The Hills is one of the highest-rated "reality" shows out there, having been spawned by MTV as a spinoff of Laguna Beach in Summer 2006.
Following the life of one of Laguna Beach's principal stars, Lauren Conrad, The Hills began as a coming-of-age, sort-of-staged drama that focused mostly on the career ambitions of twenty-somethings in L.A., but devolved (or progressed, depending on your point of view) into a maddeningly addictive mess of clubbing, backstabbing drama and Valley Girl speak.
In two-plus years, The Hills has somehow made bona fide celebrities out of Lauren Conrad, pals Audrina Patridge and Whitney Port, and most notoriously, LC's former BFF Heidi Montag and her fiance Spencer Pratt. Heidi's feud with Lauren has provided much of the drama in the show's history, with she and Spencer basically starring on their own half of the show for two seasons.
Recently, it has been rumored that Whitney Port will be given her own spin-off called The City.