Why 'The Hills' won't change

Lauren Conrad, Heidi Montag, and Spencer Pratt have all become famous because of MTV's "The Hills," but don't expect the trio's celebrity to become a plotline when the hit reality show returns in August.

While critics have complained that "The Hills" is disingenuous because it ignores the biggest reality about its cast - their fame - MTV's new programming head Tony DiSanto doesn't see it that way. And he has no intention of changing the formula that has made "The Hills" the first anchor show of his regime.

"The show purposely leaves out the fame life and leaves in the non-fame life," DiSanto said. "It's not a documentary about Lauren who is a star because she's on a show called 'The Hills.' "

DiSanto said closing the walls around the cast's fame becomes the yin to the yang of audiences reading about them in the gossip pages. From his point of view, those two factors combine to create a wider swath of interest.

But even DiSanto concedes that the cast's fame is taking years off the show's life.

"The bigger 'The Hills' becomes, the bigger the talent becomes, which makes the non-fame part of their world smaller, so it becomes more a challenge to shoot the show," said DiSanto.