Reality Bombshell
Investigating the not-true crimes of your guiltiest pleasures and examining reality TV through a true crime lens.
Episodes
(Rebroadcast) Beauty Lab and Laundering (with Sarah Miller)
Jen Shah had it all—an entourage of assistants, a house she named after herself, and a closet that deserved its own snowflake. She also had a habit of screaming at her friends and starting fights she couldn’t finish. But while she was spira…
19 - The Truth Box Debacle (Secret Lives of Mormon Wives w/ Jack McMahon)
This week, we're back in Utah with our favorite Mormon Wives. Macy’s Park City girls’ trip turns into an interrogation chamber when Demi introduces the Truth Box, inviting the group to air their grievances. What starts as anonymous notes qu…
18 - The Fruity Cereal Incident (The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives)
This week, we're feeling blessed as we head back to Utah to investigate the humiliation of Demi Engemann at the hands of Whitney Leavitt, as seen on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. What started as off-camera gossip about an intimate momen…
Reality Bookshelf 1 - “Bad Mormon” by Heather Gay (RHOSLC)
Welcome to Reality Bookshelf, our very own Book Club. Or should we call it a Book Investigation? Today, we're unpacking Real Housewives of Salt Lake City's very own Heather Gay's first book: Bad Mormon. It's juicy, defiant, and a little c…
17 - Amish Not Toothless (Breaking Amish)
This week, we’re revisiting Breaking Amish Season 1 - not for the drama, but for the stories hiding underneath it. Beneath the makeovers and culture shocks were moments of real pain, shaped by control and silence. Sabrina High spent her lif…
16 - Mother Mary Full of Lies (RHOSLC)
In Salt Lake City, she’s called First Lady. On Bravo, she’s a Real Housewife. To Jen Shah, she's a grandpa f-er. But when a former church member mortgaged his house to give her $300,000, it stopped being just drama. This week on Reality Bo…
Minisode 6 - Is Orlando Bloom in a Cult?
Orlando Bloom chants to a scroll every morning. Katy Perry wasn’t allowed to say “Lucky Charms” as a kid. In this Cult Girl Summer minisode, we’re looking at the spiritual paths of one very public couple—her Pentecostal upbringing, his devo…
15 - The Gospel According to Taylor Frankie Paul (The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives)
Taylor Frankie Paul built MomTok from nothing and then burned it to the ground with one TikTok Live. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives begins with a confession that turns Utah’s favorite influencer clique into a cautionary tale. What started…
14 - Gaslight, Gatekeep, Get Shunned (Breaking Amish w/ Helen Holmes)
This week on Reality Bombshell, we’re going back to Breaking Amish Season 1. As a group of young Amish and Mennonite adults explored the world of the “English”, viewers were treated to a mess of cult indoctrination, emotional manipulation, …
Minisode 7 - Crush(ed) by the Church: David Archuleta’s Awakening (American Idol)
This week, we dive into the emotional and high-stakes departure of David Archuleta from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Once the squeaky-clean, soft-spoken American Idol runner-up and a golden boy for Mormon ideals, David h…
13 - Beauty Lab and Laundering (RHOSLC w/ Sarah Miller)
Jen Shah had it all—an entourage of assistants, a house she named after herself, and a closet that deserved its own snowflake. She also had a habit of screaming at her friends and starting fights she couldn’t finish. But while she was spira…
Cult Girl Summer: RB's Rules of Cults
This summer, Reality Bombshell dives into all things cults in reality tv. But first, let's lay out some rules of cults. Have a case or anything else reality TV related you want to hear us cover? Reach out to us at realitybombshell@gmail.com…
12 - Frankel v. Bensimon (RHONY)
Before Scary Island, there was a fashion show, a charity meeting, and one incredibly tense drink. This week, we rewind to Kelly Bensimon’s first season on The Real Housewives of New York City and unpack her early clash with Bethenny Frankel…
11 - Big Brother Did 9/11
This week on Reality Bombshell, Ben breaks down summer 2001's biggest reality hit- Big Brother Season 2. As the season continued into September, production was tasked with an impossible decision - leave the houseguests in the dark about the…
Minisode 6 - How the Kardashian Cookie Crumbls
This week on a Reality Bombshell minisode, we’re not talking felony... we’re talking frosting.

The Kardashians have officially infiltrated Crumbl Cookie, and we have questions:
Who authorized this sugar-stacked collab? Is this just another…
10 - Survivor: Gender Changers
This week on Reality Bombshell, we revisit Survivor: Game Changers and investigate the night that strategy crossed into scandal. It was supposed to be just another blindside. But when Jeff Varner turned to Zeke Smith at Tribal Council and r…
Reality Bombshell - Trailer
Welcome to Reality Bombshell - the podcast that investigates the not-true crimes of your guiltiest pleasures and examines reality TV through a true crime lens! Join Ben and Arielle as they dive into a new "case" every Wednesday, with bonus …
9 - Jaxaholics Anonymous (Vanderpump Rules)
This week, we meet the first woman to be truly Jaxxed. Fresh off a Vegas scandal, Jax Taylor rebounds hard—with his dog sitter, aspiring actress and newly sober SUR server, Laura-Leigh. What starts with sex in a restaurant bathroom ends wit…
Minisode 5 - The Talented Mr. Schneebly (Survivor, The Amazing Race, and The White Lotus)
Before The White Lotus became a cultural phenomenon — before the Emmys, the satire, the pineapples — Mike White was sweating through challenges and racing across continents on The Amazing Race and Survivor: David vs. Goliath. In this episod…
Reality Check: Autism Representation in Survivor 48
This week, we take a look at Survivor Season 48 through the lens of autism representation, focusing on contestant Eva Erickson, who shared her diagnosis with grace and clarity in a high-pressure, socially complex environment and Joe Hunter,…
Minisode 4 - The Sweater Comes Off (Vanderpump Rules)
This week, the case is reopened—and the truth is on the record. Frank Herlihy gets fired from SUR the very morning he’s supposed to meet Stassi’s parents. Meanwhile, Jax Taylor has spent an entire season denying everything: the cheating, th…
8 - The Devil in the White Sweater (Vanderpump Rules)
This week, Ben and Kels are officially introduced to West Hollywood’s hottest restaurant—SUR (Sexy Unique Restaurant), where the drinks are strong, the storylines stronger, and everyone’s trying to get their SAG card. At the center: Stassi …
7 - Around the World in 80 Shoves (The Amazing Race)
This week, we revisit one of the darkest chapters in The Amazing Race’s history. Jonathan Baker and Victoria Fuller weren’t just chasing a million-dollar prize — they were unraveling in real time, their marriage cracking under pressure and …
Minisode 3 - A Hot New Bombshell: I Invented Gay Slurs (Celebrity Big Brother UK)
He lasted just six days. When Mickey Rourke entered the Celebrity Big Brother house, producers were banking on eccentricity — what they got was something far less entertaining. In this emergency minisode, we investigate the unraveling of a …
6 - The Lizard of Oz (RHOP)
This week, we peel back the layers of kangaroo sliders and marital power plays to reveal how a concept built on Aussie charm went down under. Ashley Darby set out to prove she and her Aussie husband could have it all: love, legacy, and a re…
5 - The Leg (RHONY)
A ghostwriter. A socialite. A prosthetic leg. When Aviva Drescher accuses Carole Radziwill of faking her memoir, what begins as a petty literary jab spirals into a full-blown character assassination. Tensions rise, asthma flares up, and one…
Minisode 2 - A Hot New Bombshell: Meet The Baldwins (The Baldwins)
This week, we investigate The Baldwins, TLC’s newest reality swing at image rehab, featuring Alec Baldwin, Hilaria Baldwin (formerly Hilary Hayward-Thomas), and their seven children. It’s part family docuseries, part PR damage control, and …
4 - The Bachelor Turned Me Gay: The Gabby Windey Story (The Bachelor)
What happens when America's sweetheart from The Bachelor franchise steps out of the fantasy suite and into her queer era? In this episode, we unpack the stunning, meme-worthy, and quietly radical pivot of Gabby Windey, a former Denver Bronc…
3 - The Housewife, The Hospital, & The Holy Ghost (RHOSLC)
A hug, a smell, and a party gone rogue—Salt Lake City hadn’t seen a feud this messy since the feds came for Brigham Young (until Season 2 of RHOSLC, that is). This week, we travel back to 2019, when Jen Shah and Mary Cosby ignite a Real Hou…
Minisode 1 - A Hot New Bombshell: Karen Huger (RHOP)
This week, in a special minisode—originally planned as a segment in a larger episode—we’re pulling over for an emergency deep dive into the shocking downfall of Potomac royalty. On February 26, Real Housewives of Potomac star Karen Huger wa…
2 - When Brandi Met Scheana (RHOBH)
This week, we unravel the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills moment that launched Vanderpump Rules—Brandi Glanville’s tense sit-down with Scheana Shay. From Lisa Vanderpump’s reality TV empire to Eddie Cibrian’s web of affairs, we break down …
1 - The Dinner Party From Hell (RHOBH)
This week, we investigate The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ most infamous showdown—The Dinner Party From Hell. From Camille Grammer vs. Kyle Richards to the legendary "You're such a f*ing liar, Camille!", we dissect every confrontation,…