A long line snakes across the pink-carpeted floor as around a hundred people queue up for a split-second selfie with the four women from the franchise who are appearing today: Lisa Barlow (from Real Housewives of Salt Lake City), Ashley Darby (Potomac), Sutton Stracke (Beverly Hills), and Jessel Taank (New York).
“It’s not just my hobby, it’s my life,” one of the people queuing up, Emily Buttifant, 32, tells the . Her friend, Rachel White, 32, explains that they watch around seven of the 40 different Real Housewives series currently filmed in cities across the world, which often run to 20-plus 52-minute episodes each season: “It’s like a full-time job and we’re very committed! We love the realness of it, getting to know all the cast, then obviously the drama – we’re hooked.”
Elsewhere in the venue, there is an exhibition hosting artefacts from some of the different iterations of the series. A pink, glittery facial roller, a plate of cookies and a pair of leather trousers are all encased in glass boxes, as if they were relics from Tutankhamun’s tomb. To a non-viewer, they won’t have any particular meaning – they are actually props from famously explosive scenes on the show – but to the Real Housewives fandom, the cultural context of these pieces makes them lore: they are everything. The guests are in peals of laughter at seeing the objects in real life, and snap away on their phones, taking photos to post to their social media.
For outsiders looking into the Real Housewives phenomenon: its appeal can seem beyond comprehension. Critics have attacked the show as being lowest-common-denominator TV, with Gloria Steinem claiming that the series “present women as rich, pampered, dependent and hateful towards each other”, and The New Feminist alleging that “the show undermines the great strides for female empowerment being made elsewhere in the public arena”.
More seriously, two separate lawsuits have been filed against Bravo, the US cable network that created the franchise, by former cast members Caroline Manzo and Leah McSweeney alleging mistreatment. While both cases are still pending, Bravo and Real Housewives executive producer Andy Cohen have denied all claims. A spokesperson for Bravo tells the that they are unable to comment further due to ongoing litigation, but referred back to their previous statement of denial, which included the point: “We are always improving upon our policies and procedures including stricter guidelines on alcohol consumption and direction on when to intervene to maintain safety of cast and crew, increased psychological support, enhanced workplace trainings, and a requirement to provide cast and crew with a direct line to NBCUniversal to raise concerns.”
While the legal complexities continue – at the time of writing, a judge is deciding whether McSweeney’s case will go to trial – it is debatable whether this will have an impact on the leagues of adoring Real Housewives fans across the world, to whom the franchise represents something more than a TV show. Its devotees include everyone from Rihanna (it’s her favourite obsession, the singer says, after her children) to Tilda Swinton, Jon Hamm, and Michelle Obama.
The Real Housewives origin story
The franchise began almost 20 years ago on Bravo as 2006’s The Real Housewives of Orange County, a reality TV show riff on the popular primetime drama of that time, Desperate Housewives. A year later, a show with the working title Manhattan Moms – focused on similar group of older socialite women in New York – was taken under the same umbrella and became The Real Housewives of New York City, before further spin-offs in Atlanta (2008), New Jersey (2008) and Washington DC (2009) were launched. There are currently 11 different US cities hosting the Real Housewives series, and 29 overseas iterations – from the Real Housewives of Athens to Melbourne, Dubai and Budapest.
