You know it’s good TV when Mariah Carey is the most down-to-earth person on screen! Seriously, people — if you’re still not on the wild ride that is Mariah’s World, it’s time to get a clue. The Sunday, December 11, episode of everyone’s favorite pop star–centered docuseries was larger than life and chock full of diamond-covered drama. An unscripted show that features Mariah singing during testimonials while wearing lingerie? Eight episodes are just not enough.
Mariah Encourages Her Employees to Bring Their Children on Tour
The episode started off with a lively new character: Mary Ann Tatum, Mariah’s longtime backup singer. Mary Ann raved about her boss’ generosity in allowing the singer’s 6-year-old son to join them on tour, saying: “For her to allow me to do that is amazing.” Mariah revealed that she loves surrounding herself with her friends and their kids while on tour, saying, “We’re all single moms, and it’s great. The kids make it so much more fun.”
Chemistry Boils Between Mariah and Bryan Tanaka
Even though at the time of filming, Mariah was still engaged to her now ex-fiancé, James Packer, the camera definitely got a whiff of the brewing chemistry between the “Butterfly” singer and her longtime backup dancer. When Bryan Tanaka came to visit Mariah backstage, he said, “Congrats on your engagement.” Mariah then responded by insisting, “You gotta meet the twins.” Their rendezvous continued with Mariah flirtatiously offering the dancer a beer, implying that if he uses a straw, he’ll get more drunk. In a testimonial, Bryan admitted, “She’s always been supportive of me as a dancer … as a person.” When commenting on their familiar rapport, he said, “It’s natural. It’s what it’s always been.”
Mariah’s Employees Are Dropping Like Flies
Tensions seemed to be high among the employees of Mariah’s world tour. Her costume designer Jose revealed that as soon as Mariah’s manager, Stella Bulochnikov, arrived on the scene, people started losing their jobs. He confessed, “She started working with Mariah, and suddenly everyone left or got fired.” Mariah’s choreographer and creative director, Anthony Burrell, revealed, “Every day someone is gone. … This is like The Hunger Games.” Yikes.
Mariah Gives Insight to Her “Good Side”
In a somewhat bittersweet scene between Mariah and her makeup artist Kristofer Buckle, Mariah lamented about the origins of her infamous “good side.” The pop icon admitted that it came from working with an unnamed woman on a photo shoot, saying, “When I was 19 … she goes, ‘This is your good side. Only let people photograph you from your good side. Ever.’” Mariah nonchalantly continued, “So I stuck to it ’cause that was her job.”
Mariah Mentions That Her Fiancé Is Very Busy … Again
In a nearly identical moment to the one we witnessed in the previous episode, we got to see a very brief, nonspeaking appearance from Mariah’s now ex-fiancé, James. And similarly to the last episode, Mariah felt the need to explain how busy he is. After a quick shot of him visiting her on tour, she said, “My fiancé, James, it’s very nice of him to pop in. … He’s very busy. He travels constantly.” Well, if we didn’t know he was busy last week, now we really know!
The Most Low-Maintenance Person on This Tour Is Mariah
After an incredibly successful opening night of her tour in Glasgow, Scotland, Mariah found herself embroiled in a feud between Anthony and Mary Ann. Mary Ann lamented to her boss and friend, “Anthony refused to get on the bus with us.” Mariah defended her backup singer while doing one of her iconic lingerie-clad chaise-lounge testimonials, saying, “She’s a Leo, and she’s very strong.” While Mariah played nice to both parties, it didn’t exactly seem to smooth things over. Mary Ann slammed the dancer and creative director by saying, “He will never be a superstar.” An annoyed Stella ended up caught in the middle of it all, saying, “The most low-f–kin’-maintenance person on the whole tour is Mariah.” This TV show is everything.
Anthony’s Drama With Mary Ann Affects the Tour
Tension began to grow between Mariah and her lead choreographer, and she even broke the fourth wall during a confrontation, telling the dancer, “Don’t be saucy on camy.” Camy means camera, right?
Mariah wasn’t happy about the situation and complained to the camera, “When did I become everybody’s mommy?” It seemed like their tension was starting to affect their onstage chemistry when Anthony said, “For some reason, Mariah and I are off tonight. … I felt like I didn’t connect with her, like I always connect with her.”
Mariah Explains Who Christie Brinkley Is
By the end of the episode, it seemed as if the tour-bus drama had subsided, and we got a bit of a reprieve when seeing Mariah explain the origin of her expression “Elevator lighting!” The singer told an anecdote about model Christie Brinkley, saying, “We were in the elevator and she goes, ‘Elevator lighting.’” She then went on to explain to Us who Christie Brinkley is, saying, “Christie Brinkley, the supermodel of the ’80s, and then she was with Billy Joel.” Quick, someone edit Christie’s Wikipedia page!
Mary Ann Threatens Anthony With Violence!
Just when we thought things had smoothed over when Anthony and the dancers got their own tour bus, it was obvious that Mary Ann was still reeling from the drama. When Anthony leaned in to hug her, she brushed him off and said menacingly, “Get off me — I will hit you.” Oh, boy! Mariah intercepted, saying, “You should stay far away from her!” We still don’t know if we’re Team Mary Ann or Team Anthony, but we’re definitely Team Molly — Mariah’s perpetually terrified new assistant whose main mantra of the episode was, “Don’t be weird.” We’ve all been there, Molly. We’ve all been there.
OK. We’re seriously obsessed with this show and couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the sneak peek for next week’s episode, where it’s implied that Mariah is looking to obtain an endangered animal of some sort for her wedding?! We said it before, and we’ll say it again: Eight episodes is simply not enough.
Tell Us: Are you #TeamMaryAnn #TeamAnthony or #TeamMariah?
Mariah’s World airs on E! Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
