The Hills

**The Hills** is an American reality television series. The show premiered on May 31, 2006 and aired for six seasons.

The series focuses on the personal and professional lives of several young women and men residing in Los Angeles, California.

## Development

In 2004, the reality television series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County premiered on MTV. The program was created by Liz Gateley and documented the lives of several students attending Laguna Beach High School as they completed secondary education. The series proved among the network's most successful programming, though the entire original cast left after the second season and were replaced by another group of teenagers for the following season.

Television producer Adam DiVello developed the spin-off program The Hills to follow one of its predecessor's original cast members, Lauren Conrad, as she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the fashion industry.

## Cast Members

### Overview

The Hills chronicles the lives of several young men and women living in Los Angeles, California. Every instalment commences with a voice-over narrative from series leads Lauren Conrad (seasons 1–5) or Kristin Cavallari (seasons 5–6), foreshadowing the theme of the episode. Each season concludes with a finale, typically involving a major event such as a progressing relationship or a personnel departure. Most instalments revolve around the women's everyday lives, with the intention of balancing coverage of their personal and professional endeavours.

Throughout its run, the series was led by three (season 5) and four (seasons 1–4, 6) primary cast members, who were credited by their first names. Its original main cast members were Conrad, Heidi Montag, Audrina Patridge, and Whitney Port. Upon the conclusion of the fourth season, Port moved to New York City after receiving employment with Diane von Fürstenberg and was commissioned to star in the spin-off The City.

During this time, Conrad wished to leave the series to pursue other career opportunities, though she filmed ten episodes in the following season to close her storylines. After departing halfway through the fifth season, she was replaced by Cavallari, a fellow former Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County cast member. The sixth and final season saw Conrad's friends Lo Bosworth and Stephanie Pratt, who were respectively featured as supporting roles since the second and third seasons, become primary cast members. Halfway through the season, Montag left the series after the cast looked to disassociate themselves from her uncharacteristic antics.

The aforementioned women's storylines were largely developed by a number of supporting cast members. Spencer Pratt, originally credited as "Heidi's boyfriend" and later "Heidi's husband", was added in the second season. Also that season, Brody Jenner was introduced as "Spencer's friend". After establishing a friendship with Conrad, he became known as "Lauren's friend". Jenner was later credited as "Kristin's ex-boyfriend" when Cavallari assumed Conrad's position in the fifth season.

In the third season, Frankie Delgado was established as "Brody's friend". His title was adjusted as "Lauren's friend" the following season, and was eventually reverted to "Brody's friend" during the fifth season. Since the third season, Justin-Bobby was recognised as "Audrina's ex", "Audrina's boyfriend", or "Audrina's ex-boyfriend" Holly Montag, credited as "Heidi's sister", was added to the series in the fourth season.

In the fifth season, Stacie Hall was introduced to the series as "bartender" when working at The Dime, and later became "the bartender" after the conflict between herself, Montag, and Pratt came to fruition. After the conflict settled, Hall remained on the series as "Kristin's friend".

### Main

* Lauren Conrad (Season 1-5a; guest in Season 6)
* Audrina Patridge (Season 1-6)
* Whitney Port (Season 1-4)
* Heidi Montag (Season 1-6)
* Kristin Cavallari (Season 5b-6; guest in Season 5a)
* Lo Bosworth (Season 6; guest in Season 2; recurring in Season 3-5b)
* Stephanie Pratt (Season 6; recurring in Season 3-5b)

### Supporting

* Lisa Love (Season 1-3)
* Jordan Eubanks (Season 1)
* Brian Drolet (Season 1)
* Brent Bolthouse (Season 1 and 3-4; guest in Season 2 and 5)
* Jason Wahler (Season 1 and 3; guest in Season 2)
* Elodie Otto (Season 1-3)
* Kelly Cutrone (Season 3-5; guest in Season 1)
* Spencer Pratt (Season 2-6)
* Jen Bunney (Season 2-3; guest in Season 5)
* Chiara Kramer (Season 2-4; guest in Season 5)
* Brody Jenner (Season 2-6)
* Emily Weiss (Season 2)
* Justin "Bobby" Brescia (Season 3-6)
* Frankie Delgado (Season 3-6)
* Taylor "Sleazy T" Mosher (Season 5-6; guest in Season 3)
* Kimberly Brandon (Season 3-4; guest in Season 5)
* Holly Montag (Season 4-6; guest in Season 3)
* Casey Patridge (Season 4; guest in Season 3 and 5)
* Doug Reinhardt (Season 4; guest in Season 5)
* Charlie Smith (Season 5-6)
* Stacie Hall (Season 5-6)
* Jayde Nicole (Season 5)
* Ryan Cabrera (Season 6)
* McKaela Line (Season 6)
* Allie Lutz (Season 6)

## Reception

### Critical Response

The Hills received lukewarm reviews among critics. The series' first season holds a score of 52 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews", based on eight reviews. Robert Abele of LA Weekly complimented the program for being "insanely watchable", while Variety's Brian Lowry criticised the storylines as being "as old as they come". The second season garnered more favourable feedback, with Virginia Heffnernan of The New York Times opining that Conrad "now registers as charm". After the falling-out between Conrad and Montag in the third season, Heffernan also commented that The Hills "is more convincing than Friends and just about any other comedy about female relationships because—as anyone who has ever been a young woman knows—undying friendships die".

The decision to replace the departing Conrad with Cavallari halfway through the fifth season was met with a mixed response. Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly expressed interest in the route the series would take, writing that the latter would "be fully prepared to stir things up". After the premiere of the first episode under her lead, a writer from PopSugar criticised Cavallari's "sassy, bad-girl attitude" for lacking originality and preferred Conrad for "keeping it real". In contrast, Amy Kaufman from Los Angeles Times opined that Cavallari was more intriguing than Conrad, whose storylines she felt had been overshadowed as the series progressed.

The original series finale during the sixth season garnered a generally negative critical response. Emily Exton from Entertainment Weekly described it as "probably a bit confusing" for the series' earlier viewers, in light of the casting adjustments in later seasons. A writer for Gawker criticised that "as the camera zooms out into the South California nothingness, nothing has changed, and neither audience nor cast is for the better". However, a writer from People was more positive, feeling that the conclusion was a "surprise twist".

Similarly, critics were ambivalent towards the alternate finale. Jenna Mullins from E! praised Conrad's return as being "shocking and glorious at the same time", and felt that "clearly viewers should all prefer the ending with Lauren Conrad". Kaitlin Reilly from Bustle described the suggestion of another love triangle involving Conrad and Cavallari to "feel vaguely like the ending to a horror movie" in that "it's starting again", but nonetheless appreciated the ending as "a wink to loyal fans". Billy Niles from Zap2It noted that there was "no winking nod to a soundstage", and opined that "nothing that freaking awesome happened". Sonya Sorich of the Ledger-Enquirer preferred the original conclusion, commenting that the revised clip was not as "startling" as the first. Lindsey Weber from Vulture suggested that the footage felt like a "total soap opera" in that it seemingly acknowledged that portions of the series were fabricated.

During its run, The Hills received several accolades from media outlets. It was recognised at number 82 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 100 New TV Classics. The series has been labelled as a guilty pleasure by writers for HuffPost, MSN, and BuzzSugar.

### Scripting Allegations

The Hills was often criticised for appearing to fabricate much of its storyline. In one instance, the president of entertainment for MTV, Brian Graden, commented that the series benefits from the media coverage it receives in between seasons, which he described as a "six-month commercial for the show that doesn't give away the narrative in full." He elaborated that MTV wants "viewers to watch Lauren and the girls as the characters we know instead of in a show about being the stars of The Hills"; the sex tape rumours were consequently presented like a personal conflict between the women, and was intentionally not addressed as a highly publicised controversy.

In 2008, Patridge noted that a producer offered her a position on the series to become friends with Conrad and Montag. She later appeared on an episode of Chelsea Lately, where Chelsea Handler suggested the program was improvised. When pressed further, Patridge replied, "We're put in situations where however we'd react and that's what comes up on TV", and additionally stated that the series was unscripted. In 2008, Montag and Pratt acknowledged that their Mexican elopement was "entirely symbolic", while their civil ceremony was filmed after office hours without a county court judge present. Additionally, the Associated Press noted that neither person had filed for a marriage record at the time. An additional source of suspicion arose during the fifth season, where Conrad was shown to be moving out of her house the day prior to Montag and Pratt's nuptials. However, Conrad and Bosworth had actually left the property several months prior in January, leading to speculation that addressing the wedding as "the next day" was pre-planned.

After leaving The Hills, Conrad appeared on The View in June 2009, where she was asked how she felt about her apology from Pratt involving the sex tape rumours. She replied, "To be perfectly honest, I wasn't on the other line of that call. I didn't even know about it until afterwards, so no, I didn't get an apology, he's lying". At Montag and Pratt's wedding, it was depicted on the series as if Conrad and Cavallari were displeased with each other's presence, though the latter commented that they gave each other "a big hug, and that's it". She also stated that when she joined The Hills, "It's work! And drama sells. I think that's why they're bringing me in, because I know what works".

In February 2011, Cavallari told Access Hollywood that the cast followed a "schedule" of events to be filmed on a given day, adding, "We only filmed The Hills three days a week, and we did three different scenes each day and a change of clothes to film a specific scene. They were pushing it as far as they could go without an actual script... They give you a schedule like, 'You have lunch with Heidi at 3 to talk about the party coming up' or whatever the situation may be". She had earlier commented that she felt viewers "need to understand it's all entertainment" and she "would never put her close friends or a real relationship on a show".

Cavallari later told Ryan Seacrest that her relationships with Jenner and Brescia were fabricated, and make a point of saying that it was very difficult for her to pretend to be romantically interested in the "unattractive" and "unlikable" Brescia. In October 2012, in an interview with Allure, Conrad stated that while "the story told wasn't a dishonest one, the way the producers did it sometimes was". She elaborated that scenes would be re-enacted if cameras were not present for a significant occurrence between cast members, and commented that her relationship with Jenner was "pretty brief" and "definitely edited to drag it out". In July 2013, when discussing the filming of several alternate finale endings, MTV acknowledged that "maybe the term 'reality TV' didn't perfectly apply to The Hills".

### Ratings

The first season of The Hills maintained a steady viewership of about two million viewers for each weekly episode. During the third season, the series achieved its most-viewed episode, "Paris Changes Everything", on March 17, 2008; it had attracted 4.8 million viewers in its original airing. However, the fourth season premiere experienced a 25 percent ratings decline, attracting 2.6 million viewers, compared to the 3.8 million viewers of the third-season finale. The second half of the fifth season, also Cavallari's first episode as the lead, premiered to 2.1 million viewers, suffering a 30 percent drop from the premiere of the first half. The series finale in July 2010 aired to three million viewers, becoming the peak viewership of the season.

## Spin-offs

* The City
* The Hills: New Beginnings
* Kell on Earth
* Audrina