WWE has found success with reality shows exploring the romantic lives of their pro wrestling stars, from “Total Bellas” to “Miz & Mrs.” The latest take on this formula comes with Hulu’s “Love & WWE: Bianca & Montez” — you can see the trailer’s exclusive debut above ahead of it dropping Feb. 2. It follows married pro wrestlers Bianca Belair (real name Bianca Blair) and Montez Ford (real name Kenneth Crawford).
“We’re so excited for the world to finally get a glimpse into our life outside of the WWE ring,” Belair and Ford told TheWrap in a statement.
The unscripted series doesn’t get too real, as it maintains much of the faux reality of wrestling and the idea that wrestlers don’t know what’s going to happen. But you can see the couple’s real chemistry as they make their way through both personal lives and their careers.
The show tracks the run-up to 2023’s WrestleMania, with Belair going into the event as the WWE Raw Women’s Champion and Ford in a lower-tier non-championship tag-team match. The first episode sees them dealing with Belair experiencing more success at that point in their careers, with Ford expressing his frustration over not getting more time in the annual Royal Rumble match and not yet being seen as a breakout star.
“Bianca is the bread-winning, type-A perfectionist and Montez, the playful and magnetic leading man,” the show’s synopsis reads. “The more their careers take off, the heavier the demands of their inner circle and more difficult it is for them to dedicate time to their relationship.”
The series also explores what it’s like for Ford coming back from an injury, as well as pressure from those around them to have children together. Belair is stepmother to two children Ford has from a previous relationship.
All episodes of “Love & WWE: Bianca & Montez” drop Feb. 2 on Hulu.
The series is produced by WWE and Wheelhouse’s Spoke Studios. Chris Kaiser and Kevin Dunn executive produced for WWE. Dunn recently left the company. Pam Healey, Will Nothacker, Liz Fine, Russ Friedman and Jayson Elmore are the show’s executive producers for Spoke.
Hulu has ordered Got to Get Out, a competition series from Wheelhouse that was created by Glenn Hugill (Deal or No Deal, The Mole), the president of Wheelhouse’s UK arm.
The Big Brother-like series will consist of 10, hour-long episodes and feature participants living together in a mansion for 10 days while they compete in physical and mental challenges. Participants can stick together and take an equal share of the prize money at the end of their stay, or they can choose to go rogue and attempt to steal the full pot of money for themselves.
To win the $1 million prize, contestants have to escape the mansion via a single exit: the front gate. However, in this game, getting out is easier said than done. At various times during the game, the gate will open and a getaway car will arrive, presenting an opportunity for cast members to betray their comrades and make off with the cash. However, competitors can block each other’s run for the money via a red button that immediately closes the gate.
Got to Get Out will be produced for Hulu by Wheelhouse’s Spoke Studios with Brent Montgomery, Ed Simpson, Glenn Hugill, Pam Healey and Liz Fine serving as executive producers. Charles Wachter will serve as executive producer and showrunner.
Wheelhouse launched its UK division in 2023, marking the first international creative and production initiative from Brent Montgomery and Jimmy Kimmel’s multi-vertical media, marketing and investment platform, Wheelhouse.
The show follows Goldin and his team at Goldin Auctions, an auction house for trading cards, rare collectibles and memorabilia.
The first season featured celebrities including Drake, Logan Paul, Karl Malone and Mike Tyson, who sold a pair of boxing trunks worn on the front of Nintendo game Punch-Out! for over $34,000.
The series is produced by Wheelhouse’s Spoke Studios, Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and Connor Schell’s Full Day.
Brent Montgomery, Pam Healey, Will Nothacker, Peyton Manning, Connor Schell, Dave Chamberlain, Ian Sambor, Russ Friedman and Gardner Reed exec produce. Sambor serves as showrunner.
It’s a wrap for Buying Beverly Hills Season 2 filming. The Netflix occu-series has concluded filming for the second season of the show that follows agents and clients within Mauricio Umansky’s real estate company The Agency in Beverly Hills.
Umansky’s daughter Alexia Umansky shared a post on Instagram Stories confirming the cast had finished the principal filming of the series.
“That’s a wrap!! BBH S2,” read the caption.
In the photo, Alexia is seen in the far right next to her sister Sophia in red and her eldest sister Farrah Brittany posing with two other cast members.
Buying Beverly Hills Season 1 premiered on November 4, 2022, with Netflix dropping all eight episodes all at once. Umansky leads the show working alongside his daughters Farrah and Alexia, who is dipping her toes in the family business proving she’s got the abilities to be the next realtor star.
Cast for the first season of the show also included Santiago Arana, Ben Belack, Joey Ben-Zvi, Jon Grauman, Brandon Graves, Allie Lutz Rosenberger, Melissa Platt and American Idol Season 15 finalist Sonika Vaid.
Buying Beverly Hills is produced by Wheelhouse’s Spoke Studios and Just Entertainment and exec produced by Brent Montgomery, Pam Healey, Will Nothacker, Justin W. Hochberg, Liz Fine, Adam Sher, Deanna Markoff, Ed Simpson and Luke Neslage.
Season will see the appearance of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards, mother of Farrah and Alexia and Umansky’s wife.
Previously under a production agreement with Vox Media, Chang’s banner, Majordomo Media, has set a pact with Wheelhouse, a producer on Chang’s latest Hulu series, “Secret Chef,” to exclusively develop and produce unscripted programming across food, home and lifestyle, among other genres.
Wheelhouse and Chang are also focused on creating original content and developing new talent for his new FAST channel, MajordomoTV, co-developed with LG Electronics.
Culinary programming produced under the deal will be filmed out of Majordomo Media’s new 6,000-square-foot studio in downtown Los Angeles’s ROW DTLA, which includes two kitchens designed specifically for filming.
As part of their new partnership, Wheelhouse and Majordomo plan to put “significant focus and resources” to consumer product development. With Chang citing the work done by Wheelhouse’s in-house creative and marketing arm, Wheelhouse Labs, as a significant reason for the deal, both companies are looking to invest in outside partners “whose missions align with their respective values and entrepreneurial goals.”
Co-founded by Chang, Christopher Chen, Chris Ying and Noelle Cornelio, Majordomo Media’s notable titles include Netflix’s “Ugly Delicious,” “Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner” and Hulu’s “Secret Chef,” “The Next Thing You Eat,” “Chefs vs. Wild” and “Best in Dough,” as well as Spotify podcasts “The Dave Chang Show” and “Recipe Club.”
“At the end of the day, whether we’re producing TV shows or podcasts, or designing kitchen tools, Majordomo Media’s focus is always on being useful, honest and entertaining,” Chang said. “There’s a lot of BS out there, and we just want to be the ones to cut through the noise and give people the knowledge and tools they need to cook, eat, travel and live better. I’ve known Brent and Jimmy for a long time, and I’ve always admired the hell out of what they do. When we finally got to work together on ‘Secret Chef,’ it really cemented for all of us that we could join forces to do something big and creative that brings value and joy to the world. I’m in awe of what Wheelhouse has done, and the way they think about the marketplace. I’m incredibly excited to see what we can do together, including helping other entrepreneurs break through.”
Montgomery added: “David is someone who rolls up his sleeves every day, literally. No matter how successful he’s become in the culinary, media and business worlds, David wears his formula for success on those sleeves — and that’s combining bold creative and intense effort. His superpower is that he makes it look easy, and we cannot wait to mix it up and make some magic.”
The 4th of July holiday gives me permission to declare my freedom from calorie concerns.
Summer is officially here and I’m leaning into the cookouts, fresh tomatoes and plenty of ice cream. Not to mention the extended hours of daylight.
However, none of that will stop me from enjoying some tasty new television, either.
So let’s go!
Something to sip on…
David Chang is an executive producer and one of the stars of “Secret Chef.”Jim Fiscus/ HULU
Reminder that I simply adore movies and shows that celebrate food.
Over on Hulu, David Chang is blessing us with “Secret Chef,” billed as a “twist and playful turn on the food competition series.”
“Ten contestants from all walks of life – from professional chefs and home cooks to social media influencers – are isolated in a secret underground kitchen labyrinth connected by a series of conveyor belts,” according to Hulu.
“Guided by a mischievous animated talking hat, the chefs are tasked to perform a series of cooking challenges. However, there are no judges, and the chefs must rate each other’s final dishes in blind taste tests. With their true identities concealed, everything will be hidden except the one thing that matters most … the food.”
Yes, please!
Mind you, I am more into eating than cooking in real life, but I very much enjoy watching others work their magic in the kitchen.
Netflix confirmed the news to PEOPLE, saying “Kyle will indeed appear in Buying Beverly Hills season 2.” She did not appear in season 1.
Production on the new season, an insider says, is still ongoing. The series, which premiered in 2022, follows Umansky and his team of agents — including daughters Farrah, 34, and Alexia, 26 — as they navigate the high-stakes world of luxury real estate.
It’s unclear whether season 2 will cover Richards and Umansky’s relationship. They’re also expected to appear on season 13 of RHOBH, though filming for that season has already wrapped.
PEOPLE reported the news of Richards and Umansky’s separation on Monday. The pair, a source said, “have been separated for a while now but are still living under the same roof.” While they don’t plan to divorce just yet, “they remain amicable as they figure out what’s next for them and their family.”
Later that day, Richards, 54, and Umansky, 53, released a joint statement on Instagram addressing their marital status.
“In regards to the news that came out about us today… Any claims regarding divorcing are untrue,” they said. “However, yes, we have had a rough year. The most challenging one of our marriage. But we both love and respect each other tremendously.”
“There has been no wrongdoing on anyone’s part,” the statement continued. “Although we are in the public eye, we ask to be able to work through our issues privately. While it may be entertaining to speculate, please do not create false stories to fit a further salacious narrative.”
The Halloween actress and the real estate mogul first met in 1994. Richards was divorced from her first husband Guraish Aldjufrie, with whom she had daughter Farrah (née Aldjufrie). After marrying in January 1996, the couple went on to welcome three daughters: Alexia, Sophia, 23 and Portia, 15.
Their family made their public debut in 2010 when they appeared on Bravo’s RHOBH. Richards has remained a regular cast member for 13 seasons on the reality show so far, and the couple often assured fans that they were witnessing their authentic relationship on the screen.
“We’re the same, with or without cameras. We’re just super real and we know each other and we’re real,” Umansky told PEOPLE in March 2013. “We don’t have any secrets to hide. That’s one thing we talked about, the skeletons in the closet, and we can handle our worst skeletons.”
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Last year, Alexia told PEOPLE she was “really, really nervous about all the little mistakes I made” while filming the reality series. “It’s really scary putting your career out there for people to see, especially when you’re trying so hard to make it and prove something,” she said.
She went on to note that she was worried that clients may “think differently” of using her as their agent, with mistakes “that might seem silly” on the show.
“It really made me feel proud of my mom and these women who do what they’ve been doing for so long,” Alexia shared. “I think what shocked me the most [about making Buying Beverly Hills] was just how it was really emotionally exhausting and there was just so much to do and so much to put out there. All I can say is that it was definitely difficult for me, but enjoyable nonetheless.”
Meanwhile, Richards and Umansky have been making some major real estate moves of their own recently. They sold their Bel Air home in January 2022 for $6.1 million after more than 4 years on and off the market. They also listed their vacation home in Aspen, Colorado, for $9.75 million in June 2022.
In 2017, they bought a home in Encino after Richards said she “fell out of love” with Beverly Hills.
Amid a recession, it’s déjà vu all over again as Brent Montgomery channels the hunt for hidden treasures into a wave of new programming that includes Netflix’s ‘Goldin Auctions,’ History’s ‘Secret Restoration’ and a project with collectible asset platform Rally.
Brent Montgomery is leading the charge back into the so-called “transactional TV” genre with shows featuring rare collectibles including Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ costume and a Mickey Mantle rookie card.
During the 2009 recession, History Channel found an unlikely hit in Pawn Stars, the unscripted series in which everyday people found life-changing treasures in their attic and turned them into cash at a time when money was tight.
The series has since gone on to become a massive hit. More than 700 episodes have been commissioned, with repeats airing across History, Lifetime, A&E and Netflix. Several others in the so-called transactional TV genre launched around the same time, series like Shark Tank, American Pickers, Storage Wars, American Restoration and others. A spinoff of the successful franchise that started it all, Pawn Stars Do America, will launch Nov. 9 on History.
Now, Brent Montgomery — who gave birth to transactional TV with the creation of Pawn Stars — is the driving force behind a rebirth in the genre as the U.S. economy finds itself in familiar territory as when the Las Vegas-set show originally bowed. Montgomery, via his groundbreaking incubator at Wheelhouse, has seen interest in the genre blossom again and has set up a number of new shows in the space.
First up in the wave of “Hidden Treasures 2.0” programming is King of Collectibles, a series featuring industry leader Ken Goldin showcasing some of pop culture’s most coveted items including a high-grade Mickey Mantle rookie card, a game-used Jackie Robinson bat, game-worn jerseys from Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan and even Prince’s actual outfit from Purple Rain. The series counts Peyton Manning as an exec producer and features Goldin investor and noted collector Logan Paul, among others.
History Channel is also leaning hard into the space with the order for Secret Restoration, a series set in New England where the nation’s master craftsmen and women restore America’s treasures, working in secret for clients who wish to surprise loved ones with like-new cherished items. The cabler is also developing Restore This, a show based on a U.K. format in which tradesmen vie for jobs restoring vintage items that can be worth a fortune.
Montgomery is also in the process of shopping a series built around Rally, a platform that affords everyday people the opportunity to own a percentage of the most prized collectibles including a first edition of Harry Potter, vintage cars, the ultra-rare Honus Wagner baseball card and a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man No. 1.
“It’s a feeling of déjà vu compared with 2009 when the economy was going down the toilet. Pawn Stars launched a genre,” Montgomery tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re fortunate because of Pawn Stars and the other shows we’ve done to get the first call from networks, streamers or talent or partners like Connor Schell on Goldin’s show. There’s been more inbound interest for our development team, and we’ve brought on a casting team to help us focus on this genre.”
* * *
The quarantine period of the COVID-19 pandemic saw interest in collecting everything from watches, toys, sneakers, rare whiskey, wines, art and sports cards explode. For the first five months of 2020, auction house Sotheby’s saw online sales top the $100 million mark for the first time. Online art sales at the three leading auction houses — Phillips, Sotheby’s and Christie’s — rose 474.8 percent in the first half of 2020 versus the same period a year prior. An October 2020 Credit Suisse report found that the estimated value of collectibles owned by private individuals globally was a whopping $1.2 trillion. And, thanks to professional grading and authenticating companies like PSA, new markets have emerged as interest in, for instance, unopened copies of VHS cassettes and original Nintendo games explodes. A Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps rookie card, considered one of the holy grails of the hobby and examples of which will be featured on both the Goldin and Rally shows, sold in August for a record $12.6 million.
“My first real business was a baseball card business when I was in the eighth grade and through high school. I was 13 and competing against 40-year-olds at baseball card shows. That’s where my hunger to be an entrepreneur stemmed from,” Montgomery says. “I didn’t realize how comparable it was to the stock market. This time around, though, it’s professionalized. It’s a real business; there are people making real livings selling sports cards and people want to see that.”
One of Montgomery’s Wheelhouse investors found Rally, and the next thing the veteran unscripted exec knew, he was holding a Babe Ruth bat and later listening to Goldin recall the time when he bought a similar bat from the Yankee great’s estate. “I said, ‘These are both shows.’ Ken is made for TV,” says Montgomery, who is an investor in both Goldin and Rally.
* * *
Rally co-founder Rob Petrozzo has been a regular at Montgomery’s Wheelhouse events. The company has supplied such one-of-a-kind items as the former Staples Center basketball floor on which Bryant last played for the L.A. Lakers that have been known to attract everyone from Wheelhouse partner Jimmy Kimmel to Alex Rodriguez and John Stamos. The invitation-only events connect investors like Petrozzo, athletes and celebrities to executives with greenlight power. It helps that Montgomery — who made more than $360 million when he sold his baseball-inspired production company Leftfield Entertainment to ITV in 2015 — is there to light the path.
“Stocks don’t have a heartbeat. The pitch for our business is that it’s a stock market for collectibles; we’ve got museum quality stuff that we split into shares,” Petrozzo says. “We saw it as a bigger opportunity to tell stories and Brent saw that.”
In success, the untitled Rally show will tell the story behind assets like the house featured in The Godfather, rare baseball and basketball cards, early manuscripts for The Lord of the Rings and more as the New York-based company finds experts to verify and validate them and ultimately turn them into stock with an IPO.
“Wheelhouse took what Pawn Stars set up and brought it to the next level. You see these items, get the stories, the quest to find it, find experts in those areas, and then you can now leave with a piece of it in your portfolio,” Petrozzo says.
* * *
History Channel head of programming Eli Lehrer has known Montgomery since the early aughts, when he was an exec at Bravo buying female-leaning docuseries. The duo has remained in contact over the years, and Montgomery turned to Lehrer — who was behind the Pawn Stars touring spinoff — with the idea for a restoration show with a twist that would eventually become Secret Restoration. The series, which builds on History and Montgomery’s own American Restoration, will be paired on the schedule with Pawn Stars Do America, as Lehrer feels the shows share the same DNA.
“American Restoration was a great format and satisfying show, and we hadn’t been in the restoration space for a number of years,” says Lehrer, who grew up collecting baseball cards and enjoys viewing watch collectible videos on YouTube. “When Brent brought us the idea for Secret Restoration, it felt like a fresh and interesting way to get back into a space we already knew was resonating for our audience.”
After airing nearly 600 episodes over 20 seasons, Pawn Stars remains a hugely important show for History, where it’s been among the cabler’s highest-rated shows for more than a decade. Repeats, it’s worth noting, have launched the series into Netflix’s top 10 acquired programs.
“There is a committed audience there week after week, year after year,” Lehrer says. “There is a renewed interest in collectibles and after two years of COVID, Rick Harrison wanted to hit the road and see what kind of stuff people, after two years stuck in their houses, had found in their attics.”
Montgomery, for his part, still values the lessons he learned from Pawn Stars and has utilized that knowledge to help build Wheelhouse. When Pawn Stars launched in 2009, for example, History relied on Montgomery and his Leftfield banner to cast the show and discover the items featured on it. Now, Montgomery has created Wheelhouse’s own casting department. Of those six staffers, half focus specifically on sports cards, sneakers and restoration. For a network like History, the Wheelhouse casting department will look for items related to the cable network’s IP. “It’s all brand-friendly,” Montgomery enthuses. “As more streamers have to do advertising, these are ad-friendly programs.”
Looking forward, Montgomery cites Goldin’s company as the first example of what he calls the “Wheelhouse effect,” in which the production company serves as not only an investor but a partner in its growth as new revenue streams can be found in original programming.
“I’m excited! A lot of people don’t get the difference between baseball cards and art and how one card can be worth that much money,” Montgomery says. “We want to tell stories that explain it and broaden out interests that are thought of as subcultures. Nobody questions the stock market and publicly held companies, but this is more fun!”
The Real Housewives regular stars in the new Netflix reality show alongside his daughters Farrah and Alexia, whom he shares withwife Kyle Richards
Mauricio Umansky is bringing a fresh dose of drama to the Beverly Hills real estate scene!
Netflix’s newest reality series, Buying Beverly Hills, follows Mauricio and his team at high-end real estate firm The Agency as they compete to sell some of the priciest — and most star-studded — properties in the city. The Agency has recently listed the homes of Norman Reedus and Diane Krueger, Finneas and the Hemsworth brothers.
Mauricio’s daughters, Farrah Brittany, 33, and Alexia Umansky, 26 — whom he shares with his wife, RHOBH star Kyle Richards — are among the ambitious agents featured in the show.
There’s no shortage of juicy moments in the series, which premieres on November 4. In the exclusive trailer above tears are shed by multiple agents as Mauricio offers some stern words of advice: “The more successful you are, the more they’ll talk s— about you.”
Later in the clip, an agent’s dating history with one of Mauricio’s daughters becomes a point of contention, and Alexia’s career is called into question as she’s asked: “Do you think real estate is the right business for you?”
Also starring in the series are agents Santiago Arana, Ben Belack, Joey Ben-Zvi, Jon Grauman, Brandon Graves, Allie Lutz Rosenberger, Melissa Platt and Sonika Vaid.
The Richards-Umansky family have been making some major real estate moves of their own recently. They sold their Bel Air home in January 2022 for $6.1 million after more than 4 years on and off the market. They also listed their vacation home in Aspen, Colorado, for $9.75 million in June.
In 2017, they bought a home in Encino after Richards says she “fell out of love” with Beverly Hills.
Along with Alexia and Farrah, Mauricio and Richards are parents to daughters Sophia, 22, and Portia, 14.
In November 2021, the family celebrated Farrah’s engagement to businessman Alex Manos. Richards posted a sweet tribute on Instagram to congratulate her daughter, which featured a snap of the happy couple and a celebratory cake.
“My baby @farrahbritt is getting married! We love Alex so much and couldn’t be happier!! Congratulations Farrah & Alex,” she wrote in the caption.
A+E Networks’ History Channel will once again reunite Tim Allen with his former Home Improvement co-star Richard Karn via the non-fiction series More Power, which premieres on June 29.
The 10-episode series, which also co-stars YouTube DIY woodworking personality April Wilkerson, will take place in Allen’s home shop, where the hosts will explore the history of the coolest, most powerful and iconic tools. Each episode will focus on a different tool, from blades and batteries to magnets and lasers, and trace how they evolved from handheld and basic to industrial and mighty while also explaining such phenomena as how a magnet can light up a whole city.
The trio will also venture into the field to play with some of the biggest machines that power our everyday lives, and meet the men and women who operate them. Allen will also invite experts into his shop for “Tim’s Maker Challenge,” tasking them to create new builds for unique tools like an automatic leaf-vacuum-rake that sucks up leaves and puts them directly into the garbage, or a battery-powered mobile kitchen.
This is the second series featuring the trio to air on History and is effectively, pardon the pun, a retooling of the previous program. Assembly Required, unveiled in 2020, aired in 2021. According to an A+E spokesperson, “Assembly Required was produced during the throes of the pandemic to continue to deliver great content until we were able to safely produce More Power as originally intended.”
The new series, like Assembly Required, is produced by Wheelhouse subsidiary Spoke Studios (which recently hired former Shed Media general manager Pam Healy as president) and Boxing Cat Entertainment. Allen and Karn are executive producers, along with Brent Montgomery, Eric Wattenberg, Will Nothacker, Joe Weinstock, K.P. Anderson, Cindy Kain and Katherine D. Fox. Eli Lehrer, Mary E. Donahue and Max Micallef serve as executive producers for History.