It’s a bittersweet day as I say goodbye to Reality of Reality. It feels fitting that this farewell is on the 5th anniversary of my podcast — which started as a fun whim with Jenny Daly and turned into over 200 episodes of interviews with the best in the business. 

The why is simple: I’m just too busy with my core business to sustain the pace any longer. I realize that’s a lucky place to be — especially given how hard this last year has been for so many— and I don’t take it for granted. 

Thank you to Taste of Reality for believing in me and putting me on your fabulous network. Thank you to my stepson Kevin Clobes for composing the fabulous theme music. And a huge thank you to my editor and engineer Jesus Murillo who has been with me from day 1 and might be the nicest human being I know. He’s done late night edits, very early morning edits and many other annoying edits and has never ever complained. He is a rock star and I’m lucky to continue working with him on my other ventures. 

And finally, thank you to all my guests: it’s been an honor speak to every single person I’ve interviewed. I can honestly say I’ve learned something from everyone and I’m humbled by the experience. 

If you want to connect with me feel free to email me: aliza@ayr-media and/or follow me on IG at @realityaliza

xo

Diona Vaughan Mankowitz is an Emmy nominated producer and casting director who founded Divergent Content in 2020. Soon after she founded the company, Ray Dotch, an Emmy winning Executive Producer and Showrunner, came on board and became Diona’s ipso facto partner.  The goal at Divergent is to use the voices of people of color behind the camera to support, amplify, and elevate diverse stories and talent. We talk about inclusivity and hiring in unscripted content, the history of racism in our industry, the importance of hiring Black producers for all kinds of shows and what the Sharon Osborne firing says about where we are right now as a culture.

Divergent content:

https://www.divergentcontent.com

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Today on the podcast – everyone’s favorite producer and all around human David Eilenberg. Dave is now Chief Creative Officer at ITV America where he’s guiding creative strategy, leveraging intellectual property, and helping grow the group’s six vertical production labels, including ITV Entertainment, Leftfield Pictures, Sirens Media, Thinkfactory Media, High Noon Entertainment and Good Caper Content.

Dave cut his teeth in this industry working on game shows which led him to The Apprentice – where he learned how to produce a competition show when all of NYC is a set. He went to help create Are You Smarter than Fifth Grader which was put together at lightening speed from pitch to series. He also talks about the pressure to reboot Queer Eye, what it’s like being the head of a massive company, where this business is headed and why we should be working with producers all over the country.

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Today on the podcast, Sirens Media President Mioshi Hill. Mioshi is a long time producer, starting on the production company side then going to Lifetime were she was VP of development overseeing shows like Little Women: LA, Finding Justice, Making a Model with Yolanda Hadid and Vivica’s Black Magic. She joined Sirens in January of  2021. The company is coming in strong this year with a great season of Real Housewives of New Jersey and the new show Wedding Coach which premieres April 7th on Netflix!

http://sirensmedia.com

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Andrea Blaugrund Nevins is a writer, producer and director who’s helmed the new documentary on FX/Hulu called Hysterical. This film is a great portrait of what obstacles female comedians face in the very male-dominated world of comedy. It profiles a wide range of hilarious and thoughtful women, as well as the newcomers who are breaking new ground and changing the game. Andrea and I also talk about her fantastic documentary Tiny Shoulders – rethinking Barbie also streaming on Hulu which examines 60 years of women through the lens of the iconic plastic doll. Hysterical premieres April 2 at 9pm on FX, streaming next day on FX on Hulu:

https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/hysterical

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Today on the podcast, Showrunner and now author Erika Bryant. Erika’s a seasoned Executive Producer who’s worked on shows like  Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta and Married to Medicine and is now show running the third season of Family or Fiancé  on OWN -a show Erika’s been with the show since the beginning. We also talk about her new book DOING IT SCARED: An Inspirational Guidebook to Facing and Conquering Fear which is on sale now (links below in the show notes). We talk about Erika’s career, her being a leader not a boss, making vulnerability ok and how not every show is fit for everyone. But most of all – going for what you want and doing it scared!  

https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Scared-Inspirational-Guidebook-Conquering-ebook/dp/B08WHY5DYB

www.erika-bryant.com

Erika’s first time on the pod:

The Black Female Producer’s Reality of Reality-Erika Bryant, Jamala Gaither, Nakia Williams

 

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Showrunner and Oscar and Emmy nominated director Lauren Lazin and Vice President of Development for Bunim Murray Dave Sambuchi are both are Executive Producers of the new 7 part series on E! called FOR REAL: THE STORY OF REALITY TV. I was lucky enough to help develop this series that drops on March 25th and will be aired across multiple NBC Universal platforms. This show truly has it all – from the roots of reality with MTV’s The Real World to celeb reality starting with the Osbournes of of course bookending with the Kardashians to dating shows to competion and of course the reality show presidency we just endured. It gets to the deeper questions of how does the culture impact reality TV and vice versa and the reasons behind why do we love to watch. 

https://www.eonline.com/shows/for_real

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Excited to have my friend Sabrina Soto back on the podcast to talk about what she’s been up to the last four years – and it’s a lot! Sabrina is a designer on the HGTV show Ty Breaker, Secret Celebrity Renovation on CBS and hosts her own podcast Re-Designing life. We talk about the shows, vision boards, Clubhouse and our kween Wendy Williams. Enjoy!

Links to Sabrina:

https://www.sabrinasoto.com

https://www.instagram.com/Sabrina_Soto/

https://www.discoveryplus.com/show/the-high-low-project

My first interview with Sabrina:

Sabrina Soto

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It’s the long awaited breakdown of the 4-part HBO series ALLEN v FARROW with my friend and President of Evolution Media Alex Baskin. We get into ALL of it so be forewarned that “spoilers” abound and we talk about intense subjects like sexual assault and incest which can be triggering for some. As someone who has believed Dylan since she came out publicly in 2014, I was blown away by this series and all I had NOT known about this case. I highly recommend watching it and listening – as we went into several areas not covered in the doc series. Lastly- I saw this on Twitter and to me it resonated with me:  Dylan, Mia and Ronan didn’t owe us their stories. They chose to share this with us. 

Watch Allen v Farrow on HBO Max:

https://play.hbomax.com/page/urn:hbo:page:GYB3SAQKmr698pQEAAABL:type:series

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Filmmaker and social justice warrior Billie Mintz has directed and produced many award winning films. I was blown away by his 2018 film The Guardians – now on Amazon Prime – which exposes a criminal enterprise running through family court where the legal kidnapping of elderly people took place in Las Vegas. Because of that film, Billie has became an advocate for vicimts of guardianship fraud around the country and a hero to the #freebritney movement. We talk about that and the NYT/Hulu documentary Framing Britney and the new Netflix film I Care A Lot – and beware of spoilers on that one!

Billie’s film The Guardians:

For more on Billie’s work:

https://www.billiemintz.com

Great article from the New Yorker that is covered in Billie’s doc:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-rights

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