided vacuum at the watercooler.

Enter Peak Reality TV.

“It’s been building for a few years, but it really does feel like unscripted is getting its flowers,” says Frances Berwick, chairman of Bravo and Peacock unscripted. “What the industry is now aware of is that you can create these cultural moments, and the viewing benefit of some of these unscripted shows is that people are coming together and watching it, collectively.”

In the interest of expediency and sanity, here are a few SparkNotes on the year thus far in reality TV:

Bravo’s Summer House offered a scandal that involved a love quadrangle where two longtime castmembers announced a divorce, after which one half of that couple started dating another castmember, who just so happened to be the ex-boyfriend of her very close friend and (you guessed it!) a fellow castmember.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Hulu’s stickiest unscripted offering, had to suspend filming after domestic assault investigations involving Taylor Frankie Paul, the biggest star of that show. These allegations also led ABC to cancel the newest season of The Bachelorette that centered on Paul.

Elsewhere, Peacock’s The Traitors offered the kind of backstabbing that Machiavelli would be proud of and enough onscreen chemistry to power a mid-aughts theatrical rom-com, while Love Island USA whipped up amounts of online discourse that would inspire both awe and fear in the hearts of any social media manager.

While Netflix scripted series are having trouble holding on to audiences for the second seasons of even top-performing shows, the tenth season of Summer House and The Traitors‘ fourth outing have begotten series-high ratings this year. The most recent season of Love Island USA earned 6.79 billion minutes of watch time through week four of its nearly six-week run, which is the most up-to-date data available from Nielsen. This is up 33 percent from last year’s then-record-breaking season, making the show the first- or second-most-viewed project across all streamers.

In the way that entertainment websites used to dedicate manpower to recaps of Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad, bloggers are now committed to the happenings of Below Deck and Real Housewives. Even The New York Times has dedicated dozens of headlines to this year’s reality TV tumults. Viewing parties for highly anticipated finales and blowout reunions have taken over bars from West Hollywood to Brooklyn. Earlier this summer, Peacock and AMC Theatres partnered for a nationwide screening series of episodes of Love Island USA.

All of this is the kind of success story that gets touted in quarterly earnings reports and leads to talent getting trotted out in front of advertisers in drafty event halls.

Long the redheaded stepchild of the larger Hollywood ecosystem, unscripted TV has lately gained an undeniable air of credibility. Steven Soderbergh has professed his love for Below Deck, while Jennifer Lawrence is an avowed Bravo fan. Now, stars broken in the reality trenches are crossing over into more traditional Hollywood offerings, with everyone from Netflix to A24 putting scripts into their hands.

When signing reality talent a couple of years ago, representatives across digital, endorsement and branding departments were handling the signing meetings. Now, it’s the full-court press, with top talent and literary agents in the room. In March, Rob Rausch, who broke out on Love Island USA, then parlayed that into a winning run on the latest season of The Traitors, signed with UTA and now shares an agent with James McAvoy and Theo James.

All reps who spoke to THR for this story note that branding and endorsements are still the biggest paychecks for unscripted stars. Anecdotally, one agent observes that breakout reality stars and White Lotus castmembers are the most sought out for endorsement deals.

In the wake of the latest season of Summer House, Ciara Miller, who emerged as the reigning hero from 2026’s biggest reality TV scandal, rising from the ashes of a double betrayal by not only an ex (expected) but a friend (less expected), has done social posts for brands such as Celsius and Sonic. Unsurprisingly, Miller, who is set for the next season of Dancing with the Stars, is a target for top agencies but has yet to land somewhere.

But for those committed to pursuing careers in traditional film and television, acting classes are quickly procured, and the path is becoming far less arduous. Executives and casting directors are happy to meet with the stars of their favorite guilty pleasures. ”Getting a general meeting for a reality star is the easiest job I’ve ever had,” says one rep, who adds that putting their Emmy-nominated television actor in front of film executives is a far more difficult task.

Gabby Windey started her reality television tenure on The Bachelor, then The Bachelorette, before sashaying onto Dancing With the Stars and finally doing a stint in Scotland on The Traitors. This year, she was cast in the ensembles for the Netflix drama series The Body and the A24 comedy Peaked, set to share the screen with Laura Dern and Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie. (Multiple sources note that A24, in particular, is always on the lookout for “nontraditional” talent.)

Mormon Wives breakout Whitney Leavitt proved her audience appeal offscreen during her run as Roxie Hart in Chicago on Broadway. While the decades-running musical has been known to stunt-cast that role to maintain ticket sales (past Roxies have included Pamela Anderson and Ariana Madix, formerly of Vanderpump Rules), Leavitt’s run proved particularly successful, earning some of the show’s biggest weekly grosses in its nearly three-decade history. When Mark Ballas, who was partnered with Leavitt on the latest season of Dancing With the Stars, joined her for a limited run, the average ticket price jumped to $171, then on par with the cost of attending Proof, starring award winners Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle.

Leavitt, who announced that the upcoming fifth season of Mormon Wives would be her last, stars in an independently produced holiday rom-com set for release later this year on streaming. Elsewhere, Craig Conover, the longtime lead on the Bravo series Southern Charm, was recently cast in the indie dramedy Caroline Fletcher.

“You take somebody who has a trusted traveling audience, who will go wherever the platform and no matter the medium, and it’s not a risk,” says Gaby Cohen, a talent and crossover agent at Gersh, who represents Leavitt and Madix.

“Audiences aren’t thinking in terms of platforms anymore,” adds WME partner and scripted TV agent Allysa Mahler, who represents Paige DeSorbo and Hannah Berner, former Summer House stars who parlayed reality TV into red carpet hosting gigs (DeSorbo), multiple stand-up specials (Berner) and a top podcast (both). This year they had cameos in The Devil Wears Prada 2 and the Mindy Kaling-scripted show Not Suitable for Work. Earlier this year, it was announced that the duo will write and star in a Netflix half-hour scripted comedy with Amy Poehler producing and Kay Cannon set to showrun.

“Their following really trusts them; they’ve built that trust over time,” says Mahler. “Every time that they have entered into a new space, they have exceeded expectations, and that’s what gives streamers and the studios confidence in what’s to come.”

The current reality television moment is coinciding with a time when traditional celebrities have ever more control over their image. “It’s really smart and interesting how celebrities now are protecting their personal lives,” says journalist and author Anna Peele, whose recent book is Enter the Villa: The (Unauthorized) Reality Behind Love Island. But it can leave audiences wanting.

For unscripted talent, not only do they reveal their lives onscreen, it is explicitly their job. The performance and person are one and the same. Audiences are watching these talents endure new relationships, breakups, partners cheating and divorces. Stars, as they say, are just like us!

And while they may not be healthy, parasocial connections can be lucrative. Peele adds, “With [reality stars], we get to see everything. Ariana [Madix] figured out a way to go from giving us everything and using that to make us fall in love with her to then having her own very mainstream successes, going from hosting to acting.”

And unlike digital creators or influencers — and, to be clear, the line between unscripted star and influencer is a porous one — audiences are often encountering unscripted talent weekly on their television screens. “The talent who are going on these shows have the runway to do 13 weeks onscreen, and that’s where they’re getting all the buy-in for mainstream media,” says UTA partner and unscripted TV agent Andrew Lear.

This year, the traditional media coverage combined with the audience buy-in has proved a potent combination for reality stars looking to pursue other avenues in Hollywood.

Still, warns an agent, unscripted talent needs to be cautious: “You don’t want to alienate your fan base. You also don’t want to show the acting community that you think you’re ready if you’re not.” Typically, the talent is going to be cast in roles and projects that are close to their established own public persona to trade on the audience interest.

“We’re always very selective,” says UTA unscripted agent Jamie Youngentob of signing new unscripted clients (hers include Windey). And while social media may have its preferences, fan favorites may not be the ones with the skills needed to cross over. Adds Youngentob, “If you’re not watching these shows in real time and forming your own opinions, you’re going to be too late.”

An undercurrent of concern for executives, reps and audiences alike is the improbability of repeating 2026’s relentless success. From Traitors to Summer House to Love Island USA, the past year in reality TV begat a near-nonstop stream of drama and character arcs to obsess over, analyze and generally opine on. These kinds of theatrics can make careers, but they are hard to replicate, year-over-year.

After all, you just can’t write this stuff.

This story appeared in the Aug. 5 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.