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The Hills
Title Screen Shot
Genre	Reality
Created by	Adam DiVello
Starring	see below
Opening theme	"Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	90
Production
Running time	20-22 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	MTV
Original run	May 31, 2006 (2006-05-31) – present
Chronology
Preceded by	Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County
Related shows	The City The Audrina Show
External links
Official website

The Hills is a reality television^[1] program that follows the personal lives of several people living in Los Angeles, California. The program premiered on May 31, 2006, and followed the personal life of former Laguna Beach star, Lauren Conrad and her friends, and their new lives in Los Angeles. However, after 5 seasons, Conrad chose to leave the series, and it was confirmed that another former Laguna Beach star, Kristin Cavallari would replace Conrad starting in the second half of season 5. On July 16, 2009, Cavallari announced that she signed a contract for two more seasons following the fifth season.^[2] On December 1, 2009, Cavallari announced on the MTV season finale that there will be a sixth season. On January 13, 2010, the cast began filming Season 6. The sixth season is currently scheduled to premiere on April 27, 2010.^[3]

Entertainment Weekly labeled the show a "New Classic" ranking it 82nd on a list of The 100 Best Shows of the Last 25 Years.^[4]

Overview

Background

After MTV's reality TV show Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County became one of the network's highest-rated programs, producers wanted to continue the story of one of its more popular characters, Lauren Conrad, as she moved to Los Angeles. After the cameras turned off for Kristin Cavallari, Stephen Colletti, and the rest of the Laguna Beach cast, those same cameras stayed on to follow Conrad as she pulled out of the driveway of her childhood home in Laguna to an apartment in Los Angeles. The cameras follow her life and the lives of her friends and capture everything and– though (obvious) it was revealed that the series uses loose scripting for "production purposes".

Initially, Lauren lives with her friend, Heidi Montag, and they become close to new friend Audrina Patridge. Further into the seasons, Lauren and Heidi end their friendship after Heidi's then boyfriend Spencer Pratt spreads rumors about Lauren having a sex tape on the market. When Lauren confronts Heidi she stands by Spencer and takes his side against Lauren. The fights between the two girls continue through subsequent seasons, with Audrina providing a stabilizing influence in Lauren's life. While Lauren constantly fights with Heidi, she also makes time to attend the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and lands an internship with Teen Vogue alongside new friend Whitney Port, as they together, float from job to job. Laurens best friend Lo Bosworth moves in with her in the third season, and becomes a factor in the distance between Lauren and Audrina. Audrina is in a rocky relationship with Justin Brescia, whom Lo has jokingly titled "Justin-Bobby". Lauren befriends Brody Jenner after briefly dating him, and makes a memorable trip to Paris. Stephanie Pratt, sister of Spencer, joins the cast in the third season, and later befriends Lauren, causing a rift between her relationship with Heidi and her brother. Whitney eventually moves to New York, and Heidi and Lauren had seemed to come to common terms in the fourth season, but things weren't the same.

Upon conclusion of season four, rumors were widespread that Lauren Conrad wanted to leave the show. Despite this, the producers persuaded her to film ten more episodes at the start of season five to settle the on-screen drama before being replaced by former classmate, Kristin Cavallari, for the later half of season five. As Heidi and Spencer decided to marry, Heidi wanted Lauren to attend their wedding. After much debate, Lauren decided to attend the wedding, and in her final appearance on the show, she makes peace with Heidi at her wedding, and then drives off. The episode also marked the arrival of Lauren's rival, Kristin Cavallari, who catches the bouquet at Heidi's wedding. Season five continued with Cavallari as the series' lead. Cavallari proved to cause drama the moment she started on the show. A fight broke out between her and Audrina at Heidi and Spencer's welcome home party (from their honeymoon) as Kristin was flirting with Audrina's ex, Justin Bobby. The feud between Audrina and Kristin was a major plotline over the rest of the season. The sixth season should premiere sometime in the spring or summer.

Ratings

The day The Hills first premiered, it followed the season 2 finale of Laguna Beach, and viewership stayed roughly the same between the programs. Ratings were high for MTV and one of the highest for any cable network. There was a ratings dip after the season 2 finale as viewers reacted poorly to the developing story. From then on, viewership remained relatively steady. Ratings for the premiere of season four were down 9% among the 12-to-34 demographic (2.1 million) and down 5% among total viewers (3.5 million) in comparison to the show’s third season premiere.^[5] Additionally, the total season 4 average was down 25% from that of season 3.^[6] When season 5 premiered on April 6, 2009, both back-to-back episodes averaged 3 million viewers, which is lower than the season 4 premiere had last year. The season 5 finale brought in 2.7 million viewers. This was slightly less than the season premiere yet still higher than the season 4 finale, which garnered roughly 2.5 million viewers.^[7] The new season of the Hills premiered on Tuesday September 29 at 10pm and had a 30% decline in ratings. It premiered with 2.1 million viewers, nearly a million less than had seen the previous season's premiere. Since its premiere, the show's ratings increased a bit. The second half of season five has averaged about 2.5 million viewers per episode. The show is particularly popular amongst middle school, high school, and college aged viewers.

Spin offs

• Whitney Port received her own spin-off from The Hills entitled The City.^[8] The series centers around Port as she moves to New York City to work for fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg.^[8][9] The series debuted December 29, 2008 on MTV.
• Audrina Patridge confirmed on May 28, 2009 on "On Air with Ryan Seacrest" that she too will be starring in her own reality-based program documenting her life outside of The Hills. Tentatively titled The Audrina Show, it will be produced by Mark Burnett and will air on MTV also.^[10]

Starring

This is the Main Cast for all seasons according to MTV. For a full list of current and former cast members of The Hills, see the list of cast members.

¹ Only members to receive star billing in opening credits

Seasons

Criticism

On December 17, 2008 the Associated Press released an article titled "Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt nuptials questioned"^[11] which noted that Pratt and Montag acknowledged that their wedding in Mexico was "entirely symbolic". The article also noted that a Los Angeles Superior Court official confirmed that MTV had obtained permission to shoot in the Beverly Hills courtroom, but it was after office hours and a county court judge would not be present. The civil ceremony was inaccurately portrayed, as well, because "if a judge does preside, it is typically in chambers during a break". The Associated Press also checked for marriage records, but found none filed by Pratt or Montag in Los Angeles County.^[11]

Audrina Patridge's official website biography states that she was cast in her role as a new friend for Lauren and Heidi, as she was approached by a producer to join the cast.^[12] During an appearance on Chelsea Lately, Chelsea Handler suggested that they improvised. Audrina stated, "If that's what you want to call it..." When pressed further, she replied, "We're put in situations where however we'd react and that's what comes up [on TV]." She did state that there were no scripts, and Handler joked that "if it is a reality show" that the cast has really good actors. Audrina laughed and said, "Thank you...It is a big compliment."^[13]

The apartment community that both Lauren and Heidi initially moved in together was labeled as Hillside Villas in West Hollywood, California in the show. In reality, the apartment complex they lived in was actually The Villas at The Palazzo East at Park La Brea in West Los Angeles.."^[14]

On a June 18, 2009 episode of The View, Lauren Conrad was asked how she felt about the apology she had received from Spencer Pratt involving the sex tape rumours. She responded "To be perfectly honest, I wasn't on the other line of that call...That was filmed and I wasn't on the other end...so I didn't know about it until--So, no, I never did get an apology."^[15]

In the August 2009 issue of the Dutch Cosmopolitan extra light was shed on Lauren's exit and her reunion with co-star Heidi Montag on the fifth season of The Hills. What wasn't published in the July issue of the American Cosmopolitan, was that there were actually more reasons for her to end her run on the show than had previously been revealed. She claimed that, over the course of the filming of The Hills, she felt like being on the show had become more of a job than a thing she loved doing, as she had in the past. She said that she felt like she was living in two separate worlds. Furthermore, Conrad's relationship with paparazzi was becoming increasingly difficult, an aspect of her life not seen on the show.

She also revealed that, during production on the fifth season, producers kept on coming up with ideas for her and Montag to reunite. Conrad revealed she no longer wished to fight on the show and was trying to put her friendship with Montag behind her. Unfortunately producers weren't allowing that to happen, until the point where Conrad felt producers were pushing her into directions she did not see as her own. She also revealed that during her surprise birthday party in the fifth season, upon seeing Montag, she actually left the room with producers having to calm her down before being able to continue filming. This was not aired.

Kristin Cavallari, when asked about joining the cast, stated "It’s work! And drama sells. I think that’s why they’re bringing me in, because I know what works." And later said: "Its a TV show, why not? You gotta make it fun!" Also in the interview, Kristin stated "I saw Lauren at the wedding, she was really sweet and gave me a big hug, and that's it", when on the show, it was portrayed differently.^[16]

Releases

Seasons 1-5 (Part One) are now available on DVD as well as on PlayStation Store and iTunes for download. Also streaming on Amazon.com.

See also

Los Angeles portal

• Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County
• The City
• The O.C.
• Living on the Edge
• Baldwin Hills (TV series)
• Harlem Heights (TV series)
• The Suburbs (web series)
• Nós 3 (Brazilian Version of "The Hills")

Notes

External links

• Official website
• The Hills at the Internet Movie Database
• The Hills at TV.com