Spencer Pratt Was The Hills’ Biggest Villain—Now He’s Newsom’s Worst Nightmare
Spencer Pratt is suing L.A., calling out Newsom, and doing it all in a Heidi Montag t-shirt.
Yes, I dabble in reality television. No, this is not television I endorse. It is a guilty pleasure and, just like Diet Coke I now consume reality TV in moderation. A big step considering my consumption began with the OG teen reality TV show Real World and it continued for years. This includes The Hills which premiered when I was comfortably into my late 20s. Too old for its nonsense, really. But I watched every single episode.
However, never in a million years would I have expected Spencer Pratt, the biggest villain on The Hills, to be where he is today. Only in 2025, with a reality TV star as president, could the former villain of The Hills become a celebrated government watchdog.
Reality TV Villain to... Just Spencer
The Hills was appointment television that we consumed like late-night cookie dough ice cream, shameful but oh-so-satisfying. Here's what makes me cringe looking back: we had no clue how scripted this "reality" actually was. We were adorably naive, thinking we were watching authentic drama unfold naturally.
And guess who was always at the center of the drama? Spencer Pratt. The man was reality TV catnip: smarmy grin, manipulative energy, and that special talent for making us collectively hate-watch every Monday night.
Spencer wasn't just a reality TV villain. He was the template for reality TV villainy. He understood that negative attention was still attention, controversy was currency, and being hated could make you famous.
Then The Hills ended in 2010, and Spencer largely disappeared from our collective consciousness. While we moved on with our lives, Spencer would occasionally reappear while building something else entirely: a real marriage, a real family, and (shocking for those who remember the crystals and hummingbird phase) genuine personal growth. Albeit still weird and eccentric.
Spencer Loses Everything in Palisades Fire
Then came January 7, 2025, and everything shifted. The Palisades Fire ignited, and for those of us who lived through hating Spencer Pratt, something surreal happened: we felt genuine sympathy for him.