Introducing Hayu Presents...

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1:28I've got a podcast I think you're going to be obsessed with. It's called Hey You Presents, hosted by the brilliant Dean McCarthy, and it's basically the ultimate deep dive into the biggest personalities, wildest moments, and most iconic shows from the Hey You reality TV universe. You're going to love it, okay? Across the series, Dean chats with some incredible guests, including Luanne Doulouseps, Marc Francis Vendeli, Elizabeth Day, the cast of The Real Housewives of London, and even, wait for it, the Paris Hilton. They get into everything from unforgettable reality romances and legendary housewives to fashion disasters, behind the scenes secrets and all the moments that had us completely hooked.

2:05It's funny, it's nostalgic, full of brilliant stories. And honestly, whether you're a total reality TV ad or you just love entertainment, I think you're really going to enjoy this. Okay, trust me on that. So here is a sneak peek of the show for you all, great company listeners. Enjoy.

2:27Hello, I'm Dean McCarthy, reality TV expert and all-around Hey You superfan, and I'm so, so excited to welcome you to our first episode of Hey You Presents. We wanted to start by celebrating 10 years of Hey You and 20 years of housewives, and I could not think of a better expert to take us through the universe. The woman who knows that no matter how many times you need to start over, it's always possible to build a successful legacy. She's a journalist, author, reality TV lover, and superstar podcaster, Elizabeth Day. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. What an introduction. I shall endeavour to live up to it.

3:04You do. I mean, I take this very seriously, as you know. So if I can do anything to continue the epic legacy of all Hey You content, I will do. I'm a really willing ambassador. You really are. So we first met at the Hey You Fan Fest in London. Yes. And I remember just seeing this glamazon. I was like, who is this gorgeous woman? And it was Meredith Marks. But then I walked in. It was a mirror. I was like, that's me. And then, hi, Elizabeth. It was a mirror. And you were interviewing Andy Cohen. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I love that we met then. That's so appropriate. Yeah. I was interviewing Andy Cohen, our Lord and Saviour.

3:43Yes. and I'd been lucky in that I'd had a warm-up because Hey You did me such a solid and got him to come on How to Fail, which is my podcast. So on the Thursday, I think it was, I interviewed him and I did that classic thing of I saw him walking down the corridor to the record and I was like, oh my God, it's you. And obviously it is him because I was expecting him, but I just was so moved because he has provided me with so much entertainment, but also so much witnessing of my own experiences that I kind of, I distill through Housewives. It's sort of how I measure out my life. So I was so grateful that he came on and it was an amazing conversation.

4:26Now, you'll know this. He's really smart and he doesn't suffer fools gladly. So I did notice like the first five minutes he was kind of sussing me out. And then he realized that I am a super fan. And then we got into it. And by the end, I felt we really connected. And so then I went to Hey You Fan Fest and I was interviewing him on stage, which was another amazing life highlight. I mean, Hey You Fan Fest, let's just talk about that for a minute. Oh my goodness. I'm still not over it. I took my friend Daisy, who's as obsessed as I am, and we met many of the housewives. And she came away saying, they are so nice.

5:01She's like, they're nicer than some of my friends. They are. They are. So charismatic and interesting and interested. They're just these extraordinary racehorses of entertainment. They really are. When did you get into it? Like we're here now as mega super fans, both of us. When did this start for you? I can date it almost exactly because I was going through IVF at the time. So it was 2014 and I was in a difficult marriage to someone who is now my ex-husband. Very housewives coded on me. Very housewives. Sounds like a plot. I'm watching Potomac. Yeah. And I was going through fertility treatment and that was really difficult.

5:46And there was hardly any information about it back then. It's hard to imagine because it doesn't seem that long ago. And yet it was so long ago in this reference because I didn't know very many people who'd gone through IVF. and when I went to my local bookshop, there were no books about IVF. It was all kind of mother-baby books. And I discovered The Real Housewives of Orange County. And back then in the UK, there was no such thing as Hey You. The dark days, BH, before Hey You. I don't know how we survived. But we survived because there was a channel then called ITVB, which was a digital spin-off of ITV.

6:22And they would randomly play old seasons of Real Housewives. And I just so happened to alight upon a season of OC, which featured Megan King Edmonds. And she was going through IVF. Yeah, of course. It was the first accurate portrayal of IVF I had ever seen on screen because she was filming herself doing the injections. And I felt so represented in that moment. It opened the door to this fabulous, camp, brilliant, funny, hysterical universe. But it also, for me, that story reveals that there is this serious undertone to it, which is representation. And it wasn't just IVF. It was also women of a certain age who weren't getting the roles in scripted drama.

7:06Where else could I turn to to see widows embark on their dating trajectory? Or, you know, divorcees going to jail? There was just nothing like that on scripted TV. And female friendships as well. It was such a radical thing to show female friendships in that way at that time. So that's the first time I got in. That was my gateway drug. That was your gateway drug. And it's such an aspirational look into people's lives that are so different to what most of us actually live, which is exciting as well. Absolutely. I love watching portrayals of that kind of elevated fabulosity. Would you ever do Housewives?

7:46I don't want to see how the sausage is made. I want to eat it. I want to eat the sausage. And that would be my tagline. Mine would be, I might be from Down Under, but I always end up on top. So good. Mine would actually be, I'm named after the late queen, but this queen is always on time. Oh, that's good. Not my thoughts about it. I think Lisa Vanderpump's. Life isn't always rosé and diamonds, but it should be. I feel like that's a good one. It's good because it's the very ethos of what Housewives is. Totally. Let's get into the big legacy stars. Who are your top legacy stars from the Hayier Universe?

8:28From all time. Yeah. Definitely Countess Luanne. Yep. Kenya Moore. Oh my gosh, yes. Thank you for saying that. Yes, I feel like... Thank you. Thank you for acknowledging it as the act of bravery that it is in the current climate. Yeah, that's right. she obviously had a terrible last season and was taken off air. And I understand the reasons why, but she gave us gone with the wind. Fabulous. Oh my goodness. She embodies so much of what a great housewife should be for me. I just could not stop watching it. And she has a sense of humor about it. Vicky Gunvalson, I think, and Tamara have to have a place there, even though they are dialed up too high on the shriekometer for my, for my pleasure.

9:12Van Der Pump Rinna I also love Candy Burrows From Atlanta I'm not a NeNe Stan Really? No I know But she was the The character who launched A thousand GIFs For which we'll be Forever grateful I see her every day On my Instagram Every day Every day If I were to do a PhD On reality TV And Hey You And The Housewives In particular Housewives started Becoming really popular With a much broader audience During the pandemic And there's a thesis That it is because Of GIF culture because people were sending GIFs of the Housewives without actually knowing what it was, but it represented something that they wanted to convey, and then they started watching the shows.

9:50I would believe that for sure. Fun fact. You know, I'm a little bit obsessed with Bethany Frankel. I adored her on Housewives. I thought she was brilliant, and she had that whippersnapper wit. Yes. And she also went through real stuff, like a very traumatic divorce and shared it. She has translated that smartness into becoming a TikTok sensation. And she realized early on that the way to get a huge following was to say controversial things and be really out there. And she's done it incredibly well. I feel like Captain Lee and Captain Sandy are also legacies for me. And of course, Jason, because he's so good looking.

10:32Captain Lee, 100%. Yeah. He's someone that you want as your dad that you can really turn to and rely on. He's like the Yoda of the Hey Youverse. Totally. Housewives is kind of the gateway drug. Where'd you go after that? After that, I think I went into Vanderpump Rules because they did a beautiful spinoff pass from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills into Vanderpump Rules. And to begin with, I thought, I'm not sure about this because it's so different from Housewives. And once you realize that the point of it is, at least back in the day, people in their 20s living in scuzzy apartments trying desperately to make a living and to break into the entertainment industry but they're being waitstaffed while they're doing it yeah then you get it and then it's incredible totally and then i definitely went on a boat yeah so all of the below decks including below deck adventure actually got my husband into below deck the two that he's ever watched are below deck and vanderpump rules and then i watched summer house Winter House.

11:31I watched the kind of one-off seasons, Game of Crowns. That was amazing. I sort of watched them all. I'm loving how the Vanderpump Rules family are now graduated and they're living in the valley. Yeah, I watched the valley too. It's really good. It's so good. And Shars of Sunset I loved too. And I love that they're doing the valley Persian style now. Love it. But reality TV doesn't always feature authentic people. They know that the camera is there. And that can lead to its own kind of interest as a viewer. But with Shaza Sunset, I felt they are all, almost all of them, living their authentic truth.

12:09And I found it historically fascinating that there is this community of Iranians who ended up in LA after the revolution. And there was one bit in the first or second season, I think, where a group of them travelled back to Iran and it was so incredibly moving. You've got to get into Southern Hospitality and Southern Charm. Oh, sorry, I watched those two. I watched those two. Watch those two. They are so good. So good. The fact that Justin from Southern Hospitality is dating Charlie from Southern Charm, who we got to know because she was dating Craig Conover, who was once dating Peg de Sorbo from Summer House.

12:48I mean, it's just a beautiful, it's like one of those whiteboards in a detective series where you're just drawing all of the lines between the various suspects. I'm obsessed with the Summer House drama that ensued after last season. Isn't it wild how these shows can have such an impact on pop culture? And an event between two reality stars can become an actual pop culture moment. Isn't that insane? It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Thank you. It's so beautiful because you and I spend so much time joyously in this world. We know so much about it. and the world at large can be quite dismissive of that a lot of the time and then a story will break through and suddenly we're the experts that people turn to like let me tell you Skanderval obviously huge example of that yeah I remember where I was when I found out about Skanderval it was like it was just a generational moment in time I was so shocked and then the summer house of it oh wow i can't get enough of it i can't get and i know we're dealing with real people's lives and i just want to acknowledge that that there's clearly so much emotion involved what's so interesting in the age that we're now watching hey you is the social media dialogue that accompanies it yes so so much of the content creation is coming from these incredibly talented Instagrammers and TikTokers who are putting together the dots and sharing their breadcrumbing investigations with us.

14:25So we get to experience it on the show, then in real time, then with the reunion. It's so multifaceted. I have to say Salt Lake City, what I love about Salt Lake City, because they're one of my favourite franchises. Yes, of course. Every episode, every scene is a banger yes there's never just a chill minute or anything they'll go for a coffee and it'll be a fight yes and also cinematically yeah the way that it is filmed and edited i mean all of these shows are so brilliantly edited and put together but salt lake city the finale of the penultimate season was it season five where they uncover the the the internet personality of monica class member and they're all on the beach and there are these stills from that shoot that are like Caravaggio.

15:17The line is stunning. So beautifully done. Absolutely stunning and convey so much relatable emotion. I think that's the thing. So yes, they can have unhinged fights and one of my husband's boring complaints will be, oh, but it's just women fighting. I'm like, no, it's not. And it really annoys me when people say that and I find it sexist. Like it's actually not. It's about the underpinning of friendship. And real friendship is about rupture and repair. And I think there's been some research done that watching these shows is good for our mental health because it shows us fallouts and then a rebuilding because these shows hold you accountable, not only within the friendship group, whether we're talking about Housewives or Summer House or Below Deck, but on screen because they have to do confessionals, which is this kind of therapy, right?

16:10They're being asked to look back over their own behaviour. And I find that so fascinating. Imagine being one of them and then seeing a confessional of one of your friends and then they just shred you in the confession. Wouldn't that be wild? It's basically, just like you said, you get an insight into your friend's therapy session. Like the recent season of Beverly Hills, Amanda Francis finding out that Rachel Zoe didn't actually like her all along. Didn't actually like her. She's like, I had no idea. I know. Did you like Amanda? Okay, so my arc with Amanda Francis started off, saw her, she was introduced as the author of Rich as Fuck.

16:44Right. They showed the book cover and she explained what it was about. I went away and I downloaded that immediately. I listened to it on audio. Then obviously my relationship with her dipped massively because she seemed so entitled. but I did find her deeply compelling to watch because I loved that intergenerational relationship that we got between her and the other women and how the other women were actually triggered by her. Yes. It was fascinating. Then I ended up absolutely loving her again by the reunion. The reunion. Because at the reunion... Redemption. Redemption. She practiced what she preaches.

17:22She stayed super calm and in her center. She had receipts for everything and every single point she was bang on. And I really want her to come back for a second season, but she's saying she's not. She's saying she's not. You're right about that. And she even presented those receipts very beautifully and wasn't aggressive. She's like, actually, I think you said that on camera, like really calmly. And they're like, she's like, absolutely not. And then they played the exact same thing.

17:57all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old-fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want, how you want with Stamps.com. Print postage on demand 24-7 and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to 90 % with automated rate shopping. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust Stamps.com. Go to Stamps.com and use code PODCAST to try Stamps.com risk-free for 60 days. Here's a tip for you. There's a podcast out there with fans waiting to be your next customer. They tune in every week, they trust the host, and that host wants to talk about brands like yours in their own words to their audience.

18:37The problem is, you just haven't been introduced yet. We're Acast, where that introduction happens. As the world's largest podcast marketplace, we let you browse shows, see who's listening, and book host-read sponsorships or run your own ads all from one platform. Transparent pricing, real-time data, complete control. Start advertising on podcasts by visiting acast.com slash advertise.