Rob Mills’s Hulu-verse Will Be Just Fine

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The idea was to create a perfect match between reality TV and social media. In September, ABC chose Taylor Frankie Paul, a TikTok star who helped make The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives a hit, to star in the new season of The Bachelorette. However, devoted fans of the Bachelor franchise quickly realized Paul might not be a good fit. Her complicated relationship with ex Dakota Mortensen had already been the focus of drama on SLOMW, and they worried she wasn’t genuinely looking for love. Despite this, Disney executives, led by Rob Mills, hoped she could revitalize the show, which had been struggling with ratings and canceled engagements. Instead of choosing a lead from past seasons, Mills decided to look outside the traditional Bachelor universe, tapping into Hulu’s growing reality TV offerings. “The Bachelor franchise needed a boost,” Mills explained. “We wanted a lead who had a lot at stake, and it had been a while since we had that.”

And then it all blew up.

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Just three days before The Bachelorette was scheduled to premiere in March, TMZ released a video showing Paul throwing chairs at Mortenson while her daughter was present. Viewers of Mormon Wives had already seen the beginning of this story – the first episode of the show features police body camera footage from that night, documenting the confrontation and Paul’s arrest for domestic violence. However, the release of the TMZ video, combined with news that both Paul and Mortenson were under investigation for new allegations of domestic violence just days before, led to an immediate decision. As Mills explains, “We saw the clip at the same time everyone else did, and we quickly realized we had to delay the premiere.”

Within three hours of TMZ releasing the video, Disney released a brief statement—just 27 words—pausing Paul’s season of The Bachelorette. According to Mills, Disney prioritized handling the situation with compassion before making a business decision. Almost two months later, Disney still hasn’t determined what will happen with the season. Mills also wouldn’t say if the show’s most controversial participant will return now that Mormon Wives has started filming again after a one-month break, although Paul denied a People magazine report that she wouldn’t be on the show. (Prosecutors in Salt Lake City dismissed the new charges against Paul and Mortenson.)

While Paul’s role isn’t entirely clear, Disney is quickly growing its reality TV offerings under the leadership of Mills. At a recent event, insiders playfully called this expansion “RobCon,” and it was clear the company is planning a lot more unscripted content. Mills confirmed a new spinoff of Mormon Wives set in Orange County, announced that Summer House‘s Ciara Miller and The Traitors‘ Maura Higgins will be on the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars, and revealed a new game show called The Mob, hosted by Parker Posey and produced by the creator of The Traitors. The Mob will feature a cast of celebrities from across television.

Hollywood has always borrowed stars between shows, but Disney is really focusing on this strategy with its reality TV lineup on Hulu, even after a previous attempt didn’t quite succeed. As Hulu expands its unscripted programming, these new and younger franchises are designed to build on and support established hits from ABC, and crucially, to compete with streaming giants like Netflix and Peacock (which benefits from Bravo’s popularity). While the future of The Bachelor franchise is uncertain, Disney’s broader reality TV empire, led by Mills, is poised to be a strong competitor.

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I remember when Robert Mills joined Disney back in 2003, right around the time The Bachelor first aired! For almost two decades, he was pretty much limited to developing shows just for ABC, which meant fewer opportunities overall. Even with those constraints, he had a fantastic run, helping launch hits like Dancing With the Stars and Shark Tank. He even brought American Idol back to life after it moved from Fox and really spearheaded the revival of game shows with prime-time versions of classics like Family Feud, Jeopardy!, and Press Your Luck. But about five years ago, he got a huge opportunity – he was put in charge of unscripted shows at Hulu, which was known at the time for high-quality dramas like The Handmaid’s Tale. His mission? To turn Hulu into a major force in reality TV. He told me they didn’t have the same budget as Netflix, but they had enough to experiment. Those first few years were all about taking risks and seeing what would stick.

Hulu tried out several shows after its initial successes, but not all of them caught on – many viewers might not even remember Love in Fairhope. However, when they found a hit, it was huge. The Kardashians, Vanderpump Villa, and especially Mormon Wives all performed exceptionally well. Mormon Wives followed a group of Utah social media influencers, already known as “MomTok,” as they dealt with the aftermath of a scandal. It became an immediate success, reaching Nielsen’s streaming charts in its first week in September 2024 – a first for any unscripted Hulu series. The first season alone racked up 2.14 billion viewing minutes in 2024, and new seasons have continued to be popular, consistently appearing on the Nielsen charts.

According to Mills, Dana Walden, now a leader at Disney, played a key role in helping him develop unscripted programming. Shortly before Mills took charge of Hulu’s unscripted content, Walden secured a major deal with the Kardashian family, leading to the streaming hit The Kardashians. This show, which premiered on Hulu in 2022, quickly established a clear brand identity for the platform. Mills explains that bringing the family from their long-time home at E! to Disney+ heavily influenced Hulu’s strategy. The approach involved building on successful reality TV elements and enhancing them. While streaming allows for creative freedom, Mills emphasizes the importance of delivering what audiences already enjoy. The Kardashians specifically aimed to maintain the core appeal of Keeping Up With the Kardashians while elevating the production quality and making it feel like a premium experience worth paying for. This model—larger budgets, extended filming schedules, and a more cinematic style—has become a standard for Mills’ streaming projects. He focuses on creating content that feels valuable enough to justify a subscription, while still incorporating the familiar elements that make a story successful.

Disney frequently used well-known personalities from reality TV and social media in its early unscripted programming, often leading to appearances in other Disney shows. For example, Vanderpump Villa centers around Lisa Vanderpump, the star of Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules, and later featured Stassi Schroeder, also from Vanderpump Rules. The D’Amelio Show followed TikTok star Charli D’Amelio and her family for three seasons. Before Stassi Schroeder even appeared on Villa, Hulu was already creating a show around her and later asked her to host reunion specials for Secret Lives of Mormon Housewives. Shortly after The D’Amelio Show premiered, Disney cast Charli on season 31 of Dancing With the Stars.

Okay, so I’ve been reading about how Disney is trying to boost Peacock, and it’s really interesting. The strategy isn’t exactly new, though. Apparently, Bravo was doing this kind of thing with their Real Housewives shows almost twenty years ago! And even before that, MTV figured out that people loved seeing stars from The Real World and Road Rules compete against each other in what became The Challenge. It’s something that’s been done with scripted shows for ages – like when a big event would happen across multiple sitcoms. But Disney thinks they have a real edge. They’ve got both a traditional network like ABC and a streaming service like Peacock, which is huge. While Bravo does well, they’re mostly limited to cable viewers. Dancing With the Stars, for example, was pulling in over 9 million viewers last season! ABC still reaches a much broader audience, and that’s what Disney is hoping to leverage. Instead of just giving reality stars another show on Bravo, they can put them on something like Dancing With the Stars to reach way more people. Like, imagine a star from Sister Wives who can sing – they could even try out for American Idol! That’s a much bigger opportunity than just creating another branded spinoff.

The inclusion of Whitney Leavitt and Jen Affleck on Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) reflects a larger change in how the show chooses its contestants. While DWTS has always featured people from other reality shows – like Kim Kardashian in 2008 – recently, the show has been casting more popular reality stars and social media influencers. This strategy has been particularly noticeable as Disney has expanded its unscripted programming. This proved beneficial for both Disney and the show, as Leavitt and Affleck generated significant buzz, making the most recent season of DWTS its most successful in ten years. The finale achieved a remarkable 48% share of viewers under 35 – the best result for any broadcast entertainment series since the Friends finale in 2004. In return, Leavitt and Affleck’s appearance on network television (and streaming on Disney+) likely boosted viewership of Mormon Wives and helped Leavitt reshape her public image, transforming her from a reality TV villain into a fan favorite, especially alongside DWTS veteran Mark Ballas.

According to Mills, Hollywood is starting to see the appeal of reality TV. He recalls a conversation with a celebrity agent who used to steer their clients away from shows like these. The agent admitted that after seeing successful figures like Alex Earle participate, they now recommend it. In fact, they specifically suggested Ciara consider a reality TV opportunity. Mills is hoping to extend this trend to hosts, which is why he brought on Gabby Windey, a familiar face from Bachelor Nation and a star on The Traitors, to host Hulu’s Love Overboard. He believes having stars move between different types of shows benefits everyone involved.

Mills and his team are closely watching which celebrities and influencers generate the most online buzz, and they’re also analyzing popular reality shows. The success of Peacock’s The Traitors, which featured well-known reality TV personalities, paved the way for Hulu’s The Mob. Mills notes that these experienced players bring a unique skill set to the game, saying, “They instinctively know how to play, and it was a brilliant idea.” While hoping The Mob will be similarly popular, Mills isn’t trying to simply copy The Traitors. He believes both shows can thrive, stating, “Fans of Traitors aren’t going anywhere—it’s a fantastic show.” He’s also looking for a new unscripted series with a similar release schedule to Love Island—daily episodes for about a month—but focused on a different genre. Ultimately, Mills wants to create a show that encourages viewers to make Hulu a daily habit, benefiting both the show and the streaming service as a whole.

For a long time, The Bachelor was the show everyone wanted to be on, but that’s no longer the case. When asked about whether Disney should air Paul’s season of The Bachelorette, producer Mills avoided giving a direct answer, though he personally remains optimistic. He remembers meeting Paul in Utah and being surprised. He didn’t come across as someone who would cause a lot of drama. Instead, Paul was very open about his life, explaining that he’s a father to three children by different men and is looking for a supportive partner. Mills believes having a single parent on the show adds a new dimension, as they have to consider their children’s needs alongside their own.

He’s excited about the season and hopes fans of the show – those in ‘Bachelor Nation’ – will enjoy it too. Ultimately, he wants everyone to have a chance to watch it.

For now, Mills and his team are concentrating on developing new shows. They plan to cast both stars from other reality TV franchises and homegrown talent from Disney. Mills believes combining talent from different shows is very successful, but admits they always analyze what could have been done better when a show doesn’t perform as expected. He wants to avoid the current situation with The Bachelorette and instead replicate the success they had with Dancing With the Stars.

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2026-05-06 16:04