From Denial to Obsession: The 7 Stages of Getting Into a Celebrity Saga or Phenomenon

Zach Bryan and Brianna LaPaglia Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

From the Brianna Chickenfry and Zach Bryan saga popping up out of nowhere to the sudden, relentless obsession with The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives, these days there's a lot to keep up with in pop culture.

Back in the day, there were a finite number of celebrities to get invested in: mostly Hollywood actors, pop stars and supermodels, plus a bunch of famous names from soaps, dramas and talk shows. Sure, new faces would pop up, some would stick around and some would quickly fade into obscurity. But, if you were interested in this stuff, it was easy enough to keep on top of it all, perhaps even while holding down a job and spending time with your loved ones.

Now, there are simply too many famous people and too many TV shows — not to mention all the YouTubers and TikTok stars and podcasts to keep up with! When there's not just one new Love Is Blind line-up to learn the names of but multiple global variants, something has to give.

Watching the shows is one thing, but these days their stars are also available to fans in ways they never were before, posting constantly on social media so that you get FOMO if you don't know what they had for breakfast — and that's all alongside the relentless commentary and discourse from fans and followers too. Overwhelming much?

Katie Thurston and Kim Kardashian are among the celebrities who can't stop watching Love Is Blind. The Kardashians star revealed in March 2020 that her sister Kendall Jenner and pal La La Anthony were responsible for her tuning in for season 1. "Alright @KendallJenner and @lala got me to watch Love Is Blind and I'm […]

Of course, this is why you need Us help you niche down into the celebrity phenomena that gets you most excited, as well as keeping you gossip-literate enough to make the right jokes at the office, school drop-off or salon.

By now, we're familiar with the rollercoaster of getting into, and back out of, a celebrity story, new show or craze. But it can be a wild ride…

Stage 1: Blissful Ignorance

You're busy, and maybe you're spending your evenings rewatching Gilmore Girls for the fourth time, enjoying the comforting familiarity it brings alongside life's ups and downs. You don't have the capacity to get into something new right now so, if someone mentions a hot show or story in passing, it goes straight over your head.

Stage 2: Smug Denial

OK, so now you've clocked that everybody else seems to be into, what was it now, The Real Trad Wives Of Chicken Shop Farm? But you don't care. It sounds lame, it's probably just a TikTok thing and you don't have time for it. This too shall pass.

Mickey Bernal/Getty Images Zach Bryan has faced a few public controversies since blowing up with the release of his album American Heartbreak. Bryan gained a following after he began releasing his own music online in 2017. He released two albums before 2022's American Heartbreak, his first record with a major label, skyrocketed him to the […]

Stage 3: Classic FOMO

The cool, switched-on people you follow on Instagram are sharing memes that you don't understand. THE COOL PEOPLE ARE SHARING MEMES THAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. You're starting to feel seriously past it here. Maybe you should dip in? Just for the social currency?

Stage 4: Blind Panic

Oh no, you've left it too late! Now even your parents are talking about Rihanna Chickennugget's breakup and you're totally confused, it's like Brat Summer all over again. Yeah, you still have Gilmore Girls on in the background but you're not really paying attention, you're frantically scrolling, desperately trying to catch up with this thing that everybody else got invested in, like, nine days ago. If your partner or kids interrupt, you yell "Leave me alone! I'm busy!" and they think it's work-related, but your actual job would never stress you out this much. Aaargh!

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Stage 5: Healthy Interest

Deep breath. Thanks to Us doing a handy explainer, you're down with all the facts and you feel fluent enough in this show/influencer/phenomenon to even share a few choice memes yourself with a self-deprecating "late to the party!" caption. You're back in the cool gang, phew. It's just a shame it's starting to impact your sleep.

Brianna "Chickenfry" LaPaglia made her return to the "BFFs" podcast following her public split from Zach Bryan — and dedicated the episode to "anyone else that's been emotionally abused" in a relationship. "The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life dealing with the abuse from this dude," LaPaglia, 25, […]

Stage 6: Deep Obsession

You've gone forensic now and there's no going back. You're googling the backstories of not just the people involved but their relatives and exes too and your appetite for more is insatiable. Is there a podcast or a newsletter dissecting this in the detail you need? Maybe you should start one?

Stage 7: Inevitable Fatigue

And just like that, you're over it. Anyone for Gilmore Girls?

Brianna "Chickenfry" LaPaglia Zach Bryan