Paramount Has Some Incredible News For Fans Of The Hills
Fans of "The Hills," MTV's extremely '00s series about the ups and downs of the lives of a group of Los Angeles twentysomethings, lived for their weekly dose of drama during the show's heyday. For six seasons, they couldn't get enough of the adventures of fashion design student Lauren Conrad, PR rep Heidi Montag (and her eventual spouse, ne'er-do-well Spencer Pratt), model-actress Audrina Patridge, and Conrad's fellow intern Whitney Port. Romances come and go, business deals succeed and fall apart, everyone attends lavish parties, and tears and champagne flow like wine, but Conrad always has her friends to rely on — unless she happens to be feuding with them.
The group dynamic eventually shifted over time. Kristin Cavallari, who starred alongside Conrad on MTV's "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County," joined the show in its fifth season in the wake of the departure of Conrad (via Entertainment Weekly). Stephanie Pratt, the younger sister of Spencer Pratt, joined the show in Season 6 to pick up even more of the narrative slack. Supporting cast members Jordan Eubanks and Brian Drolet disappeared after the first season, with Brody Jenner and Pratt becoming familiar faces during the second (per IMDb). The show even weathered accusations that some of its scenes were scripted. But after six seasons, "The Hills" left the network on its own terms, per Entertainment Weekly, in 2010. According to a November 2010 report from The Hollywood Reporter, the series finale pulled in a 2.8 Nielsen rating, the largest audience it had drawn that season.
Love it or hate it, it's hard to deny that "The Hills" was a mega-successful in its day and was a cultural touchstone for a generation, which is why fans will be very excited thanks to some news from Paramount.
The Hills will be back with an all-new cast
On Wednesday, May 18, Deadline announced MTV is heading back into "The Hills" sometime in the near future. The network has greenlit a new series has been given the working title "The Hills: Next Gen." Deadline also notes the new show will feature a whole new cast of young Los Angeles natives experiencing unscripted relationship and career drama in presumably splashy settings. The focus will be on these people trying to make their way in the business world and join the ranks of young entrepreneurs.
In a press release from Paramount posted by Deadline, the first season of "The Hills: Next Gen" will be somewhat more thought-provoking, subject-wise, and will deal with a range of timely issues related to the concerns young people today, including race, class, and gender. Of course, the reboot will also dive into the highs and lows of young love and career success, with all of the drama playing out in Malibu. That's some weighty stuff for a franchise like "The Hills"; it is definitely a change from the bubbly, mostly lighthearted soap opera that composed the majority of the show's O.G. installments.
There's no word as of press time as to who will star in the show or if we'll get to see familiar faces from "The Hills" of old, like Lauren Conrad and the Pratts. Fans will have to keep their eyes peeled for any interesting cameos or guest spots.
This isn't the first time MTV has tried to reboot The Hills
The original version of "The Hills" had its share of spin-offs and reboot attempts. The program itself is a spin-off of "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County," which aired on MTV for three seasons and focused on Lauren Conrad's high school days. Also featured was eventual "The Hills" regular Lo Bosworth, as well as Stephen Colletti, Morgan Olsen, Trey Phillips, and Christina Schuller (via IMDb).
The first cast member to get their own spin-off from "The Hills" was Whitney Port, who led "The City" for two seasons. The series followed her life in New York City while she completed an internship with fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg. The series was canceled in 2013, according to CNN. Next was "The Hills: New Beginnings," a reboot-ish of "The Hills" that took a look at the lives of Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt, Stephanie Pratt, Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port, Jason Wahler, and Frankie Delgado a decade after the original series wrapped. This new version of "The Hills" also met with accusations of fakery, with Montag admitting on TikTok in July 2021 that 90% of the show, by her estimation, had been faked for the cameras. The show only lasted for two seasons before it was canceled in January 2022 (per Deadline).
What sort of legacy will this new version of "The Hills" leave behind? Fans will have to tune in to find out.