EDGE Interview: 'House of Heat's' Sumner & Koaty Blayne Get Real

"I really wanted 'Real World,'" explained producer Amber Mazzola about her TUBI reality show "House of Heat" in an interview for Reality Blurred. "Like old school reality is really what I was looking for, and the network was on board with that."

Her series, which made its debut in June, resembles that pioneering reality show. A group of strangers are sequestered in a house for nine weeks in something akin to a social experiment, with cameras rolling continuously. Except, "House of Heat" would never been made on television even five years ago, due to the fact that its participants aren't young people pursuing entertainment careers, but content providers for OnlyFans and its online peers. The show, as Reality Blurred founder Andy Dehnart points out, is not explicit, except in its language. It is sex-positive in tone, though there has been an in-house divide between those who do explicit content and those who do not.

Amongst its nine participants (five men, four women) are Sumner Blayne and Koaty Blayne, a gay couple who have been producing OnlyFans content for five years and are said to make five figures a month doing it. Sumner and Koaty raised eyebrows on the show when they were planning to film a three-way in the house, which would have broken the house rule of not filming explicit content there; but the three-way didn't work out and there was no need for the producers to intervene to stop it. That is only part of the show's drama over the ten episodes, which can be viewed on Tubi. Watch the first episode at this link.

EDGE spoke to the personable and most sexy Sumner and Koaty about their experiences as OnlyFans creators and participant on "House of Heat."

EDGE: Please introduce yourselves.

Koaty Blayne: My name is Koaty Blayne. We produce adult content and are on almost every platform. I am originally from Pennsylvania, and moved to LA when I met this one.

Sumner Blayne: I am Sumner Blayne, the other half, and I am a full-time adult content creator and porn star.

EDGE: What made you want to create an OnlyFans page?

Koaty Blayne: It's a conversation that Sumner brought up to me when we first started dating. He said he always wanted to try it, and I said, "Me, too." I didn't want to do it alone, so we were each other's comfort blanket going into it. We started in 2019, and, over time, it became easier. Now, I can't imagine not doing it.

Sumner Blayne: It started out as a side hustle. We both still had full-time jobs, but it was something I wanted to try and make a little extra money. It was still new and taboo, so having each other was great.

EDGE: Tell us about "House of Heat."

Koaty Blayne: When the idea came to us, we thought it was really awesome because it was for people who make adult content. No one really advertises people who do this kind of content, and you have to make yourself visible on other platforms. We considered it another way to get our name out there and promote our brand. The idea of living in a house with a bunch of people who are in the same industry and the same genre of work was great because we wanted to learn from others. That was our main focus going into it. We never had our eyes set on doing a TV show, let alone a reality show. We definitely learned a lot throughout the show, and it was cool to live with girls who do it. We don't know a lot of women in the industry because the gays and the straight girls are very separate. I don't think we knew any female creators until we moved in. It was definitely a learning experience, and we took a lot from it and are still utilizing some of the stuff we learned in the house.

EDGE: You developed relationships with people pretty quickly. Who did you connect with the most?

Koaty Blayne: It definitely fluctuates throughout the season. We've been together five years, and we're engaged, so it was definitely an eye-opening experience to live with a bunch of people you don't know, especially when you're living in close quarters 24/7 for eight-plus weeks. You love someone one week, and then the next week they annoy you, and it fluctuates. We still have conversations with many of our housemates.

Sumner Blayne: You see the relationships go up and down. You'll have to tune in to see who we like and dislike throughout each week.

Koaty Blayne: Honestly, every episode changes, and ever since we left the house, they are still changing.

EDGE: There seems to be a lot of drama in the house, and there's the mental health aspect, too. How are you handling the drama and taking care of your mental health?

Koaty Blayne: We always said we had the upper hand because we don't know if we could have done this alone. When stuff would happen, we'd be able to go back and talk to each other and be each other's therapists. We were lucky to have that because if we had an issue, we could check in and see how we felt about it. Again, we were lucky that we had that safety net during the show. We always advocate for therapy, and make mental health care a top priority.

Sumner Blayne: We communicated extensively about our boundaries while on the show. We both wanted to stay true to our values and be authentic while maintaining some sense of privacy. I believe that helped going into it, but once you're there, you never know what will happen.

EDGE: What has the show taught you professionally and personally?

Sumner Blayne: The show taught me that we actually work hard. I always thought we did, but the show also kind of confirmed that for us. We are on a lot more platforms than some of the other creators in the house. It confirmed for us that we are doing a lot. The other housemates told us that we do a lot, too.

Koaty Blayne: We thought we were going to come in as novices, but we were actually probably the most experienced in the house.

Sumner Blayne: We are not novices. We've been doing this for five years, but there were definitely housemates who were greener than us.

Koaty Blayne: I think the biggest thing we learned is the females run their pages differently than ours. It gave us an opportunity to try out some of the stuff that they were doing and see if it worked for us. The gay community expects their pages to be a certain way, run by subscriptions, whereas the girls have free pages and sell their videos individually. We tested it out, which you will see in one of the episodes, and it worked.

EDGE: One could argue that being a content creator on OnlyFans is risky, especially regarding future endeavors. How would you respond to that?

Sumner Blayne: I am not worried about it taking away any opportunities from me.

Koaty Blayne: I'm a structural engineer, and I still have that career. I've kept it, and it hasn't interfered with it at all. I'm still getting high marks in my evaluations and still completing all my work. Has the content creation become more of a priority than that job because it's making more money? 100%.

EDGE: How do you maintain and protect your relationship?

Sumner Blayne: Communication and talking about our boundaries and then setting time outside of all this to nurture our relationship. Our top priority is nurturing our relationship. I don't think it would've worked if we hadn't done that.

Koaty Blayne: For the first couple of years it was just us. We didn't collaborate. We built a foundation in our relationship and let it expand and grow organically when ready. We never forced anything upon each other. It is all about having those tough conversations and checking in with each other. And because of all that, we learned to do that better over the years.

EDGE: What is the hope for appearing on "House of Heat?"

Sumner Blayne: I wanted people to see and get a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the dedication it takes to be in this industry. The show gives you a glimpse of the day-to-day challenges and triumphs we all face as we strive to become adult content creators. I want to help educate and demystify things for others.

From a personal standpoint, I want people to see the genuine love and connection that we share, and that behind all the content we make, a meaningful connection drives us.

Koaty Blayne: When you're in this industry and you meet people in social settings and tell them you do, they always ask, "Do you have a real job?" This is a real job, and I know that I also have an engineering job, but I can say that my content-creating job is way more stressful. We put a lot of money and more hours into creating than I do with my day job.

For more on Sumner Blayne and Koaty Blayne, visit their Instagram page.