The long-awaited update on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season five arrived just in time, one day before Hulu would host its second Get Real House 2026 spotlighting the streamer and ABC’s unscripted slate. The slew of new show announcements on Wednesday out of the presentation expands Hulu’s reality TV offerings and includes spinoffs for Disney’s most buzzy franchises, Dancing With the Stars and Mormon Wives, the latter which is now in “active preproduction,” says Rob Mills, evp of unscripted & alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television.
With Mormon Wives set to resume production after a monthlong filming pause and internal investigation into star Taylor Frankie Paul over domestic violence allegations, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with the head of unscripted below about ABC and Hulu’s new offerings, discussing the pressure around replicating last season’s Dancing With the Stars success (“It scares the hell out of me!”), what viewers can expect when Mormon Wives returns (with or without Paul), if we’ll ever see Paul’s scrapped season of The Bachelorette and why The Bachelor franchise “is not going anywhere.”
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The news just came out that Mormon Wives will resume production on season five. I confirmed from a source close to production that means the investigation conducted by the show’s production (via a third-party law firm) has concluded. We also reported that the door is open for Taylor Frankie Paul to return if and when she’s ready, and that the show has been supportive of her during this hiatus. Are you hoping she would return? And can you share details about how quickly you are picking back up?
With picking back up, what we said was that the show is returning to production. That does not mean that immediately we got cameras up. This has been a pretty significant break. We have to look at where everyone is, what the stories will be. So I would say right now we are in active preproduction, and we’re figuring that out.
In terms of Taylor, first and foremost for me is just making sure that on a human level, she’s good and being taken care of. And we’ll discuss the professional stuff once you get past all of that.
There has been a lot reported since all of this has gone down with Taylor Frankie Paul, including the investigation and care that went into making sure the Mormon Wives cast was comfortable when the cameras do pick back up. Now it seems everything is out in the open, so they will be able to address it all freely, which had been Jessi Draper’s concern. Have you thought about how the show will handle having so much happen when cameras weren’t rolling?
Yeah, I think a lot of that will be led by the cast. I think you used the exact right word. We wanted to make sure that they really are taken care of. And it’s really why we proactively made them [the cast] executive producers [for season four]. They really will be the ones that will inform how the story is being told.
Is the cast now feeling good about picking back up, whether Taylor is involved or not? Are their concerns lifted; is the vibe that everyone is ready?
Definitely the vibe is that everyone is ready. I don’t think we have the nuances figured out, but we wanted to make sure everybody really wanted to get back. And they feel good about it. We never would have gone back if it was anything other than that.
Also today you announced an expansion of Mormon Wives, with a new series set in Orange County. With the breakout success of Mormon Wives — and resurgence of DWTS, which is also getting a spinoff — would you say those are your two biggest priorities in terms of unscripted franchises at Disney right now?
Yeah. I mean, when you greenlight something, you never say, “This is a franchise.” That being said, when we titled the show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, we did think, “Okay, there’s a possibility in success that you can do: Secret Lives of Mormon Wives of Blank.” And once the original Mormon Wives took off immediately, we definitely started talking about it. But as you can see, there’s been a lot of time between that and when we’ve announced this show. So we’ve tried to be really thoughtful, really purposeful. We’ve explored other areas or the world and other casts. And this was the one where it finally felt like it was a shot to take. If you look at Mormon Wives, that show is extraordinarily produced. Not just the actual producers, but the cast itself, who also produce the show. That’s an incredibly high bar, so we would not have done this if we didn’t think it could reach that bar.
Are you looking at Mormon Wives similar to Bravo’s Real Housewives model, where the plan would be that you would be in 10 cities in five years?
We just want to make sure we’re putting the best content on as possible. I don’t think we’re comparing ourselves to anybody. We want to make sure we’re making great content. And if that’s what ends up happening, great. And if it’s just these shows, that’s fine too.
There was speculation that Summer House star Ciara Miller could be the next Bachelorette, and now we see today she’s going on Dancing With the Stars. Can you share what those talks were like with Ciara? Did she take any convincing to do Dancing, and did you talk about Bachelorette?
We did not talk about Bachelorette. Immediately after this happened [with the Summer House scandal], we were able to Zoom with her and she was absolutely delightful. We were so excited to be able to continue her story on Dancing. One of the things that’s so great about Dancing is that it really is about telling that journey about where you are in your life. So that was a really exciting opportunity, and it really was just talking about Dancing.
There were reports that Taylor Frankie Paul was considered for DWTS. Was that ever in talks?
No. Our Dancing casting goes up until we announce in September. We don’t proactively start casting this early unless it’s really purposeful. In the case of Ciara and Maura [Higgins], these were great announcements for Get Real [Hulu’s unscripted programming event]. But no, we don’t have a cast already of 14 people. These are our first announcements, and that’s it. I’m not quite sure where those reports came from.
DWTS had a resurgence last season in ratings and also in virility. We spoke with your producers and they credited a lot of that to casting. Is there pressure to keep that up, or are you feeling like you have to turn people away for season 35?
There’s absolutely pressure. It scares the hell out of me! That was an incredibly special cast, but also, as great as it was to have people who felt really of the moment like Dylan Efron and Alix Earle, it’s also been discovery. I don’t think anybody thought when we cast Andy Richter, “This is the guy that is going to be the hero of this generation who has become this adoptive father figure.” Every single person in that cast contributed something and told a great story. Now, it’s not about finding who is exactly the same as Andy Richter or Elaine Hendrix or Alix Earle or Dylan Efron, or even the Mormon Wives cast. It’s: How do we get those same emotions with different people? So it is definitely a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year job that Dina Katz does. She was literally put on this earth to do this. So we’re definitely working hard and it’s going to be really scary trying to replicate this,, but it’s a fun challenge.
You announced a ton of news at the Get Real event for your upcoming unscripted slate. But there wasn’t any news about The Bachelor franchise. With all these other franchises expanding, should we interpret something from that?
No. Not at all. The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise are both coming back next year. The Bachelor is back midseason, Paradise will be next summer. So I don’t think we need to talk about something that is a year off. Hopefully, next year’s Get Real is where we’ll be talking more about it. But no, The Bachelor franchise is not going anywhere.
And what about The Bachelorette after a now two-season hiatus? What are the challenges and concerns with getting that series back up after season 22’s cancellation?
Well, The Bachelor is a franchise as a whole. So whatever the right stories are for us to tell, that’s what we’re going to tell. I wouldn’t say this has to do with just The Bachelorette in general. I think when we have the right people to tell whatever iteration of The Bachelor franchise, we’re going to tell it. That also goes for the Golden Bachelor and whoever else’s story we can tell in this incredible format.
Meaning, for example, if you do two Bachelor seasons in a row and it’s not the right time for The Bachelorette, that doesn’t mean The Bachelorette is dead? You’re model will be telling the best story under this franchise umbrella?
Exactly, yes. I don’t think I could have put that better myself.
Do you have a measurement of interest for bringing The Bachelorette back? Or is it about opportunity — like if Ciara Miller had worked out?
Yeah, I think that’s right. For us, the Dancing model seemed really exciting [for Ciara]. I can’t speak for her, but I would think her heartbreak is pretty fresh. So to immediately say, “Here are 25 new guys” seems a little crazy. Why don’t we start with one on Dancing and see where that takes us?
What were key lessons learned or things you would apply when casting your next Bachelor/ette season, after how everything went down with Taylor Frankie Paul? Would you do more crossover casting?
I would say that, whatever the right story to tell is, nothing is off the table.
Is it off the table to salvage Taylor’s Bachelorette season? I’m sure you’ve seen speculation about if it could be revived, especially with charges not being brought against her.
I think everything really is a day at a time. Everything concerning Taylor, first and foremost, is that we’re making sure anything she needs on a human level is taken care of, and then we can talk about anything from the show perspective.
If Taylor doesn’t come back, it shifts the show into a different era. Do you view this as Mormon Wives 2.0? Do you think it’ll come back and feel like a reset? What can people expect?
I think we are blessed with an incredible ensemble, and I think we learned after season one that they’re always going to have great stories to tell, and we’re always just going to lean into that.
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