It was in January 2024, and I interviewed Rob Mills, Disney Executive Vice-President Uncripted and alternative, in a conference panel in reality in New Orleans when he first piled up the title of a program that soon came to Hulu: “The secret life of Mormone wives”. The Gloussé public – What a wild title! But I remember thinking even at the time that it looked like a blow.
“Originally, his name was” Maman Tok “, notes Mills. “But Tiktok can be an obstacle to the entrance. Not everyone
S on Tiktok. “The secret wives of Mormon wives” felt wider. It was more health. You certainly knew that this title, once you heard it, was everything, “he said.
The stars of “Mormon Wives” first won the notoriety (and won the Hulu Show!) Because of a sexual swing scandal which took Tiktok. But soon, Mills and his team realized that the show would be greater than this scandal – and they received important notes from top to top: the president of Disney Entertainment Co Dana Walden.
“Dana sent me a text on the last weekend of the Memorial Day and said:” I just looked at “-I didn’t even know that she had the episode!-” And there is so much potential here. “She gave very good comments that helped improve the show,” he said. The biggest note was that viewers did not necessarily know the swing scandal – and that it didn’t really matter. The history of these women was greater than that.
“Dana supervises hundreds of thousands of hours of programming, so she doesn’t have time to get involved in everything,” notes Mills. “I was also taking my daughter to see” The Garfield Movie “, and I was so happy to send me an SMS, so I could get out. It was also very wonderful! ”
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” was an immediate success in season 1, which makes it the first in the unicated series of Hulu. It is this kind of figures that made the spectacle undeniable enough to capture the eye of Emmy voters.
“I think it shows that people have taken the time to watch this show,” says Mills. “There was a lot of craft here, not only in the real show, but the fact that there was a theme song that people hummed. And even the title, so much work went there.”
This year’s unstructured reality category has a bit of everything: “Mormon Wives”, “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders”, “Love on the Spectrum”, “RuPaul’s Drag Race: Unduched” and the winner of last year, “Welcome to Wrexham”. “I must say that there is a large scale in there,” explains Mills. “These are five very different shows. I don’t know you can say the same thing about the category of the reality competition.”
Mills attribute to the candidate of the previous category “Vanderpump Rules” (and before that, the “one-of-bridge” franchise) for opening the door to this type of lifestyle documentary.
“Historically, this type of spectacle generally does not pass,” he notes. “When” Vanderpump Rules “was nominated, I think it has shown, really on the credit of the voters of the academy, that things that are in Zeitgeist are what is nominated. This is not always the case in the awards. Also think it’s sometimes timing.
How long until Mulls develops the franchise and finds a spin-off “Secret Lives of (replace white)”?
“We can absolutely make the secret life of many other types of wives, but I think we want to be careful,” he said. “But yes, it could be a franchise starter for sure.”
Record it for our next panel, Millsy!
