From Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” pausing production amid domestic violence investigations to ABC’s “The Bachelorette” being pulled just days before its premiere, Disney has had an rocky few months — and viewers are anxious to see what’s next.
On Wednesday, Hulu shared its upcoming slate with its Get Real House, back for the second year, a presentation and party featuring a number of announcements — from an upcoming spinoff of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” to two new “Dancing With the Stars” cast announcements.
Below, Rob Mills, the executive vice president of unscripted for Walt Disney TV, unpacks all the biggest announcements, sheds light on the ongoing situation with Taylor Frankie Paul and shares a timeline for future “Bachelor” franchise series.
The news came last night that “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” is heading back into production. The first thing I saw this morning is a report that Dakota Mortensen and Taylor Frankie Paul, the embattled ex-couple at the show’s center, are not in it. But on Instagram, Taylor commented on a post about it, “interesting, that’s not what the call I got.” What’s going on there?
There’s not much to say, other than we are clear to go back into production. That does not mean we’re filming tomorrow. It just means production is resuming, and we’re trying to see what that looks like. In regard to Taylor, we’re really making sure that — as a human being, on a personal level — she’s being taken care of first and foremost. What shooting looks like will be decided later. Everything is still kind of day to day — this was just an announcement that we are just going back into production. That’s a process. Because we’ve been down for so long, we have to figure out what this season is even going to look like. What are the storylines?
How far into Season 5 were you?
I would say we were probably about halfway through.
Will you scrap what you already filmed?
No, I don’t think we’ll scrap what we have.
A lot of work goes into restarting production on a show, and a lot of things have changed. Can you talk about how you decided to proceed now? Were you waiting to see whether Taylor would be charged for domestic violence to make a decision?
No, not at all. It was just simply making sure that we were really being careful and thoughtful and working with the entire cast, as well as producers, and making sure everybody felt this was the right decision all around.
Dakota Mortensen recently posted that he was stepping away from the spotlight. Have you guys decided if he will be back?
I don’t think we’ve decided anything. Dakota is somebody that we’ve worked with as part of the cast. This is a family between Taylor and Dakota, and they have a child together. That’s really our first priority.
Disney
What is the status of “The Bachelorette”?
Everything with that is one day at a time. There’s really nothing new to report right now.
There have been a lot of discussions about whether or not she should have become the Bachelorette to begin with. How do you feel about that decision now, looking back with everything that’s happened?
I had met with Taylor. She had said, “Look, I’m raising three kids with different fathers; one, I have a phenomenal co-parenting relationship with. The other one is a challenge, but I’m really looking for a partner and somebody who can help me.” Her motives were really very sincere. Walking into that, that was a really exciting story to tell through the lens of “The Bachelorette.” Obviously, with everything that happened and everything everyone’s going through, that’s the hard part. Everything that Taylor’s had to go through has been really hard. The season itself is really, really fantastic. It was a great journey for her.
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” has been so successful — will you be bringing any of them to “Dancing With the Stars” again?
It has to be something that feels like it’s additive for “Dancing With the Stars.” I don’t think we’re going to do it just to do it. But we are in conversations for casting for “Dancing” almost up until we announce, which is early September. So there’s always a possibility that somebody from one of our shows could be on.
Casting Ciara Miller is brilliant. After the “Summer House” scandal broke, was she immediately on your radar? You saw similar success with Ariana Madix, giving her her time to shine.
There’s an old phrase: The best way to get over a lover is to dance with a stranger. We really thought this was the perfect opportunity for that. We’re really excited. We had a Zoom with her, and she couldn’t have been lovelier. And by the time we start with “Dancing” in September, this “Summer House” scandal will be old. I think that, regardless of that, and whether or not you know anything about Ciara, if you watch “Dancing With the Stars,” you’re gonna fall in love with her. So we’re really excited for her to be part of the cast.
And then, when did you start talking about having Maura Higgins on the cast? After her wild finale on “The Traitors”?
You listen to what people are saying, and what the buzz is — and certainly with “Dancing,” people will tell you! Last year with Dylan Efron, you just immediately heard, “He needs to go on ‘Dancing!’” So that was the same thing with Maura. It was a pretty easy call. It happened pretty soon after that finale aired.
Let’s talk about “Mormon Wives” spinoff in O.C. There were reports that Jen Affleck would be part of the cast. Will she appear?
There’s definitely room for not just Jen, but many members of the Utah “Mormon Wives.” That’s all being discussed. We’re really just starting the show, but as you see, Mayci’s sister is on there! I think in a perfect world, it’s something where there’s room for everybody to kind of pop in and out.
Given the ratings successes reality shows have with weekly rollouts, have you ever rethought the “Mormon Wives” binge model so it has a longer tail? Or maybe do that with the spinoff?
We definitely have those conversations. We have them all the time. We’ve had them forever, and certainly, when “Mormon Wives” first came out, it was something we looked at. We look at every season, and it’s hard. There’s no crystal ball as to what the perfect model is. And certainly, we’ve been incredibly successful with the binge model on “Mormon Wives” so far, so you don’t want to mess with something that’s working. But absolutely, we look at that all the time.
You announced a ton today. “Ring by Spring Break” sounds insane.
It’s rooted in something that’s an actual thing. This is a Tiktok trend. There’s a contingency of people who do not feel a diploma is a measure of success, but an engagement ring. So the fact that we could build a format around that is really exciting. And to me, it almost feels like “Bachelor in Paradise” on steroids.
And then there’s “The Mob” from the team behind “The Traitors.”
I’ve been really impressed, and my hat is off to Peacock with “Traitors.” We’ve wanted to get in that space for a little while. So I think we’re really excited about that with “The Mob.” The fact that we actually have Stephen Lambert, who’s won multiple Emmys, behind us. He’s not going to put his name on something or produce one of these shows unless it’s really right, and he felt he wasn’t cannibalizing “Traitors.”
How did you come up with Parker Posey as both host and executive producer?
I think Alan Cumming really opened a door. Alan Cumming is an actor who’s done Stanley Kubrick. He is a phenomenal actor, and has said, “You can do this.” I don’t think anybody says, “I’m not going to do a movie with Alan Cumming because he hosts ‘The Traitors.’” So that opened the door to a lot of really exciting possibilities. And then we heard Parker Posey was a huge fan of this space and was interested in talking about it — she met with the producers. We didn’t just put Parker Posey in this just to put her in it. I think she saw the vision for this, and really was very additive towards it. It’s a privilege to be able to work with her. She’s phenomenal and really elevates it.
You mentioned “Bachelor in Paradise.” Will that be back in the summer?
That will be back next summer. We want to definitely take time and make sure that when that comes back, it’s really great. I think we want to get another cycle of “Bachelor” under our belt, so we have a new cast of potential female suitors. We obviously have the guys from Taylor’s season that could be part of next season of “Paradise.” I can promise you, when it comes back, it’s going to be phenomenal. It will be worth the wait.
Have you chosen your next Bachelor?
No, we don’t need to. We have time. It won’t air until midseason next year. We want to get it right, and we’re looking at all sorts of options and having a lot of conversations about that.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
