Netflix's Hype House - What We Know So Far
Every TV show needs some element of drama to fuel each episode, and when it comes to Netflix's upcoming reality series, "Hype House," the drama comes from one big question: can a bunch of Internet stars with massive social media followings make the transition to a mainstream Hollywood career?
If you're not up on the latest in the social media influencers, "Hype House" is a content collective that was founded in December 2019, primarily by influencers Daisy Keech, Chase Hudson and Thomas Petrou. If you're not familiar with what a "content collective is," it's a group of social media influencers who have pooled their resources to crank out content on a daily basis, and often live together in the same physical location, which is usually a mansion in the Hollywood Hills. The Hype House has about 20 members, and they focus on TikTok videos. Most of their content is autobiographical, focusing on the daily ups-and-downs of life as a hugely successful twenty something with an audience in the tens of millions.
In other words, the members of "Hype House" are already making a reality series about themselves. But this one will be longer, and on Neftlix. Here's everything we know about the upcoming reality show.
When will Hype House premiere on Netflix?
So far, Netflix hasn't yet specified when the "Hype House" reality series might premiere, or what the show will be called. In August 2020, Deadline reported that the TikTok stars had agreed to a deal with production company Wheelhouse Entertainment to produce a reality series called "The Hype Life," although Netflix hasn't confirmed that title.
As for when it might premiere, Netflix produces many different kinds of reality shows that can offer some context, from cooking series ("Nailed It," "Sugar Rush") to dating series ("Dating Around," "Love Is Blind") and competition series ("Next In Fashion," "Beastmaster"). Netflix reality series usually take a bit more than a year between the time they're announced and the time they premiere. One recent example is "The Circle," the docu-reality series about catfishing. The American version was announced in October 2018 and premiered in January 2020.
"Hype House" shouldn't need that much time. One advantage it has over most other reality shows is that most of the infrastructure is already in place — since the "Hype House" members are already used to living in a home where their everyday lives are filmed, that takes care of the bulk of pre-production work.
The premiere may only be a matter of months, or even weeks. "Bling Empire," Netflix's new series about East Asian and East Asian-American socialites, was announced on January 8, 2021 and premiered just one week later.
Who's in the cast of Hype House?
As reported by "Deadline," many members of the existing Hype House will be appearing on the reality series, although the show will be without some of the team's biggest stars.
Founders Chase Hudson and Thomas Petrou will be among the cast, along with makeup influencer Nikita Dragun — she got into hot water in July 2020 when she threw a birthday party for her fellow team member Larray while California was experiencing consistently high rates of COVID-19 infections. Those also appearing include Kouvr Annon, Sienna Mae Gomez, Larri "Larray" Merritt, Alex Warren and Jack Wright. They have a combined social media following of 124 million, which is just shy of the population of Japan.
Some of the biggest members of The Hype House have already embarked on solo careers, and won't be appearing on the reality series. The absences include Keech, Charli and Dixie D'Amelio, and Addison Rae. (Per The Verge). The D'Amelio sisters are working on an upcoming Hulu reality series, while Rae is launching a Spotify-exclusive podcast. Rae was also one of the targets on Quibi's recent "Punk'd" revival.
Is there a trailer for Hype House?
Netflix also hasn't shared a trailer for the first season of the "Hype House" show, or indicated when it might be available. For now, all we can do is make an educated guess about what the trailer might look like.
It will almost definitely feature some of the TikTok-friendly content that's made the Hype House members famous, like dances and pranks. But the series is also going to show fans a much different side of the influencers than what they've already seen, like the cast members' interpersonal drama and their lives — it's difficult to have time to yourself when your job is making content for millions of people daily, after all. It will also explore the cast members' lives before they became TikTok stars, and what inspired them to become content creators.
Most of all, the reality series is a chance to dig deeper than the typical TikTok video. "So many of these influencers don't feel that they justify the attention that they're getting," Wheelhouse Chief Strategy Officer Ed Simpson told Deadline. "They put content up on YouTube or TikTok and the algorithm does its magic and they think, 'I've got millions of people looking at me and all I've done is just be me. When they start to think about the long-form world and the linear world, there's a huge demand and desire because it creates a validation for them and for their talent.
Look for all of that and more in the trailer, which should be available in the coming months.