Why Did 'The Girls Next Door' End? Here's the Truth
Updated June 17 2022, 11:13 a.m. ET
Kendra, Bridget, Hugh, and Holly from 'The Girls Next Door.'
For six seasons starting in 2005, the edgy reality TV show The Girls Next Door had a chokehold on just about everyone. The show focused on the luxuriously lavish lifestyle of Hugh Hefner and the beautiful Playboy bunnies that spent their time living life at his coveted Playboy mansion.
The first five seasons feature Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson, and Bridget Marquardt as the blonde beauties who were willing to travel to California to live out "the dream" of becoming nude models with rising fame and notoriety –– and dating Hugh behind closed doors.
Karissa and Kristina Shannon, Hugh Hefner, and Crystal Harris.
Hugh's new set of girlfriends, Crystal Harris and identical twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon, ended up taking the place of the original trio in the sixth and final season of the show. What exactly happened on this show that caused it to get canceled, and what are the former bunnies up to now?
Holly, Bridget, and Kendra from 'The Girls Next Door.'
Why did 'The Girls Next Door' end?
There’s a lot to be said about the experiences of the young women who once lived in the Playboy mansion with Hugh before his passing in 2017. Plenty of candid confessions and brutal pieces of honesty have been released to the public, painting the Playboy mansion in a much darker light than the world realized at the time. Is that why the show came to an end?
It turns out E! simply canceled the show in an attempt to essentially wipe all Playboy-related content from its network and programming. The network was happy to keep other reality TV shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians going, but no longer wanted to be associated with Playboy in any capacity.
Holly, Hugh, Bridget, and Kendra.
What are the girls from 'The Girls Next Door' doing now?
After the show came to an end, Holly penned a 2015 memoir called Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny. She’s also posted about her personal experiences in the house on YouTube and TikTok, letting the world know that she isn’t fond of most of those memories.
According to Page Six, Holly described her time in the mansion as being very "cult-like" since she felt she and the other girls were being gaslit in a toxic atmosphere.
Kendra dove deeper into the world of reality television, starring in shows such as Kendra on Top, Celebrity Wife Swap, and Dancing With the Stars. Bridget has been busy hosting a popular podcast called Ghost Magnet With Bridget Marquardt since 2019.
Crystal turned her time and attention to design, creating a swimwear collection in 2012. She also teamed up with Rhonda Shear to co-design a collection of loungewear and athleisure. Twins Karissa and Kristina have been the stars of multiple pornographic movies and currently run a salon together in Beverly Hills called GLAM.
Holly and Kendra were in 'Secrets of Playboy.'
Holly and Kendra both participated in the A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy. In it, they shared their experinces with Hugh at the Playboy Mansion., And once again, Kendra spoke of the toxic atmosphere she experienced, which she was able to see more clearly once she left the mansion and The Girls Next Door show. Kendra, on the other hand, is absent from the docuseries.
Drama between Holly and Kendra sparked up after the show ended, with both women publicly speaking about each other to the press for several years.
Since it doesn’t seem that the girls of The Girls Next Door are necessarily on the same page these days, it’s unlikely there will be any sort of reunion special anytime soon. And that's probably for the best.