From ‘Summer House’ to ‘Love Island’: Bravo, Peacock’s Frances Berwick Says Unscripted Is Finally Getting Some Respect

Summer House, Love Island, Traitors Sean Zanni/Bravo/Netflix/Euan Cherry/Peacock

When asked if she feels pressure to replicate the successes and gains the unscripted space has seen in 2026, Frances Berwick, laughs and says, “We work in television.” Which is to say, yes, of course.

It has been a pretty big year for the shows in Berwick’s purview. First up for the chairman of unscripted at Bravo and Peacock, there was a massive season of Peacock’s The Traitors, which begat series ratings highs and the kind of media coverage usually reserved for a prestige show starring an Oscar winner or two. This was followed by the tenth season of Bravo’s Summer House that, thanks to a mid-season scandal involving a love quadrangle, also earned series high ratings and the kind of wall-to-wall media coverage that is usually reserved for the declassifying of state secrets.

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Then came the summer of Love Island USA, which, over its six-week run, was the first- or second-most-viewed project across all content on all streaming services. In the middle of all of this, after several Housewives franchises have been flatlining in recent years, a new addition has breathed life into the format and quickly garnered fans. And in Rhode Island, of all places!

While viewership has been steadily climbing on several Peacock and Bravo properties, 2026 was the year where the reality TV cup runneth over.

Berwick partially credits this explosion of viewership to a particularly potent combination of programming and that age-old concern of pop culture obsessives — missing out. “[Viewing] may not be in one room in front of the TV screen in the way that we would watch a big event 10 years ago, but it is people watching within a very short period of time. The FOMO that is created is real,” says Berwick.

Berwick recalls an employee sending her a video of someone projecting a Knicks finals game on the side of a New York City building and then, after the final whistle, immediately pivoting to a Summer House reunion episode. Love Island watch parties proved a boon for bars, while Peacock partnered with the AMC theater chain to screen a particularly drama-heavy episode in several locations.

“I think we’ve seen in the past over 12 months this desire for people to come together,” says Berwick. This year has seen an uptick in movie theater attendance and a continued boom in live events, and it’s a desire that has extended to the unscripted arts. But it is paramount to constantly stoke the flames of that desire.

Married at First Sight, a long-running Lifetime reality show, started streaming exclusively on Peacock in 2025. The opener of the latest season was launched out of the finale of Love Island USA. “What we’re trying to do on Peacock is go from one big tentpole to another,” says Berwick. “This will hopefully be for all the people who say, ‘Oh no, Love Island is over, what am I goanna do with my time?’”

And, for audiences who still need a fix of their favorite unscripted talent between seasons of their marquee shows, individual stars are being dispatched to other franchises. The Traitors has long tapped Real Housewives stars, while Love Island USA break-out Rob Rausch won the latest season of the show to much fanfare. And Summer House star Ciara Miller was tapped to host After Sun, the Love Island USA weekly talk show that airs during the series. “It’s a different entry point that invites more people in,” says Berwick of the choice to tap Miller as host. “[Viewers] can really identify with her, because they followed her journey.”

And the larger entertainment industry is taking note of the uptick in audience interest in unscripted, giving more weight to slates that were previously written off. Says Berwick, “For a long while it was considered either substandard, or that you couldn’t be premium and unscripted.”

On the awards front, Love Island USA recently earned its first major Emmy nod when host Ariana Madix landed a nom for outstanding host for a reality or reality competition program, while Summer House netted its first nomination in outstanding unstructured reality program after ten seasons on air.

To keep audiences interested and group chats well fed, an evolve-or-die mentality has to be adopted. Casts need to be refreshed; new formats must be considered.

“Typically, unscripted tends to be a somewhat derivative area. If something works, then there’s a lot of copies,” says Berwick. To be fair, the larger creative arc of Hollywood bends towards unoriginality — just look no further than the sequel-laden film release calendars. Still, Berwick assesses, “We’re increasingly seeing the things that work best are fresh and new and different.”