April 17, 2025 • 9 mins
SHOW PONY with John Hill
One man. Too many credits. Former mess. John Hill has built a career in the chaos of show business—from Broadway lights to Bravo fights, and a decade of putting his foot in his mouth on live radio with Andy Cohen. Show Pony is his glossy, exclusive peek at the mess behind the curtain. Each season, John digs into the culture, the chaos, and the people who’ve shaped pop entertainment—from reality TV to Broadway and beyond. Season One kicks off with a rewatch of Bravo’s Workout, the vintage classic that gave us muscle, mayhem, and questionable decisions. Subscribe now, and join the Show Pony Revolution: for people who’ve seen too much…and stayed anyway.
One man. Too many credits. Former mess. John Hill has built a career in the chaos of show business—from Broadway lights to Bravo fights, and a decade of putting his foot in his mouth on live radio with Andy Cohen. Show Pony is his glossy, exclusive peek at the mess behind the curtain. Each season, John digs into the culture, the chaos, and the people who’ve shaped pop entertainment—from reality TV to Broadway and beyond. Season One kicks off with a rewatch of Bravo’s Workout, the vintage classic that gave us muscle, mayhem, and questionable decisions. Subscribe now, and join the Show Pony Revolution: for people who’ve seen too much…and stayed anyway.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Oh oh wow. That hurts. Hi. I'm John Hill, and
welcome to my new show, show Pony, right here on
the internet. Let's get things started. Shall we let me
unlock my laptop? This doesn't have the aesthetic that I
would like in the shot I have Obviously the show's
(00:29):
namesake I have My text is Tumbler with some delicious
raspberry lime seltzer from schwaps. This doesn't quite match, however,
I do need it for notes anyway. What I'm saying is, Hi,
I'm excited to announce my new show, show Pony, as
you can see here. Thank you to those who have
(00:50):
followed me from the very beginning when I was on Broadway,
when I had a website and a blog before any
before anybody had a blog, John Hill on line dot net.
I believe it was don't own that anymore? Not sure
who does. Somebody called go Daddy that was nonsensical musings.
A lot of people liked it, and then a lot
(01:10):
of people who have followed since the Broadway days, hairspray
Boy from oz Bear, miss Sagon. Then there's a whole
other faction of people who started following me during the
early YouTube days. Happy to be back here on YouTube
Johnny and Kooch's my incredibly viral web series, which we
had to make private because it was racist. And then,
(01:33):
of course I spent twelve years producing reality television. Now listen,
I am going to use my regular mic normally, but
I'm going to edit this myself, and I can only
do it if I use this mike. Don't worry about
it's a technical thing. It's for people who are good
with a tack, like me. This show, Show Pony is
going to be all about the all of the entertainment
that I cover, from Broadway to producing reality TV to
(01:53):
being on the radio with Andy Cohen for ten years,
and specifically season one of Show Pony, I'm going to
start with a rewatch of a vintage Bravo show called Workout.
I never watched Workout. I'm very excited about it. I
lived in LA in two thousand and six when Workout
was a thing, but I just never got around to
watching it. Okay, since the show is starting with the
(02:14):
rewatch of a vintage Bravo reality show Workout, I thought
it would be good to give you my entire reality
TV show producer resume. Let's go. I sold a show
to MTV in two thousand and five six I sold
it to World of Wonder. We sold it to MTV.
We made the show, we spent a year working on it,
and it never aired. That show was so difficult. I
(02:35):
almost threw myself in a river in West Virginia. It
was rough. I will do a whole other bonus episode
about that at a later date, but that was the
first thing. My first entry into reality TV show producing
was at a you know, selling the show level, so
I didn't work my way up from like pa to
producer whatever. I kind of started sorry at the top,
(02:56):
at the top, but still impoverished. After that, there was
a scandal. I'll get to it because the show didn't air.
World of Wonder was very cool to me, and they
were like, you know this sucks. You moved across the
country to work on this show. We will hook you
up and make you a producer on Tory and Dean
in Love Tory spelling, Dean McDermott. I'm making a bend
(03:16):
breakfast into Mechula, California, also difficult. Didn't try to throw
myself at a river, but definitely turn into a drug addict.
After that, I moved over to Bravo Step It Up
and Dance also just one season. Elizabeth Berkeley know Me
from Showgirls, Know Me Malone was the host. Jerry Mitchell,
Broadway choreographer who's also a friend of mine from Hairspray,
(03:38):
was the tem gun. It was bad. People didn't like it.
I loved it, but damn that was a challenge. Then
I stayed with that same production company and went produced
Project Runway. I believe I was season five. Went to
New York produced Project Runway, and then they moved me
over to another dance show called Dance on Sunset on Nickelodeon.
I don't know if anybody remembers it, but it was
a great show. It's like American Bandstand for like Tweens
(04:00):
twelve thirteen. It was adorable. We had huge people on
it too. We had Jenna Jackson on there. Then after
I worked on Dan Sun Sunset, I went over to
Kathy Griffin My Life on the d List, which was
in season five on Bravo. At that time, I had
won two Emmy's. It was a big break for me.
I got to write pitch ideas, write jokes, direct her
in the field, and then edit. It was a great
school of hard Knock's training ground. You know, I got
(04:21):
to pitch my idea, do her interviews, and shoot it
in the field with her, then come back and edit
it myself in post. So I learned a lot about
posts that way. Then went over to King of the Crown,
which was on TLC. It was about pageant girls in
South Carolina, the girl and such as Miss Tenusa Caitlin.
It featured her pageant coach. It was another brilliant show.
(04:42):
Only one season. I moved over to Attack of the
Show on G four, which was a tech show like
pre Twitch. Olivia Munn was the star. They called me
and they said, hey, we need someone who can work
with this wild, crazy girl who she hates everyone. So
can you come do it? She'll we fire you and
I said yes, of course I went over there. We
became close friends, still are to this day, not close,
(05:05):
but friends lover. Then I went to I went back
to New York. I remember I was like, you know,
I misperforming. So I coeped a show called The Approval
Matrix was an arable pilot for Bravo and I was
a panelist. Keep in mind, at this time I had
descended so deeply into vicodin addiction, vicing in weed pills.
(05:27):
I was depressed. I was I had such bad anxiety,
but somehow felt like it would be the right time
to try being on camera on Bravo. Everyone else it
was like four panelists and me. It wasn't funny. I
wasn't funny. I was personally. I looked back and cringe.
People hated it. It didn't go anywhere, and I tucked
(05:47):
my tail and ran, kicking and screaming to Texas, where
I was the executive producer of the A List Dallas,
which was so bad it tanked not only the Dallas
franchise but the New York as well. It was that bad.
So it was around this time I was like, I
need to reevaluate my fucking life. And so at this
(06:08):
exact point, right when I was done with A List Dallas,
Andy said, you know, watch what Happens Live, which at
that point was online or one night a week. I
guess I'm Bravo when he said it's gonna go five
nights a week, and when it does, you have a
spot here. If you want to write and produce the
show five nights a week, come and do it. And
I said, that's all I want. I don't want to
be coming up with story for these cowgirls. I can't
(06:29):
do a reality show anymore. I want to write titty jokes.
And so I was there at producing, writing and producing
Watch Happens Life for four years, also still struggling with
like I could not get sober girl. It was a mess.
I was like high at work. Everyone knew it. It
was so embarrassing. It was such a struggle. But they
were so cool to me there. They helped me get healthy.
I left that show after four years and went back
(06:51):
to World of Wonder and La produced two episodes of
a sitcom for Bianca del Rio. When I was like
on Death's door, I somehow sort of like story produced
in a junior capacity, having gone from executive producer now
is like a junior like stringer outer on Below Deck
med Because Nadine and my friend like took pity on me,
(07:11):
I had nothing to do. I produced the pilot of
Lady Gang, which did do well on E It got sold,
but I was such a mass during the pilot taping.
I wasn't asked back to produce the series. But it's
okay because I wasn't happy. Looking back now, I did
get sober. I've been on Sirius XM radio every day
in the every morning with Andy Cohen Andy Cohen Live
(07:32):
for ten years. We're about to reach our ten year
anniversary in October, and also doing my own solo show. There.
After the pandemic, I realized I can't keep swimming upstream
with reality television. I'm so unhappy. I'm miserable. I hate it.
I love reality TV. I thought it was going to
be a good job for me, but I actually don't
have this skill set. I do have the skills, I guess,
(07:55):
but for some reason, whether it was being an addict
or whatever, I just did not I just was really unhappy.
So after the pandemic, I focused on what I wanted
to do that things that made me happy, things that
brought me joy, and that was the show I did
on the radio with Andy, and I was like, I'm
going to put my full pussy into this job. I'm
(08:15):
going to show up prepared. I'm not going to be resentful,
even though that's hard sometimes because I'm underpaid, which is
why I'm doing this. So now I've been sober four
and a half years. I'm happy in my work. I'm
touring the country. I'm writing original music, I'm doing comedy
and I like my job. I'm doing projects like this,
and I'm there's parts of reality TV that I miss.
(08:37):
So I am excited to go back and through the
lens of all the stuff I just said, all those
shows I produced and that time I was there in
the beginning of like I was producing reality shows in
two thousand and six, Win Workout premiered, I started watching it.
We'll get into it. That's the long and short of it.
Welcome to show, Pony. I'm glad to have you. Let
me know more of what you want to see. I
(08:58):
will be using a cuter mind. I'm also going to
do an after show Pony on Patreon every week, so
subscribe there now. And I'm not leaving Serious ExM. This
is just a little supplement because a lot of people
that follow me don't listen to Serious XM. A lot
of people on the old Instagram are not Serious XM subscribers,
So this is a way for everybody to access all
(09:20):
of it. Welcome to the show, Subscribe, Tell your friends
Oh oh wow. That hurts. Hi. I'm John Hill, and
welcome to my new show, show Pony, right here on
the internet. Let's get things started. Shall we let me
unlock my laptop? This doesn't have the aesthetic that I
would like in the shot I have Obviously the show's
(00:29):
namesake I have My text is Tumbler with some delicious
raspberry lime seltzer from schwaps. This doesn't quite match, however,
I do need it for notes anyway. What I'm saying is, Hi,
I'm excited to announce my new show, show Pony, as
you can see here. Thank you to those who have
(00:50):
followed me from the very beginning when I was on Broadway,
when I had a website and a blog before any
before anybody had a blog, John Hill on line dot net.
I believe it was don't own that anymore? Not sure
who does. Somebody called go Daddy that was nonsensical musings.
A lot of people liked it, and then a lot
(01:10):
of people who have followed since the Broadway days, hairspray
Boy from oz Bear, miss Sagon. Then there's a whole
other faction of people who started following me during the
early YouTube days. Happy to be back here on YouTube
Johnny and Kooch's my incredibly viral web series, which we
had to make private because it was racist. And then,
(01:33):
of course I spent twelve years producing reality television. Now listen,
I am going to use my regular mic normally, but
I'm going to edit this myself, and I can only
do it if I use this mike. Don't worry about
it's a technical thing. It's for people who are good
with a tack, like me. This show, Show Pony is
going to be all about the all of the entertainment
that I cover, from Broadway to producing reality TV to
(01:53):
being on the radio with Andy Cohen for ten years,
and specifically season one of Show Pony, I'm going to
start with a rewatch of a vintage Bravo show called Workout.
I never watched Workout. I'm very excited about it. I
lived in LA in two thousand and six when Workout
was a thing, but I just never got around to
watching it. Okay, since the show is starting with the
(02:14):
rewatch of a vintage Bravo reality show Workout, I thought
it would be good to give you my entire reality
TV show producer resume. Let's go. I sold a show
to MTV in two thousand and five six I sold
it to World of Wonder. We sold it to MTV.
We made the show, we spent a year working on it,
and it never aired. That show was so difficult. I
(02:35):
almost threw myself in a river in West Virginia. It
was rough. I will do a whole other bonus episode
about that at a later date, but that was the
first thing. My first entry into reality TV show producing
was at a you know, selling the show level, so
I didn't work my way up from like pa to
producer whatever. I kind of started sorry at the top,
(02:56):
at the top, but still impoverished. After that, there was
a scandal. I'll get to it because the show didn't air.
World of Wonder was very cool to me, and they
were like, you know this sucks. You moved across the
country to work on this show. We will hook you
up and make you a producer on Tory and Dean
in Love Tory spelling, Dean McDermott. I'm making a bend
(03:16):
breakfast into Mechula, California, also difficult. Didn't try to throw
myself at a river, but definitely turn into a drug addict.
After that, I moved over to Bravo Step It Up
and Dance also just one season. Elizabeth Berkeley know Me
from Showgirls, Know Me Malone was the host. Jerry Mitchell,
Broadway choreographer who's also a friend of mine from Hairspray,
(03:38):
was the tem gun. It was bad. People didn't like it.
I loved it, but damn that was a challenge. Then
I stayed with that same production company and went produced
Project Runway. I believe I was season five. Went to
New York produced Project Runway, and then they moved me
over to another dance show called Dance on Sunset on Nickelodeon.
I don't know if anybody remembers it, but it was
a great show. It's like American Bandstand for like Tweens
(04:00):
twelve thirteen. It was adorable. We had huge people on
it too. We had Jenna Jackson on there. Then after
I worked on Dan Sun Sunset, I went over to
Kathy Griffin My Life on the d List, which was
in season five on Bravo. At that time, I had
won two Emmy's. It was a big break for me.
I got to write pitch ideas, write jokes, direct her
in the field, and then edit. It was a great
school of hard Knock's training ground. You know, I got
(04:21):
to pitch my idea, do her interviews, and shoot it
in the field with her, then come back and edit
it myself in post. So I learned a lot about
posts that way. Then went over to King of the Crown,
which was on TLC. It was about pageant girls in
South Carolina, the girl and such as Miss Tenusa Caitlin.
It featured her pageant coach. It was another brilliant show.
(04:42):
Only one season. I moved over to Attack of the
Show on G four, which was a tech show like
pre Twitch. Olivia Munn was the star. They called me
and they said, hey, we need someone who can work
with this wild, crazy girl who she hates everyone. So
can you come do it? She'll we fire you and
I said yes, of course I went over there. We
became close friends, still are to this day, not close,
(05:05):
but friends lover. Then I went to I went back
to New York. I remember I was like, you know,
I misperforming. So I coeped a show called The Approval
Matrix was an arable pilot for Bravo and I was
a panelist. Keep in mind, at this time I had
descended so deeply into vicodin addiction, vicing in weed pills.
(05:27):
I was depressed. I was I had such bad anxiety,
but somehow felt like it would be the right time
to try being on camera on Bravo. Everyone else it
was like four panelists and me. It wasn't funny. I
wasn't funny. I was personally. I looked back and cringe.
People hated it. It didn't go anywhere, and I tucked
(05:47):
my tail and ran, kicking and screaming to Texas, where
I was the executive producer of the A List Dallas,
which was so bad it tanked not only the Dallas
franchise but the New York as well. It was that bad.
So it was around this time I was like, I
need to reevaluate my fucking life. And so at this
(06:08):
exact point, right when I was done with A List Dallas,
Andy said, you know, watch what Happens Live, which at
that point was online or one night a week. I
guess I'm Bravo when he said it's gonna go five
nights a week, and when it does, you have a
spot here. If you want to write and produce the
show five nights a week, come and do it. And
I said, that's all I want. I don't want to
be coming up with story for these cowgirls. I can't
(06:29):
do a reality show anymore. I want to write titty jokes.
And so I was there at producing, writing and producing
Watch Happens Life for four years, also still struggling with
like I could not get sober girl. It was a mess.
I was like high at work. Everyone knew it. It
was so embarrassing. It was such a struggle. But they
were so cool to me there. They helped me get healthy.
I left that show after four years and went back
(06:51):
to World of Wonder and La produced two episodes of
a sitcom for Bianca del Rio. When I was like
on Death's door, I somehow sort of like story produced
in a junior capacity, having gone from executive producer now
is like a junior like stringer outer on Below Deck
med Because Nadine and my friend like took pity on me,
(07:11):
I had nothing to do. I produced the pilot of
Lady Gang, which did do well on E It got sold,
but I was such a mass during the pilot taping.
I wasn't asked back to produce the series. But it's
okay because I wasn't happy. Looking back now, I did
get sober. I've been on Sirius XM radio every day
in the every morning with Andy Cohen Andy Cohen Live
(07:32):
for ten years. We're about to reach our ten year
anniversary in October, and also doing my own solo show. There.
After the pandemic, I realized I can't keep swimming upstream
with reality television. I'm so unhappy. I'm miserable. I hate it.
I love reality TV. I thought it was going to
be a good job for me, but I actually don't
have this skill set. I do have the skills, I guess,
(07:55):
but for some reason, whether it was being an addict
or whatever, I just did not I just was really unhappy.
So after the pandemic, I focused on what I wanted
to do that things that made me happy, things that
brought me joy, and that was the show I did
on the radio with Andy, and I was like, I'm
going to put my full pussy into this job. I'm
(08:15):
going to show up prepared. I'm not going to be resentful,
even though that's hard sometimes because I'm underpaid, which is
why I'm doing this. So now I've been sober four
and a half years. I'm happy in my work. I'm
touring the country. I'm writing original music, I'm doing comedy
and I like my job. I'm doing projects like this,
and I'm there's parts of reality TV that I miss.
(08:37):
So I am excited to go back and through the
lens of all the stuff I just said, all those
shows I produced and that time I was there in
the beginning of like I was producing reality shows in
two thousand and six, Win Workout premiered, I started watching it.
We'll get into it. That's the long and short of it.
Welcome to show, Pony. I'm glad to have you. Let
me know more of what you want to see. I
(08:58):
will be using a cuter mind. I'm also going to
do an after show Pony on Patreon every week, so
subscribe there now. And I'm not leaving Serious ExM. This
is just a little supplement because a lot of people
that follow me don't listen to Serious XM. A lot
of people on the old Instagram are not Serious XM subscribers,
So this is a way for everybody to access all
(09:20):
of it. Welcome to the show, Subscribe, Tell your friends
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