Welcome back to the second annual Reality Tea Awards! In this installment, we are naming the best reality TV stars from 2025. Overall, several non-scripted stars offered us some seriously iconic moments. Yet, as always, a handful of these personalities gave us more than others.
When you star on a reality television series, you literally only have one assignment: mentioning it all. If you do this in fun or raw ways, then you are what we’d consider a top-tier reality TV star. However, if you do this in a toxic manner, solely aiming to take down one of your costars with half-baked, life-ruining ideas, then you can leave. So, without further ado, let us now check out our four nominees, along with the winner of Reality Tea’s Best Reality TV Star of the Year Award for 2025!
Nominee: Robert Irwin
Robert Irwin trended in all the right ways this year. As the son of the late conservationist Steve “Crikey” Irwin, Robert has starred on several reality TV series before, with themes aimed at carrying on his father’s legacy. Likewise, Robert has also worked as a voice-over actor on many fun flicks. But once he brought his abs to Dancing with the Stars Season 34 in 2025, the world saw a grown-up version of Robert, and now, his star is on the rise.
During his first few appearances on DWTS, Robert offered several fun and wholesome performances. But once Robert danced a shirtless samba in his third week, everyone collectively lost their minds. Fans of all ages quickly jumped on the Robert bandwagon, making his ultimate win in Season 34 fairly predictable, albeit worthy. The world is now his oyster, and for that, we designate Robert as one of our Reality TV Star of the Year Award nominees.
Nominee: Victoria SanJuan
Victoria SanJuan started Below Deck Mediterranean Season 10 in the interior. But only a handful of episodes in, she is now working in the exterior department. These shifts happen sometimes. But V’s went so much deeper than just a position swap.
As V explained, she formerly dated a man named Bon, who tragically drowned. Following his death, working so close to the water’s edge was not necessarily something V desired. But when duty called for her this season, V bravely stepped up, and even though grief has come for her in waves this season, she continues to lean into her role with all that she has.
The Below Deck franchise is not necessarily known for its inspirational storylines. So, watching V candidly deal with trauma, while actively doing her best to just keep swimming, in every way possible, has created a nice change of pace for this series. Therefore, Victoria was an easy nominee for our Reality TV Star of the Year Award.
Nominee: Angela Oakley
Angela Oakley is a new star on Real Housewives of Atlanta. But already, she is quickly becoming the one to watch on this cast. This woman is classy and completely unafraid to say what she feels. And like many of the iconic RHOA alums who came before, her shade is next level. Meanwhile, her voice is so soothing and disarming that we immediately became her number one fan, although we realize she likely prefers her travel-sized one, since she is the “hottest bitch in the room.”
Angela came on like a quiet wrecking ball. She opened up early about her marriage and past struggles. She also sat back and listened to the drama all around, offering subtly shady observations that gave off veteran vibes. But as we all learned during her cast’s trip to Nashville, Angela is not the one to come after, ever.
Angela offered a lot. So we can easily designate her as one of our Reality TV Star of the Year Award nominees.
Nominee: Bronwyn Newport
The year 2025 marked Bronwyn Newport’s second season on RHOSLC. Her fashions were bold, per usual, but so was her openness about literally every aspect of her life, including her marriage, which she is currently unburdening herself of. While her entire cast deserves all the awards, Bronwyn herself takes the crown. This star is actually rich, wears entertaining outfits, is open, messy, and best of all, she supports many causes, specifically those aimed at helping marginalized communities across the globe.
But Bronwyn also approached filming this year from an honest angle. Yes, she lied in 2024 about a necklace her husband gave her. And perhaps, this same husband, whom Bronwyn openly tried to appease with talks of an open marriage, allegedly farts while cheating on her, maybe. But either way, Bronwyn remains a campy, beautiful person who deserves a nod as one of our top Reality TV Stars of the Year.
Winner: Ryan Serhant
Season 2 of Owning Manhattan dropped in the final quarter of 2025. Within, Ryan Serhant and his SERHANT agents have once again broken the mold for real-estate-based reality television series. However, after watching all eight episodes of this recent drop, one thing is abundantly clear. Ryan, hands down, deserves our award as the top Reality TV Star of 2025.
This season, Ryan leaned fully into his authentic era, and that genuinely resonated with his audiences. He wants people to like him, “and that’s my weakness,” he shared. But after watching Ryan douse internal fires while accepting his role as a boss over a friend, we can easily say, this is not a weakness at all. Instead, it is his strength.
People have always liked Ryan. But following Season 2, they also further respect everything he is trying to do, not just in real estate, but for his agents, his family, and for us, the lovers of all things reality TV.
TELL US – WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE 2025 REALITY TELEVISION STAR?
