The Heir
Not here to make friends.
Twenty women and one fake heir in a Solvang mansion called Villa Serena. He’s a swim coach from Sacramento. Keep him away from beer and honesty.
Up against Castaway Cove on Crestline. Notes arrive by fax.
Beacon · 2003 · Thursdays at nine
Villain Edit
Not here to make friends.
Twenty women, one fake heir, eight Thursdays at nine. America knows he’s a swim coach. The women don’t.
Three seasons of reality TV, played on iPhone and iPad. The first one is free.
Coming soon to theApp Store
Meet the cast
3Seasons
24Episodes
126Confessionals
15Leads to produce
4Fates
Previously on
Everyone came here for the right reasons
Six of the 126 video confessionals across three seasons. They talk to the camera. You decide what airs.
“I’m not crazy. I have seen that man before. On a pool deck. In Sacramento. With a whistle.”
“Eleven p.m., I change outfits. I told the DJ. I told the camera guys. If a girl changes and nobody films it, did she even change?”
“A girlfriend? No ma’am. … Can we go again? I’d like that one to sound more like a no.”
“Y’all put a banjo under me. For the record, no Pickett in the history of Gulf County has ever played the [BLEEP] banjo.”
“I send all five men the same note and change the name at the top. It’s efficient. On the plane we call that beverage service.”
“She’s sure. I’ve been sure since the first night, but I wasn’t going to be the one who said it first, and now I don’t have to be.”
Three networks, three decades
Twenty-two years of the same show
Each season has its own network, its own decade and its own look. The flip phone becomes a BlackBerry, then a voice note. The job stays the same.
Riptide
Thursdays at ten. Watch closer.
Eight people in their twenties, one beach house on stilts on the Florida Gulf, one dying cable channel. The show airs while you’re still shooting it, and every Thursday the cast watches what you cut.
Up against Palm Court. Notes arrive by BlackBerry.
Sight Unseen
Nobody under forty believes in marriage. Everybody believes in rent.
Thirty singles in sealed suites, dating by voice note. Every note goes through the Queue first. The lawsuit was filed this morning.
Up against your own last season. Notes arrive in the thread.
The Heir is free and complete on its own. Riptide and Sight Unseen are $2.99 each, or $4.99 for both.
Cut to the control room
You’re not on the show. You make it.
You are Tess Darrow, and you produce all three seasons. You decide what they find out, what airs, what gets cut and who gets the villain edit.
- 2003 · The Heir
- Tess Darrow, 24. Associate producer for nine days.
- 2011 · Riptide
- Tess Darrow, 32. Supervising producer.
- 2025 · Sight Unseen
- Tess Darrow, 46. Showrunner and executive producer.
The job
A week in production
Eight episodes a season. Every one gets shot, cut and aired, and every one gets rated.
01 · Casting
Pick your lead
Every season opens with five people, and you produce one of them. The casting notes are honest.
Knows exactly what this is. Dangerous. Great.
Brandi Kessler, 27
First plane ride was Tuesday. Keep an eye on her.
Lacey Dunn, 22
02 · The choices
Make the call
Scene after scene puts a decision in front of you, and every option says what kind of producer you’re being. Soften a moment, push a fight, plant a story, or tell someone the truth.
- SOFT
- PUSH
- PLANT
- CUT
- HONEST
- OFF THE RECORD
03 · After every episode
The Edit Bay
Monday, a converted dentist’s office in Van Nuys. Theo has a rough cut, a bag of sunflower seeds and the network on speakerphone. Hero edit, villain edit, what goes in the promo. You make the cut.
Somebody in this house is getting the villain edit. Every season has one. If you don’t pick her, Margo will, and Margo picks by hair color.
Theo Nakamura, editor
04 · When she won’t say it
The frankenbite
Theo can build it. Tap fragments of tape onto the timeline, in order, and play back a line built from things she said at different times. It needs Drama and Network behind it. The lower Trust is, the likelier it backfires.
- Honestly?
- she
- had it
- coming.
05 · Thursday night
The ratings war
Every episode airs against the other network’s show, and the numbers come back either way. Five meters run the season.
- Ratings
- Drama
- Trust
- Network
- Conscience
Crestline just put Castaway Cove in our time slot, so America can also watch a man eat a beetle. We beat the beetle or we’re done.
The Heir, Episode 1
06 · The finale
Endings
Every season ends with Tess in one of four places, and every fate has more than one way to land. Then everyone you put on television gets a Where Are They Now.
- The Showrunner
- The Whistleblower
- The Scapegoat
- The Burnout
Kirsten Voss went back to dental hygiene in Folsom. She tells every patient she called it in week one. She did.
Where Are They Now · The Heir
Free to start on iPhone and iPad
The first season is on us
The Heir is free, all eight episodes. The later seasons are one-time in-app purchases. No subscription, no ads.
Season one · 2003
The Heir
Free
Eight episodes, five leads, every ending. Included with the download.
Season two · 2011
Riptide
$2.99
In-app purchase. The beach house, the hurricane and the reunion.
Season three · 2025
Sight Unseen
$2.99
In-app purchase. The sealed building, the Queue and the deposition.
Both seasons · $4.99Riptide and Sight Unseen in one purchase.
Coming soon to theApp Store
Prices shown in US dollars. The App Store shows the price in your currency. Purchases are handled by Apple and restore on any device signed in to the same Apple Account. Villain Edit depicts drinking, manipulation and adult situations.
Between episodes