It’s the Reality Tea Awards 2025, celebrating the best in reality TV from the past year! Today, we’re taking a look back at the best and most viral reality TV moments of the year. The moments that blew up on TikTok and Instagram. The moments that everyone, even people who don’t watch the show it came from, heard about. The most hilarious quotes that also left us wondering WTF just happened. Here are our nominees for Best Viral Reality TV Moment of the Year.
Nominee: “Still I rise”- Stacey Rusch, Real Housewives of Potomac
At her first Real Housewives of Potomac reunion, Stacey Rusch was in the hot seat. Wendy Osefo brought up allegations that Stacey’s “best friend”/love interest TJ Jones made. Before the reunion, TJ told Eddie Osefo that Stacey paid him to be her love interest.
Stacey denied the claims, though many of her co-stars were already convinced. When asked how she felt, Stacey said, “It’s horrible. I lost my best friend today.” Then, iconically, she added, “But still I rise.” Gizelle Bryant (and the viewers) couldn’t believe that Stacey just used this moment to quote Maya Angelou. But Stacey repeated, “Still I rise.” The quote went so viral that Stacey included it in her next tagline. And, frankly, she had the best tagline of the bunch!
Stacey also went viral this year for the resurfaced clips of her on QVC. Personally, I think about her describing a camel sweater every day. Her selling earrings by rattling off, “Talk about stones, talk about length, talk about drama, talk about COMFORT,” is pure poetry. It’s these viral moments that make Stacey a RHOP fan favorite despite the cast’s attempted takedown.
Nominee: Tom Sandoval and the dolls, The Traitors
In 2025, Tom Sandoval was finally able to go viral for reasons that had nothing to do with Scandoval. Instead, Tom was undeniably entertaining on The Traitors Season 3. Despite being pretty bad at the gameplay, Tom made it quite far on the competition series.
Tom had a lot of entertaining moments on the Peacock show. But none went as viral as the challenge where he had to sing the dolls’ backwards songs over the phone. Meanwhile, those on the other end of the line couldn’t help but comment on his singing. Sam Asghari, Britney Spears’ ex-husband, outright called him a terrible singer. Still, he successfully added money for the Faithfuls!
The moment was so iconic, Tom recreated it onstage at BravoCon. Some people also dressed as Tom in the challenge for Halloween. That’s when you know you’ve made it!
Nominee: Britani Bateman’s unicorn from Jared Osmond, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is such a special Real Housewives show, there are countless viral moments to choose from. I easily could’ve put Lisa Barlow’s allegations about “Soup Man” or Mary Cosby chastising Angie Katsanevas for making fun of her fart (sorry, the dog’s fart) here. But Britani Bateman’s unicorn has already reached iconic Real Housewives status, so it wins the nomination.
The unicorn was revealed during the RHOSLC cast’s already legendary boat trip. Apparently, Britani’s ex-fiance/best friend/who even knows Jared Osmond snuck the stuffed unicorn in her suitcase when he helped her pack. He also recorded a voice note, “Goodnight baby, you are loved.” Britani was so impressed that the man went to Build-A-Bear and did this. But the other Housewives were horrified.
It all culminated in a moment where, dressed in inflatable costumes, Bronwyn Newport and Meredith Marks appeared to throw the unicorn overboard. Alas, producers were actually the culprit! But Meredith still had a hilarious response when Britani confronted her about it.
Since the boat trip, the unicorn was displayed with pride at BravoCon. I wouldn’t be surprised if RHOSLC fans ran to Build-A-Bear to get their own. It certainly deserved to be honored in the Clubhouse with other iconic Bravo props.
Nominee: Adriana de Moura exposes Julia Lemigova’s alleged affair with a Haitian mortician, Real Housewives of Miami
How do you outdo a bombshell reveal that two Real Housewives of Miami castmates slept together? Somehow, Adriana de Moura found a way. It seemed like the biggest takeaway from RHOM Season 7 reunion would be Julia Lemigova’s shocking admission that she slept with Adriana on a cast trip. After all, this was the bombshell the cast teased for weeks. However, it was quickly overshadowed by another alleged affair.
After Julia exposed their tryst, Adriana decided to hold nothing back. In Part 2 of the reunion, she claimed that Julia also cheated with a Haitian mortician! She took him to the motel, had to pay for the motel, and had to give him a coffee maker as a gift!
In that moment, we were all Stephanie Shojaee and Lisa Hochstein hysterically laughing. We all wondered why Julia had to buy a coffee machine. Somehow, Adriana managed to outdo her viral RHOM reunion moment of the letter from Marysol’s liver. Let’s give her a mojito next season!
Winner: Mommy/mamacita, Love Island USA
Love Island USA Season 7 dominated the internet this summer. And one viral exchange did so especially. Sometimes, when you’re watching a show, a moment happens, and you know it will forever be how the season is remembered. Nic Vansteenberghe’s reaction when Huda Mustafa told him she had a child is that moment. I don’t know if there’s a better way to describe it than to just quote the exchange directly.
Huda: I have a secret to tell you … I’m a mommy.
Nic: Mommy? … Mamacita.
Huda: No, I’m a mommy.
Nic: Mom of what? A dog?
Huda: I have a daughter.
Nic: Like in real life? … Like a real baby?
Huda: Like a human child.
Nic: How old is he or she?
Huda: She’s four, she’s gonna be five.
Nic: No way!
The exchange dominated TikTok. Host Ariana Madix and guest star Megan Thee Stallion were amongst many who did a lipsync to it. Ultimately, lots of LI USA fans were disappointed by Season 7. But we’ll always have mommy/mamacita. There was simply no other choice for Best Viral Reality TV Moment of the Year.
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK OF OUR PICKS FOR BEST VIRAL REALITY TV MOMENT OF THE YEAR? WHAT MOMENTS WOULD YOU NOMINATE?
