If I were to talk about the D’Amelio sisters, chances are you would have one of two responses; you would either roll your eyes at the mention of another ‘gen z superstar’ thrown into the Hollywood limelight, or, you would have no idea who I was talking about. Sisters, Charli and Dixie, seem to have “taken over the internet,” going from normal teenagers in Connecticut to two of the biggest social media stars in the past two years. So, what are they actually famous for, you might be asking? Well, originally Charli became a viral sensation on TikTok for her dance videos, for which she currently has over 125 million followers (making her the most followed creator on the platform). Her sister quickly followed her into the platform, where she now has 55 million followers and a record deal from the same label as Jennifer Lopez. Seems harmless, right? Well not according to many on the internet who seem to take issue with anything the D’Amelio’s are involved with.
Enter Hulu’s The D’Amelio Show. Advertised as the next Keeping Up with the Kardashians (KUWTK), the show caused the internet to go into a mass panic about the future of television. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not great (it is reality television after all) but what I found interesting about this show is its subversion of the genre. Reality TV shows, like KUWTK, thrive by portraying an extremely unrealistic expectation of what life should be like, often only focusing on those living lavish lifestyles. The D’Amelio Show certainly falls into that convention, showing audiences the incredible opportunities both girls get to have like hosting award shows, starting a clothing line, and releasing hit singles. I think the reason why it was surprising to me was mostly because at surface the show is very similar to the reality format we are used to. The way in which shows like KUWTK or any of the Housewives franchise work is through a “‘fly on the wall’ approach. Camera crews follow a protagonist (or group of protagonists) without interfering with the scene, i.e. the audience can’t see the producers or the crew. This is then interlaced with narration or confessionals from the main ‘characters’ of the show. Whether these types of shows are completely scripted is a completely different discussion, but just by having a group of producers and editors these shows will always have somewhat of a very edited and meticulously planned out storyline.
However, while The D’Amelio Show begins this way, it quickly takes a turn, “revealing” what’s really going on behind the scenes. The first episode ends with Dixie breaking down in tears after receiving immense backlash after the release of her “24 Hours with Me” video for Vogue. Dixie and her family explain how this newly found internet fame has caused her anxiety to further worsen, as she feels like no matter what she does everyone will find a way to criticise her. Charli also struggles with this, with one of the show’s clips going viral after her therapist tells her that she “shouldn’t be sad because [his] daughter is her fan.”
This begs the question, was this the original plan for the show? Did the producers, the publicist team, and the family decide prior to shooting that they were going to go against the genre’s conventions or did it happen as they shot? Personally, I would assume it to be the latter (my only qualification being the countless hours of reality tv I have watched). The show doesn’t feel scripted at all, in fact I would highlight this as the show’s main fault, it sort of feels like the producers just had a camera crew follow these two girls without a plan on where they want the show to go and then later tried to piece it together with some confessional styled narration. The scenes often begin halfway through the family’s conversations, then cutting to the parents explaining the situation and either of the girls explaining how they feel about it.
These particular scenes in the show gained a lot of notoriety across various social media platforms after the show’s release, and I observed a shift in behaviour in how the internet now interacted with these girls. The comments were now filled with “I don’t know why people hate her so much” and “You’re so strong” instead of the constant harassment they had been receiving prior. And whilst their parents have been criticised now more than ever for seeing how social media has affected both their daughters and seemingly not taking any action, it seems that for the most part that The D’Amelio Show has managed to change the audience’s minds on who these stars are.
Could it be that the future of reality TV is no longer about selling the luxurious lifestyle but instead about relatability and honesty? Personally I think that we have reached a point in tv programming where we are so overly saturated with reality tv programming for the obvious reasons that it is cheaper and easier to produce. There must be some sort of shift to this genre in the near future for audiences to remain interested. I think that the direction taken by The D’Amelio Show so far is a great step forward into finding more exciting ways to ‘spice’ up the familiar genre. Do I think it was perfect? Absolutely not. It needs to be refined and somewhat planned in order to fully grasp the audience’s interest like previous reality shows have been able to. However, I think more and more audiences look for authenticity and relatability from the media and The D’Amelio Show really provides that whilst still having that somewhat aspirational element that reality shows tend to have.
