Rylan Clark is one of the most in-demand TV presenters of the moment – and for good reason.
With a warmth and charm that radiates from the screen, Rylan is a professional, safe pair of hands for show bosses, while feeling like a chatty BFF to audiences watching at home.
His latest gig, and his first hop over to the world of streaming, is for Prime Video's sun-soaked reality show Hot Mess Summer. A mix of Below Deck and Too Hot to Handle, the show is a hit of nostalgia that's reminiscent of a simpler, naiver time for the genre.
The premise? A bunch of young party animals are jetted out to Zante, believing they're about to have the summer of a lifetime. The catch, revealed to them in episode one, is that they have actually been set up by friends and family to work behind the bar, under the strict eye of its manager Lee.
In this exclusive interview with Digital Spy, presenter Rylan spilled all about his experience filming the messy series and where it sits within reality TV's recent nostalgic resurgence.
Hot Mess Summer is like a noughties reality revival. Was that what drew you to it? It feels like we're seeing a resurgence of that kind of early reality television.
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It wasn't what drew it to me because we never knew it was going to be that, and that's what's been the most exciting thing about now seeing the finished product.
People that have seen it – and friends and family – are like, "This feels like when TV weren't scared to do certain things."
And that's what was amazing about Hot Mess. Bringing them [the cast] all out – they all think they're on another show. They think they're going for Party Summer, and I'm very much an enabler in that fact. I'm like, "Yeah, you're going to party! I've got you a beautiful villa! Go out tonight! Get drunk! Have a lovely time!"
And then we hit them with the news.
It's real noughties TV because what it does is: anything can happen. And it really did. You see that throughout the series, and that was what was lovely about it.
It just feels fearless in a way that how we shot it was: "Let them do what they want to do."
If they do it, great. They earn money at the end of it. If they don't, they go home empty- handed. It's not our job.
It was like The Truman Show. How will it end? We don't know. We really, really never knew.
And actually, at the end, there was a big twist that happened that none of us on the crew were expecting, and that was really, really exciting.
But it was such an unreal experience. These absolute liabilities fly out to Zante thinking they're going out for a summer of partying, to then be slapped with a uniform and suddenly they're working in a bar.
They didn't look very happy about it.
They were fuming... I'm trying to put out fires all over the shop. It was great.
That element of it was really refreshing. It was, like you said, more surveillance documentary-style, rather than high production. You don't feel that you've got producers waiting in the wings trying to stir stuff up.
And that, to me, was what I love. Because obviously I worked on Big Brother for years, and there was no producer going in and telling people what to do, or anything like that.
For me, that's the type of show I want to watch. I want to see what happens. We don't need to dial up the drama; you're going to make it yourself.
We very much left them to their own devices, and stepped in when we had to step in for whatever reason. And, yeah, the drama was ridiculous.
And it's not Love Island. It's about working, and they're all living together. But then relationships start to form, and then those relationships start to break down. And a day in a reality show is like a week in real life. A week in a reality show is like a month in real life.
So these relationships form quite quickly. And originally – you were just talking from a production point of view – we weren't focusing on, "Oh, them two are having it off."
We don't care. That's not the show. And then that started spilling into work. We started seeing arguments at the villa that then spilled over into work, and that ruins a complete shift, and they lose a load of money.
We were like, "Oh, we've got no choice now. We're gonna have to show all of this." And that's when the show becomes, "Oh, this is real."
It was so good as a reality fan to sit back and be cackling in the background... I loved it.
It's interesting that the contestants from the start were like, "Who do I fancy? Who am I going to crack on with?" It's not Love Island, and it's not trying to be Love Island, but for the young singles showing up, you can see that they're automatically doing that.
They've been brought up in the era that if you're put with a group of people, the first thing you think is: who am I going to get with? That's the first thing. And they were eyeing each other up when they all met each other, but it was quite harmless.
It was like, you know, the boys were standing together: "She's fit." And the girls are going, "He's well handsome." You've got all that.
But then they realise it's not a dating show. But then just naturally these relationships – if you go a bit closer to someone, then all of a sudden someone's kissed someone, and then you've gone on a night out, and it's like, "We've woken up together. Oh, now we're married."
Welcome to 2024. That's what it was like – there's drama.
That's natural human behaviour. It happens in Big Brother. Big Brother is not a dating show but —
Yeah. It happens. Listen, if you spend enough time with someone in a confined space...
100%. We very much got the impression that you were always waiting in the wings.
I was like a magpie. I had one eye on them at all times. Even when I was sleeping...
All the time. So where we film the show – it's at the gorgeous pool bar. We built our own bar there and stuff. It was absolutely lovely.
But I felt like Rapunzel because I had a big viewing platform where I could look down from above, and look down into the bar. And I have earpieces, so I can just switch between everyone's mic, and go, "She's slagging him off"...
I just loved it. It was like watching a live feed. That's what it felt like for me. So that was just brilliant.
So you must have got to know these contestants really well.
Genuinely, by the end of it, I looked at them like my kids, and I'm only, like, 10 years older than them, which was weird.
As a viewer you form opinions on who's right and who's wrong in an argument – was it hard to not get involved?
I think, for me, no, because it's what I've done for so many years now, and I've learned the difference between being a presenter and being a viewer and actually being a human. I never want to affect the outcome of a show...
If I work on a show where the public vote people out, I will never say who my favourite is. I don't want to ever influence it. But one thing I want to do is be there – but I never want to influence what you do.
You mentioned in the voiceover about your mum watching. Has she seen any of it? Will she be watching it with you?
She will watch it... She's always come round my house to watch things and stuff like that.
The other day, I had to go round her house to sign her up to Prime Video, to sign her up to the other streamers, to sign her up to this, and then log her in. She can't do nothing like that.
And now she's talking into a remote. She thinks it's like alien technology. I'm like, "No, that's just how you get on it, mum."
She's like, "This is amazing."
So, yes, she will be watching this. She will probably watch it before anyone else, at midnight... She will love it.
We have to ask you about The Traitors.
I love The Traitors.
Obviously, Claudia's incredible, but there's talk of a celebrity version. Is that something that you would consider, if it potentially happened?
I had not heard this chat. I'm one of those guys that says "never say never" to anything. I love watching it.
Would you want to be a Traitor?
I don't know if I'd be a good Traitor or not. What do you think? Do you think I've got a good poker face?
Would you think I was a Traitor?
If you thought I was a Traitor, and I was a Traitor, I would turn it around on you like that [snaps fingers], and you would be banished.
There you go – you'd be an amazing Traitor, then!
[laughs] No, I don't think I could handle the guilt. I think I'd have to be a faithful. But I don't know.
Listen, that would never be up to me. That would be up to the team.
Claudia.
Yeah. Claudia, give me a little tap. Or not.
We need to make it happen.
How do you know it's not already happened?
... I'm totally joking, but there we go, that's what I'd do as a Traitor!
Hot Mess Summer launches on Wednesday, February 7 on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland.
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TV Editor, Digital Spy Laura has been watching television for over 30 years and professionally writing about entertainment for almost 10 of those. Previously at LOOK and now heading up the TV desk at the UK's biggest TV and movies site Digital Spy, Laura has helped steer conversations around some of the most popular shows on the box. Laura has appeared on Channel 5 News and radio to talk viewing habits and TV recommendations. As well as putting her nerd-level Buffy knowledge to good use during an IRL meet with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laura also once had afternoon tea with One Direction, has sat around the fire pit of the Love Island villa, spoken to Sir David Attenborough about the world's oceans and even interviewed Rylan from inside the Big Brother house (housemate status, forever pending).
