Former reality TV star Spencer Pratt had an accident in 2011. He rose to fame in the previous decade thanks to his four-season crime spree on the MTV reality series “The Hills,” and his well-rated relationship with co-star Heidi Montag. By the 2010s, the spotlight was fading and it looked like Pratt might be slipping into obscurity.
He was unemployed, unemployed and living in his parent’s vacation home in Santa Barbara. He told The Daily Beast that he’s considering returning to USC to finish his degree in political science, but asked, “What real job — what political world — would want Spencer Pratt, with the shame I have on my name?”
The political world of 2026, of course.
Pratt is following in the footsteps of those before him who have parlayed their reality TV fame into political careers. Mostly Republicans, who take the Oval Office, or serve as Secretary of Transportation, or run as a gubernatorial candidate for California.
Pratt, a registered Republican, is now part of the reality TV-into-politics pipeline, entering the LA mayoral race against incumbent Karen Bass and LA City Council member Nithya Raman.
Pratt announced his intention to run one year after his home was destroyed in the 2025 Palisades fire. Frustrated by the red tape holding up the rebuilding process, Pratt runs with the message that LA is broken and only he can fix it – somehow. He has no experience in public office.
Pratt, however, has an edge over his competitors in one category: He can garner attention.
For those who didn’t grow up consuming reality TV in the 2000s, Pratt was the medium’s No. 1 villain.
Donald Trump, looking for candidates for the television show “The Apprentice”
(Ric Francis/Associated Press)
Pratt joined MTV’s “The Hills” in 2007, making a name for himself as the estranged boyfriend of co-star Heidi Montag. His trauma and deception, which he would later admit were largely orchestrated, drove a wedge between Montag and his friend, the show’s star Lauren Conrad. The disagreement between friends became one of the biggest events in reality TV of the 2000s, Pratt became the favorite person of love and hate of the genre and the couple, Speidi (as he and Montag were known), were of great interest in the magazine. They played with the paparazzi, strutted around high-profile events including the Kentucky Derby and the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and stuck it out in “stuck” moments at the supermarket or at lunch.
Pratt has even said that he pretends to be a criminal on purpose to gain fame, with allegations that he is following the producers’ instructions to do “despicable” things. “We’ve all been paid to be people we haven’t been for so long that it stops — there’s no line,” Pratt told The Daily Beast in 2011, a year after she and Montag were axed from “The Hills.” “The gauge is gone. The gray area is gone.”
He continued, “We are very deep in how many stories we have to do to continue the machine.
The machine continues to work. Pratt has reportedly signed up for an undrafted series following his bid to become the 44th mayor of Los Angeles. Deadline confirmed that production is already underway. The show aims to follow the candidate through the June 2 primary and then into the November election if Pratt qualifies for one of the top two spots in the mayoral race, which seems likely now.
The spectacle of Spencer’s antics on “The Hills” drove the ratings. But how that is played out, such despicable behavior in a political campaign, run by a 40-year-old man, is another story. “Obviously, Spencer really lost in the fire, and maybe that made him human while capturing and/or exploiting the real anger that people had about the failure of governments to help them. But it’s not like he’s developing an age of admiration or a “style of learning” for regeneration and image creation,” said Andy Denhart, president of Reality of Television.comb.comb.com.
“Making your whole personality ‘I’m not an actor but I’m a TV villain’ might get you a deal on ‘House of Villains’ but [it] it doesn’t contain a lot of authenticity that fans can connect with.”
Voters, however, are another matter. Experts thought it was impossible when Donald Trump announced that he would run for president in 2015. But Trump by then was familiar to millions as the host of “The Apprentice” and like Pratt he has the ability to dominate the attention economy even when PR is not favorable.
The familiarity is appealing, as is the built-in story. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example, was known for kicking ass as “The Terminator.” For conservative voters looking for a fighter from outside the system, he (or rather the on-screen persona of his character) fits the bill.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, right, with Edward Furlong in the movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”
(TriStar Photos)
“We have this voyeuristic society where we think we know people, so that translates into knowing your politicians,” said Christina Bellantoni, a former Los Angeles Times editor who is now a Roll Call writer and director of USC Annenberg’s Media Center. “You remember the old question ‘Can you get that beer?’ [candidate]?’ Well, you don’t need to drink beer with them because you’ve seen them at their worst [on reality TV]whether that is competing for something or fighting and throwing food on the table or eating rice on a banana leaf.”
Pratt, who grew up on L.A.’s West Side, rose to fame on “The Hills” but struggled to maintain her stardom after the show ended in 2010.
Pratt and Montag tried to get their mojo back in 2013 when they competed on the British version of “Celebrity Big Brother,” then returned four years later to compete on the series again. But their on-screen income was not what it used to be. Reality TV has gone from spoiled 20-something breakouts to new ventures like “90 Day Fiance” and “Dance Moms.”
Social media, however, and its team of influencers operate along many of the same lines as their reality TV forebears. Push conflict, drama, and humanity above all else and in the end no one will question what you actually do beyond posting. You’ve gathered followers, and that’s the end game.
Pratt used his online presence to intervene and use complaints about Bass, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, LA’s homeless population and the consequences of the devastating fires of 2025. He also posted fan-made AI-generated videos, one showing himself as Batman ready to save the city from the aforementioned Democratic Alliance politicians (they were portrayed as dignitaries, a la Marie Antoinette). It’s Pratt’s most dangerous “campaign” video to date.
Like other reality TV- and social media-turned-politicians, Pratt has a knack for reinventing himself and grabbing attention. But what about his ability to rule?
“Politicians are recruited in many different ways, but let’s say that we have now reached an age where part of the recruitment process is based on their ability to communicate with new social media,” said Stuart Soroka, a professor in the Department of Communication and Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“Does that produce a group of people who can’t handle the very different things that you need to do in Congress? I think the consensus would be no, that it produces people who can’t do a good job, in part because so much of Congress is about cooperation, which can’t be fostered on social media. I certainly see a disconnect between what supporters want to hear in Congress and what one might need to do on social media.”
Or at the Mayor’s office.
