It’s not every day that you get to sit down with royalty, but Reality Tea got to bask in the presence of a king this week. Carlos King, aka the King of Reality TV, is one of the biggest names in the unscripted space. Some of the biggest moments on The Real Housewives of Atlanta when NeNe Leakes was on? He produced them. Over 60% of the content on the Oprah Winfrey Network? He’s the mind behind it.
Carlos is also the host of Reality with the King, a podcast series known for reality recaps and juicy interviews with some of the most talked-about reality TV personalities. This man has jobs on top of jobs, and he’s getting ready to get even busier.
Fresh off his interview on The Breakfast Club, we caught up with Carlos King to talk about his exciting new partnership with Charlamagne Tha God and iHeartMedia’s The Black Effect Podcast Network, Season 10 of Love & Marriage Huntsville, and of course, we had to get a pulse check on some of the latest Housewives headlines.
For Carlos, partnering with The Black Effect Podcast Network made perfect sense
Carlos has carved out a lane for himself in the entertainment world, elevating himself from a producer in the background on Bravo to the CEO of Kingdom Reign Entertainment.
With that in mind, some fans might have been surprised to learn this week that Carlos launched a partnership with The Black Effect Network to produce his podcast, Reality with the King. In our conversation with Carlos, he explained why it was crucial for him to branch out in this direction.
“Reality with the King was started in 2022, and upon the first two days of the launch, we shot to number one on Apple’s TV and Film Podcast chart. And ever since then, I’ve known that I wanted this podcast to continue to grow. I did not want to get comfortable with the achievement of being number one.”
For the last two years. Carlos said he’s been employing some trial and error with his podcast, testing out different topics and getting a strong understanding of what his audience, affectionately called the Reigndrops, were looking for in this medium.
“So, when Black Effect approached me to partner with them. I thought it was another extension of growing the brand, of growing the business,” Carlos explained.
“You can’t deny Charlamagne’s network when it comes to his achievements, in creating a podcast network where the focus is on Black creators, Black hosts, Black executives, who have a large following,” he continued. “This partnership is a way not only to showcase in my community that two black men who are extremely successful in their own individual achievements are able to join forces, show the community that we can work together.”
The King is still a student
Although Carlos beams with confidence, he admitted that he’s still eager to learn. That’s why his brand continues to expand. He explained that his partnership with Black Effect will allow him to share knowledge with Charlamagne.
“I pride myself on being a student,” Carlos told us. “I don’t care how much I attain through my hard work with success. You can never stop learning, and you can never stop growing. You can never stop extracting information from people who are on different levels in this entertainment industry.”
Charlamagne and Carlos do have similarities in their paths to success. Carlos started off behind the camera as a producer. Charlamagne was Wendy Williams’ radio sidekick. Now, they’ve both moved from the background to the front, and Carlos is eager to lean more into that.
“It would be wild of me to not pick his brain, to not say, ‘Okay, I don’t know much about this,’” Carlos noted. “What can I do? Who knows – maybe Reality with the King can have a morning radio show. Perhaps it could turn into a daily talk show. We just don’t know, so he’s somebody that I love having in my wheelhouse to ask those questions.”
Plus, the beauty of a partnership is that the benefits extend both ways. Charlamagne has expressed an interest in the unscripted world, so they’re going to be piggybacking off of each other with some exciting projects down the road.
“He and I are already thinking about ideas that we can partner on, where he can utilize my production services, to be the production company that services his idea,” Carlos teased. “You haven’t really seen anything like this in its magnitude.”
What to expect from Reality with the King’s new era
Furthermore, Reality with the King’s new partnership unlocks new production capabilities for Carlos. He plans to shift to a daily release schedule, meaning you’re going to have Carlos in your ears and on your screens, pretty much every single day.
He’s already been testing the format on his YouTube channel. For example, he does a Thursday deep dive into true crime with Real Housewives of New York alum Eboni K. Williams. They’ve been extensively covering the Diddy trial on a weekly basis.
“I want to have possibly five episodes a week,” Carlos explained. “You can have your Housewives recap, Love & Marriage recap, Belle Collective recap, true crime recap, and of course, my exclusive interviews. I want to be able to always have something for my audience to listen to, and that’s the reason why this Black Effect partnership means the world to me, because I’m able to utilize those resources to make this happen.”
How Carlos gets the tea while maintaining the trust
The exclusive interviews on Reality with the King are appointment listening. Most recently, RHOA’s Angela Oakley opened up her home (and her passport!) to Carlos for a deep dive into her debut season. The reality stars trust Carlos, and his audiences trust him to deliver the tea. How does he balance that?
“I have earned trust, not given it. I have earned the respect of the reality community due to my work, due to the foundation in which my pedigree is built upon telling authentic stories, having relationships to where I have an open door policy, even at my production company, Kingdom Entertainment, where the stars of my shows are able to talk to me,” Carlos explained.
Plus, he approaches his work with a sense of journalistic integrity. He said he looks up to women like Oprah, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, and Ananda Lewis. So, even though the tea gets spilled on his podcast, you better not call him messy. He’s doing his job.
“I know people love to throw the word messy around, and I do think that only gets used for gay Black men who may be feminine like myself, and they don’t even know me,” Carlos noted.
“My questions are honest, and it’s real,” he continued. “My approach is not messy.”
For comparison, Carlos referenced that viral interview with Teresa Giudice, where she abruptly ended things after the anchor asked about her tax situation. Carlos would never.
He said, “The guy, I felt, attacked her by asking, like, it’s one thing to ask, like, ‘Hey, Teresa, before we let you go, there’s a few things we’re reading in the press about things with your taxes. How do you feel about that? Is there anything you want to share?’”
“That’s a journalist,” Carlos remarked. “You ask the question. These people are in your home. How dare you disrespect them? But to say something shady about it, I felt bad for my girl because she more than likely would have answered her question, but the approach was aggressive and messy. But guess what? No one called him messy.”
Spilling the Reality Tea with the Reality King
After speaking with Carlos about Reality with the King, we couldn’t help but pick his brain about some of the latest headlines in the reality TV world. From the Housewives to the upcoming tenth season of Love & Marriage Huntsville, Carlos gave us all of his hot takes. We’ve edited them a bit for conciseness and clarity.
Who was the MVP of RHOA Season 16?
Angela Oakley, by far. She is exactly what I tell all reality stars, ad nauseam. Be yourself. Be yourself. The audience recognizes it, and she has epitomized that. She has 100% of the audience on her side, and that’s rare as a newbie. It really is.
Do you think NeNe will return to RHOA?
It’s interesting because one thing I always tell people is if NeNe wants to come back, you know, I want whatever NeNe wants. You know, I’m a friend to her first and a fan second.
As a fan, of course, I want NeNe Leakes back. I want to see NeNe and Angela, you know, in a scene together! I would love for her to come back, but what I realized is I now have to step back and be like, okay, is that what she wants? If that’s what she wants, and that’s what her heart desires, then absolutely, and let me be clear, it is what I want. Even if she says, I’m past it, I’ll be like, “I respect your opinion.”
Were you surprised to see Monique Samuels announce her return to RHOP?
No, I was not surprised. I think this. One thing about the genre of reality television, it’s a very tough gig. And sometimes a person needs a break from it. I think it’s okay to have a break from it, and I think it’s okay to also come back from it, too. So I’m looking forward to seeing it.
Has The Real Housewives of New Jersey been paused for too long?
On my podcast, I said I’ve missed them so much. Bring back Melissa [Gorga] to reset this place, child. I’ll deal with it. At this point, just bring my girls back. I’m like RuPaul’s Drag Race. Bring back my girls!
I’ve missed this show so much. Jersey is such a staple in the franchise. Teresa is a staple in the franchise. And I miss her. I miss the girls. You know, I miss Teresa just reading people, and the beauty of my friend Teresa is when she clocked something five seconds later because of the late reaction, and I miss seeing the wheels turn.
What should we expect from Love & Huntsville Season 10?
We’re celebrating our tenth season, which is a huge milestone. Expect the unexpected. Expect LaTisha Scott to do a lot of gathering of the girls. LaTisha is not playing with none of the girls. None of them. I’ll be watching the episodes like, “Tisha, girl.”
And then Destiny [Payton] is a single woman, and you get to see Destiny live a single woman’s life., and I just love that Destiny is like, “I’m a baddie in Huntsville!” I just love when you have a single baddie who can tackle the city, like exploring dating after marriage and divorce.
Love & Marriage Huntsville returns to OWN for Season 10 on Saturday, July 19. You can stream Reality with the King on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you stream your podcasts.
