‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Creators Recall Wild ‘Vanderpump Villa’ Crossover Chaos

With The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives‘ highly anticipated reunion upon us, the hit Hulu show has no signs of slowing down, continuing to be one of the biggest docu-follow reality series to hit streamers in years. With 5 million views in the first five days, the docu-reality sensation has proven that life after the “soft-swinging scandal” is just as explosive. There are still more stories to tell.

Executive Producers Danielle Pistonik and Georgia Berger of Select Management Group opened up about the show’s breakout success, the shock that the drama kept rolling even in Italy at Vanderpump Villa, and how their stars have embraced fame, fan theories, and full-on internet chaos.

As Berger said, “We know that they get other content just by going to their pages or going through what they might not be able to see in the show. So acknowledging that there is going to be a second screen and playing into that, instead of fighting against it, really informed that decision.“

‘Secret Lives of Mormon’ Wives Creators Break Down How Season 2 Turned Backlash Into Breakout Success

COLLIDER: Let’s kick it off with congratulations. Five million views in the first five days on Disney+ and Hulu. What was your reaction to learning that statistic?

DANIELLE PISTONIK: It’s never, not surprising and exciting. I think you can believe in something, I think Georgia and I both agree, before the show came out, we’re like, this is gonna crush. This is gonna be the best show in the world. You feel it, but then I feel everyone feels that way about their baby and the project they make. And so you always have that in the back of your mind. But to be validated on something that you love so much, it’s the craziest feeling in the world. It’s awesome.

GEORGIA BERGER: Yeah, I mean, because also you think, “Oh, it’s just my friends and family who are watching to support me,” and then you see the actual scale of it. It’s amazing that it’s even finding its footing in its “sophomore slump,” if you want to call it. It’s not having a sophomore slump. But it’s so great to see that it does have that longevity that we all knew it was going to have. Everybody, I think, after the first season was like, “What do you do after the swinging sandal?” But that was just an entry point for us into these women’s lives. And that’s what is the most interesting part.

COLLIDER: Do you like to engage and look at all the memes and posts that the fans release?

DANIELLE: Yeah, of course. We love these girls, and we know them, and we know everything going on, so just seeing the fan theories and the memes. Also, right, we filmed this months ago, so you’re seeing the perspective of something that is kind of the past for us. So, it’s funny, it’s so funny. Also, I feel like the algorithm just knows us and knows exactly who we are. So that’s all it’s gonna feed us. The only thing I’m getting is MomTok stuff. All my cooking videos are gone. They’re being hidden.

COLLIDER: We’re back to having the most buzzed-about reality show. What is the benefit of releasing the show as a single drop rather than an episodic weekly series?

GEORGIA: They’ve all grown up on the internet, or that’s where they found their fame. These audiences, they’re used to instant gratification. What was it? Eight months in between Season 1 and Season 2 was way too long for this generation that’s grown up with just having things immediate. Having attention spans shorter and shorter. So, I think for them, it was the only way that felt natural for how they consume content. And I’m so relieved, because I know that every week the girls don’t see it before it airs. I know that if we did release it weekly, it’d be every single week they would be on edge.

COLLIDER: Season 1 was about the exposition, learning about the women of MomTok. Now we’re really diving into the meat of what makes MomTok tick. How would you say The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives has evolved from Season 1 into Season 2?

DANIELLE: I mean, honestly, I think it’s kind of self-explanatory for any shows. They’re just more comfortable. They know how to work it. They know how to get attention on camera. I mean, it’s really interesting when you talk to them now, and they’re like, we forget we’re miked. We forget we’re miked, we forget we’re being filmed. They’re so used to filming all the time that I think from Season 1 it was this exciting, novel thing that they were so aware of to now. Even though it’s only Season 2, they’re filming so much that I think that one, people are getting more of a glimpse into their real life, because they are really just living their lives. Like they are so numb to the cameras and mics on them. And I think the second thing is, they kind of understand how the game works now. They understand what you say on camera will likely be on the show, and even if you forget that you’re filming, and even if you’re just going about your life, and you say something, there’s going to be a response online, and I think they’re all handling it so gracefully.

GEORGIA: And I think there’s also that first initial like, “I’m scared of what people are going to say and what people are going to think about me,” even though they’ve shared their lives online, it’s a much bigger scale. But now they’ve kind of ripped it off, and all those things that they were so scared of, what people were going to say back to them, they’re like, “Okay, what’s the worst that’s going to happen?”

DANIELLE: Every hate comment that they get now is just a new follower. It’s just another bag.

COLLIDER: Season 2 makes no secret about the influence of the show’s success on the women and on the show itself. When the girls pull back the curtain this season and talk about the contracts and the engagements and everything, and they “unintentionally” name drop the managers and agents. Why was it important not to shy away from getting meta?

GEORGIA: That’s been our whole mantra since the beginning of we don’t want to work against that second screen. We know that people are going out when they’re watching TV, they’re going to have their phones up. Like, how do we kind of play into that more and not try and fight against it? So a lot of it is, we know everyone’s gonna be watching a second screen. We know that they get other content just by going to their pages or going through what they might not be able to see in the show. So acknowledging that there is going to be a second screen and playing into that, instead of fighting against it, really informed that decision.

GEORGIA: Always, always with bated breath. We talk to them every day, so it’s bound to come up. It’s about our conversations creep in, for sure, but bated breath. When it first happens, I’m like, “Oh, what happened that day?” A million things go through my mind. What brand deal are they referring, what phone call are they talking about? But ultimately, I know that it’s just, honestly, part of their everyday. So it’s a natural point to bring up.

COLLIDER: The end of Season 1, it was, “Is Whitney Leavitt gonna come back to MomTok? Is she done forever?” And then it was a battle of, “Is she going to get voted back in?” They’re doing live voting on the spot. What was it like to be able to see her reemerge into this group and decide if this was the environment she wanted to be back in?

GEORGIA: I know she was pregnant, she was going through her own dramas in the first season, and I think it was naturally her first instinct to pull away. So I’m just so happy that instead, this season, it was to lean in and to clue people into what was going on and why she did certain things the way she did it. We’ve been working on this show with Whitney. Whitney was part of that original cast since 2022. While the show didn’t come out until 2024, we just imagined everything with her in the show. While she kind of pulled away Season 1, I think we’re all really grateful that she really leaned in Season 2.

COLLIDER: Knowing them prior to the show, how would you say the mom’s newfound fame has affected them?

DANIELLE: I will say, I feel like Georgia and I both have done this for a long time. Like family, not all, but the good ones of these family influencers, these people that are doing this to take care of their families and support their families, are so much more down to earth. They’re doing this to take care of their kids, to take care of themselves, to provide for their household. It’s very different than the teenager that is going to all the hype houses to try to collab and clout chase and get so jaded. I mean, they’ve all been doing this for half a decade. They kind of understand the reality of the grind and how fragile it is, and I think that they’ve, for the most part, kept that in the back of their minds moving forward on this.

COLLIDER: This season, we added Miranda McWhorter to the fold. What was it like to have a new dynamic in the group?

DANIELLE: Miranda is the sweetest girl in the world. So I think that it was just, I mean, this sounds so trying to think of the word, I’m trying to be Switzerland and evade the question, I’m not at all, because everyone says that when I say this, but it’s true. She’s just like a delight, and it was so nice to have her. It could have been someone that was difficult and caused this huge rift, but she’s just such a sweet girl. And you see the way that she interacts with the rest of the cast now. It couldn’t have gone better. I think maybe some people would say it would have gone better if it was more abrasive and dramatic if she wasn’t so kind, but I think it was like a perfect addition into the mix to kind of maybe tone down a little bit of the tension.

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‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Season 2 Makes Season 1 Look Like Child’s Play in MomTok Land

The drama reaches new heights.

From ‘Vanderpump Villa’ Drama to Mental Health Breaks, ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Dives Deep in Season 2

COLLIDER: We love crossovers. I think for the women, I’m sure, they loved being able to be like, “Let’s go to Vanderpump Villa!” Did you expect that experience to play into Season 2?

DANIELLE: I didn’t. They went before our Season 1 came out, right? So it was kind of like, we didn’t know how good the show was going to do. We had only filmed. We were kind of just waiting, so for us, I think it was like, oh, how fun is it that these girls get to go on this Lisa [Vanderpump] show and go have an Italy trip for free. And they called me after they had so much fun. But it wasn’t until months before the season came out that it even registered to me that that was significant. Georgia might have had a different experience.

GEORGIA: No, I just heard about more of Layla [Taylor] and the fun around it, and fun chaos. I didn’t really hear about any, and I don’t know if it’s not that I didn’t hear about drama or that drama always follows them, so I didn’t register it, but I didn’t anticipate that it was going to be so prominent in Season 2. And the fact that, also, they’re all sober. So I was like, they’re not going to be the crazy ones at the villa of all the guests.

COLLIDER: Jen Affleck has gone through a lot, and the show opted to pause filming with her, even addressing through the card that it was important to stop filming with her. Why was that so important to explain this to the viewers in this manner? And why do you think other reality shows don’t do this?

DANIELLE: I think, one, working with Hulu specifically, and to the Jeff Jenkins team and our team, if there’s even a second where we think it’s going to be detrimental, even if it’s, regardless of the severity, if it’s going to really hurt somebody, and they just don’t feel in a place to do something, I think, period, full stop, you give them that space. And even if they want to push through and there’s, “Oh, I can do this,” you got to take care of yourself. You put yourself and your family, and your mental health before a TV show. The show will always be there for them, as long as they participate and want to. But it’s so insignificant when it comes to mental health. That’s the most important thing. I think that also, there’s a lot more conversation now around reality shows and the talent’s mental health. I think highlighting it is super important if you can do this, it’s fine to do. It’s fine to skip an episode or two to take care of somebody.

COLLIDER: What was really exciting about this season is, yes, now that we’ve met the ladies and understand MomTok, we also got to learn a bit about their past and their backstories and the struggles they’re going through. We had Mikayla Matthew’s past, and Mayci Neeley’s baby journey and the death of her son’s father. Were there any stories you were particularly excited that the viewers got to learn about?

DANIELLE: Mayci’s story has always been so important. I started working with Mayci almost five years ago, and that’s the content she was making. And I just thought it was really brave and inspiring. And she’s so young, and she was such a good mom, and she had this perfect seeming life, but she overcame so much to get there. So being able to discuss that is, I think that’s all I’ve really wanted her to have on the show, because it’s so important to her. And because of the show, and hopefully we get to discuss it more in future seasons, but because of the success of Season 1, she’s now writing a book about her story. I’ve read the initial manuscript. It’s unbelievable, and it dives so much deeper into it. And I hope that people being able to watch her story Season 2 incentivizes them to read this book because it’s so powerful.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is available to stream on Hulu.