Watch Adam DiVello Spill The Secrets on Creating The Perfect Reality Show

From the traffic-stopping outfits and the extraordinary homes to the even more dazzling drama, the world of Selling Sunset seems tailor-made for reality TV. But none of those factors are what scored the realtors of The Oppenheim Group their own reality show. Instead, it all came down to one very serendipitously placed ad in a magazine. The truth came out during Selling Sunset creator Adam DiVello’s visit to reality podcast We Have the Receipts.  

“I was looking through The Hollywood Reporter one day… Jason Oppenheim had a full-page ad in there,” DiVello told podcast hosts Lauren Speed-Hamilton and Chris Burns. Once DiVello — who previously created classic docusoaps Laguna Beach and The Hills — saw the advertisement, he was struck by the visual of Oppenheim bosses Jason and Brett Oppenheim surrounded by their coterie of coed employees (the “few men” in the photo didn’t end up joining the series). 

“I literally ripped the page out of my magazine,” DiVello recalled, “walked next door to my development executive’s office, Skyler Wakil, and put it on his desk, like, ‘Dude, get me a meeting with these people. This is a TV show.’” 

In less than two-and-a-half weeks, the superproducer was meeting with a “very reluctant” Jason. After previously appearing in Bravo reality series Million Dollar Listing, the Oppenheim twins were concerned about how DiVello planned to make his show “different.” DiVello’s  answer? Netflix. 

“We hadn’t talked to Netflix yet. I had never met anyone at Netflix before. I manifested it,” DiVello said. Since then, DiVello has expanded the Selling universe, assembling Selling Tampa, which debuted in 2021, and Selling the OC, which premieres in August 2022 and follows Jason to his newly formed Orange County real estate office. DiVello promises the Selling the OC cast may be the most polarizing yet. “Every [Netflix] exec has a different person that they side with,” he revealed. “They’re all like, ‘So-and-so is doing the right thing! So-and-so’s the bad one.’ I’m like, ‘Wait I don’t think you’re right.’” 

Watch the episode above or listen to the complete We Have the Receipts episode to find out the identity of Selling the OC’s “unavailable” heartthrob,  and how exactly Selling Sunset put together its unforgettable cast. DiVello even dishes on how he stumbled across the theme song to Laguna Beach after procuring a Hillary Duff CD at a Blockbuster in Santa Monica — and he also has something to say about that Squid Game reality show.