‘So Much Joy’: How BravoCon Became the New Comic-Con
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On the morning of Friday, Nov. 3, as tens of thousands of fans from across the world packed into the Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the third annual BravoCon, the face of the network, Andy Cohen, took the stage for a Q&A moderated by Jeff Lewis. The panel set the tone for the rest of the weekend: Cohen talked about his favorite Bravo shows outside of the Housewives franchises, made announcements about the future of the network and Peacock, and excitedly answered questions from fans who’d spent a lot of their time and money to be in the presence of their favorite Bravolebrities for the next three days.
While most of the vibe was positive and fun — something Cohen and the rest of the Bravo staffers emphasized again, and again, and again throughout the weekend — one fan asked the Watch What Happens Live host what he thought about former Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel and the conversations she’s propelling concerning the ethics behind the scenes of Bravo reality TV shows.
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“As we can all see, Bravo and the shows that are on Bravo bring millions of people so much joy and so much happiness, which is why we’re all here — to have fun,” Cohen said. “I live in the joy that these shows bring people, and I think we all do, and I think that’s the place that I’m at.”
There’s no doubt that Bravo and its television shows bring insurmountable joy and happiness to the 30,000 fans who spent hundreds of dollars to attend the fan convention. Depending on the kind of passes they secured, fans could’ve spent $550 for a three-day general admission pass or $1,200 on a three-day VIP pass. And that doesn’t include travel costs as well as all of the food, drinks, merchandise, and add-on experiences offered at BravoCon.
Kelly Beem didn’t have to travel far to attend BravoCon. The 38-year-old is a Los Vegas resident, but her mom LuAnn Beem came into town from St. Louis, Missouri, so they could attend panels and hope to meet some of their Bravo favorites together. Kelly told Rolling Stone her mom is the one who got her into the network to begin with.
“I started watching it years and years ago and I really got hooked because it was women on TV who were finally talking about things that my friends and I were going through, and it was just kind of nice to see,” LuAnn Beem said.
For Kelly, Bravo and its fandom are a welcome relief to other stressors from the outside world.
“There’s so much division in the world right now and it’s just nice that us, mostly females, are here and we can come together,” Kelly Beem said. “Everyone’s been so respectful of each other, everyone is just going with the flow.”
This year has been a transformative one for Bravo and the way fans, viewers, and critics see the network. Bravo’s popularity skyrocketed with the widespread success of shows like Vanderpump Rules that, because of Scandoval, dominated the pop culture news cycle for months on end. Ratings on the network were also at an all-time high, with even more viewers tuning into Watch What Happens Live every week. However, Frankel has ignited industry-wide conversations about the TV network’s treatment of reality stars in light of the historic WGA and SAG strikes in Hollywood, and another former Real Housewives of New York star, Ramona Singer, was accused of racism in a recent Vanity Fair exposé, leading to her being disinvited from BravoCon.
“Every year’s a big year for Bravo,” Andy Cohen told Rolling Stone backstage at BravoCon. “We keep outdoing ourselves. I’ve been at Bravo for 19 years, next year’s my 20th year at Bravo, and I can’t believe the level of fandom. We talked years ago about the idea of doing a BravoCon with Top Chef and Project Runway and now here we are. I’m blown away.”
Charlotte Bunch, 34, told Rolling Stone she traveled from where she lives in Boise, Idaho, to Las Vegas for her first-ever BravoCon experience because she’s been watching the network since she was in high school. Bunch met up with friends from Tampa, Florida, and her sister from Portland, Oregon, for the weekend to immerse themselves in all things Bravo and, most importantly, to meet some of her favorite Bravolebrities up close and personal. Was it worth the cost? It sure was, she said, although she couldn’t justify spending the money to come back again.
“Everyone has been really gracious, sweet, and nice. I really like how accessible all of the stars are, especially for the cost of it, because you go to music festivals and they’re totally as expensive but you don’t have the direct access,” Bunch said. “It’s definitely an experience that I’ve loved having but that I don’t want again.”
Bravo has been a constant in Bunch’s life, she said. She finds comfort in the Real Housewives and Southern Charm because she’s been able to consistently use those shows as escapes for a large chunk of her life.
“It’s the thing I’ve watched from when I was 17 to 34, which is outrageous,” she said. “It’s outlandish, we know a lot of it is ridiculous, but it’s what you go to when you just want to watch TV and just not think about things and you want to think about someone else’s things. It’s, like, your detachment from your crazy. My crazy reality is not their crazy reality.”
It’s clear that Bravo fans unequivocally do rely on their favorite reality shows for joy, happiness, and entertainment while they endure their own hardships. Whether they’re struggling at work, experiencing grief, or just trying to navigate the annoyances and difficulties of day-to-day life, Bravo and its talent are oftentimes the antidote for people, providing endless distraction from their own lives. While reality stars’ lives serve as entertainment for fans and viewers, this can also come at the cost of exposing the details of their own lives and hardships.
So how do Bravo reality stars make sense of this dichotomy?
“It’s very difficult when your life is entertainment,” Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne told Rolling Stone. “Especially when it’s not fun.”
Erika is all too familiar with the struggles that can come from being in the public eye. In 2020, the reality star filed for divorce from her husband of 20 years, famed lawyer Thomas Girardi, when he was accused of stealing millions of dollars from his clients, including family members of the victims of a fatal 2018 plane crash. Girardi was accused of using the money to fund Erika’s career as a pop singer and the two were named in a lawsuit.
All of this played out on television during Erika’s darkest moments. So how does she make sense of providing other people with entertainment at the expense of her own plight?
“You just do,” she said. “This is not a job for everyone. It’s not a journey for everybody. You have to, in my opinion, think about what are the pros and cons [of being on TV] and weigh them. Nobody’s begging anybody to be on a reality TV show, certainly not Real Housewives.”
Last weekend, Bravo announced a two-part docuseries, Erika Jayne: Bet It All on Blonde, that will air in 2024 and follows Erika as she prepares to launch her Las Vegas music residency. It also documents how she’s dealt with the fallout of her divorce from Girardi and their legal woes. As she continues to use her life as fodder for other peoples’ enjoyment and interest on television, Erika explained she preferred filming the documentary to Real Housewives. She said she’s even open to continuing to film in the docuseries space.
“For me, having a [Las Vegas] residency was the biggest thing I’ve ever done and having it come after such a dark period in my life was a blessing. I thought that we should capture this,” she said. “It’s a really emotional, intimate journey to the stage. It does not look like Housewives. It’s something completely different. It’s my show, it’s a look into my life. I’m not in an ensemble. Housewives is entertainment and so is the docuseries, but you get to see someone a little bit differently in this format.”
For Mia Thornton of Real Housewives of Potomac, separating from her husband on camera hasn’t been easy but she hopes other people who relate to her experience will find comfort in watching her journey.
“Signing up to do reality TV, we signed up to be an open book. There’s somebody out there who’s going through the exact same thing that one of us is going through and I think it’s beautiful that people can relate to that and maybe we can help people get through, navigate, and show how we’re living our lives and parenting our children and going through divorces and separations. At least their husbands don’t do TMZ interviews,” she joked, referring to her ex, “But we’re all going through things. Everybody’s going through something and I think it’s beautiful that we have the opportunity to share that with the world.”
I have experiences I share with the world too and I think putting it on the platform and raising awareness will help people. I’m grateful that we can share our lives and help people through difficult times.
Charrisse Jackson-Jordan, another Potomac housewife, echoed Thornton’s sentiments, telling Rolling Stone that going through her divorce on screen made her “a stronger person.” Nneka Ihim, who’s new to the Potomac franchise, also said she grapples with putting her life out there for other peoples’ consumption by knowing she’ll potentially impact other people.
“I love this opportunity. You’ll see my storyline this season. I have experiences I share with the world too and I think putting it on the platform and raising awareness will help people,” she said. “I’m grateful that we can share our lives and help people through difficult times.”
Summer House’s Paige DeSorbo told Rolling Stone she doesn’t think there’s “one straight answer” to this conundrum. While she said it can be complicated, she finds gratification in knowing she’s helping reach audiences and fans who want to hear from her and who might be able to benefit from her advice or her experiences on screen.
“I think every career and every industry has its ups and its downs and has its perks and has its gives and takes,” DeSorbo said. “Yes, we’re putting our whole lives out there for people to judge. For me, the amount of messages I got from starting my podcast [Giggly Squad with Summer House’s Hannah Berner] have been overwhelming. I’m grateful that people even look to me to ask me questions. Whether it’s the best advice or not, I just feel very humbled and thankful that people even like me enough to ask me for advice.”
Showcasing hardship for the fans is also complicated for Danielle Cabral, who just finished filming “a really intense” season of Real Housewives of New Jersey.
“Making sense of it is difficult. A fan said to me yesterday, ‘It’s horrible for you but amazing for us,’ but that’s really the truth,” Danielle told Rolling Stone. “What we go through is hard and it’s for someone else’s enjoyment. How do you rationalize that? It’s hard.”
Danielle’s cast member Rachel Fuda agrees, saying, “There’s equal good and bad. It’s very hard to navigate but I love the moments we get with our family on the show… Is it stressful as hell? Yes it is. But seeing the fans, having those interactions, and seeing how much they love us and love our families feels so good to me.”
Dorinda Medley, a former cast member on Real Housewives of New York, told Rolling Stone she thinks “in order to be a great Housewife” you have to understand “you’re going to have a relationship with the audience.”
“I think part of the process is you have to be an open book, you have to be accepting of that, and as long as you’re authentic about it and honest about it and you kind of draw the audience in and bring them on a journey, you’ll be OK in the end. You really will,” Dorinda said. “For me, I just think it’s a learning curve. Is it always great? No. I’m a person that believes in the micro and the macro and I look at the macro as the way to weigh it out in the end, and I think there’s been so many more teachable moments affecting the fans. That’s real life.”
Like many other former RHONY housewives, Dorinda has filmed for Ultimate Girls Trip and she also has a podcast on SiriusXM called Make It Nice, a reference to one of her iconic lines on the show. According to Dorinda, fans call into her radio show and talk about their experiences they’ve seen Dorinda and others go through on the shows. It’s reaching people that helps Dorinda feel better about exposing her life on reality TV.
“When they see us make mistakes, it feels more OK, deep inside,” she said. “There wouldn’t be this much love in these rooms and this much commitment [from fans] otherwise. These people spend a fortune, they travel, they put themselves in these crowded situations, they wait in lines forever to see us. So what does that tell you? Is it worth it? Yes, it’s worth it.”
Jamie Cutburth, the Executive Vice President of Creative Partnerships at NBCUniversal, told Rolling Stone his team spent the last year preparing for BravoCon 2023. According to Cutburth, more than 13 returning sponsors wanted to come back to the fan convention on top of the other companies they were fielding requests from.
“Bravo fans are such fanatics about everything, we have to get every single detail absolutely perfect or they’re going to know otherwise,” Cutburth told Rolling Stone.
In the “It’s All Happening Room,” a shout-out to Vanderpump Rules’ Scheana Shay, fans were able to engage in immersive experiences. There was a Lays-sponsored Something About Her pop-up walk through where fans could grab a bite of a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup or a chocolate chip cookie, inspired by VPR’s Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney’s West Hollywood sandwich shop that’s set to open soon.
“Lays has always been a partner who wants to be inside the cultural zeitgeist with us and because Vanderpump Rules was an Emmy-nominated reality series they wanted to be a part of that cultural conversation,” Cutburth said. “It’s been an extremely popular activation because of all the people who want to experience Something About Her. You can hear fans talking about planning their day around standing in line to enter this pop-up.”
I think this is the best place in the world for these fans to be. This is what’s bringing them all together. This is their most amazing, happy place.
State Farm also sponsored a Summer House-themed pop-up where fans could stop by and make friendship bracelets (an ode to the popular trend brought on by Taylor Swift’s fandom) to trade with each other and their favorite Bravolebrities throughout the weekend. Thanks to Wayfair, fans could also take a number of photos inspired by iconic sets and landscapes in the Bravo universe, like Salt Lake City and Miami. Cutburth said the goal was to “create shareable moments for social” that fans can enjoy both in-person and online. Bravolebrities were also given the opportunity to set up their own booths and sell their merchandise to fans who were eager to spend their money, hoping to meet cast members in the process or even get a glimpse of them.
“I think this is the best place in the world for these fans to be,” Cutburth said. “This is what’s bringing them all together. This is their most amazing, happy place.”
In addition to the immersive brand activations for fans and the backstage press room where news outlets were able to interview Bravolebrities on a crammed red carpet, BravoCon also featured panels with different cast members focusing on different franchises as well as panels combining talent from different shows like “Housewife2Houswife: The New Wave of Wives” and “Battle of the Sexes.” Danny Pellegrino, who hosts the podcast “Everything Iconic” where he hilariously dissects reality TV and pop culture, interviewed the cast members from Real Housewives of Miami and Real Housewives of Orange County for two separate panels on the franchises. Pellegrino is a longtime member of the Bravo fan community; he co-authored Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval’s book of cocktail recipes Fancy AF Cocktails and hosted a panel with the VPR stars making cocktails at the first-ever BravoCon in New York City. He’s also interviewed countless Housewives and Bravolebrities over the years on his podcast, cementing himself and his commentary in their universe.
“Usually on my podcast, I will have a guest on for 45 minutes and you’re just sitting with one person, really getting into the meat and potatoes of it all. So on stage, I think it was hard to make sure you address each person and then also leave time and space for them to talk to each other as well,” Pellegrino told Rolling Stone.
As far as coming up with questions for the Housewives, Pellegrino said Bravo had questions on hand for moderators and also allowed him to add in whatever he felt was appropriate to ask and follow up about. Some fans took it upon themselves to bring up more controversial topics during the Q&A sessions, like when one fan asked about Frankel and her “reality reckoning” during a panel with Andy Cohen and when another asked about the recent allegations against Gary King (broken by Rolling Stone) during a Below Deck panel. Pellegrino said he wanted to address the more difficult issues himself as the panel moderator so he could respectfully allow cast members to discuss these heavier topics and also to not shy away from their challenges.
“With each panel I did, there were some heavier topics too that we had to address. For instance, on Orange County there was all this stuff in the news about Shannon Beador’s DUI, so we wanted to make sure we address that but then also you don’t want everything to just be too heavy. So it’s about balancing the tone of the panel,” he explained. “I felt strongly that we had to address the things that the audience wanted addressed in the panel before we got to audience questions because I thought it would be a much safer space for the women if I could address the things instead of the audience members asking them. As moderators, it’s better for us to address that on stage instead of ignoring it because someone’s going to ask and it’s going to be the elephant in the room.”
Pellegrino reached innumerable Bravo fans with his first book, New York Times best-seller How Do I Un-Remember This? since his podcast listeners and now readers follow his Bravo-related commentary. He recently published his second book of essays, The Jolliest Bunch: Unhinged Holiday Stories, and while he was on his Jolliest Bunch book tour he encountered Bravo fans across different cities. It’s a special connection, Pellegrino said, because so many Bravo fans find comfort and community in one another for being like-minded. So many members of the network’s fandom also relate to each other in how they lean on their favorite reality shows in times of personal struggle and hardship.
“I was in the hospital earlier this year and as you’re recovering from something, we find comfort in these shows and these people. It really is helpful,” Pellegrino said. “I think of some of the hardest times in my life and I’ve been able to turn on old episodes of Real Housewives of New York, Atlanta, or Potomac and feel a little bit better and more at ease.”
It can be complicated for some fans of these shows at a time when others are calling for accountability from the network. But Pellegrino doesn’t feel that way; he thinks these shows are “ever-evolving” and he also thinks that Bravo has demonstrated a history of learning from past errors.
“One of the things I think Bravo does a good job of is listening to the audience and trying to incorporate that feedback into the shows,” he said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s not quick enough for the audience, and sometimes it’s maybe too fast for the audience. But I do think that they try. Look at some of the other reality shows at other networks. I don’t always feel that they do that.”
VIP status at BravoCon allows you to not only meet superfans of the network who are willing to spend more than $1,200 for weekend passes, but also grants you priority seating at the packed panels as well as access into a private room that consists of shorter lines for food, alcohol, merchandise, and also includes photo opportunities with Bravolebrities.
John Oussaidene, 47, flew all the way from Paris, France, to attend his third BravoCon. Between his VIP pass, flights, hotel, and all other expenses, Oussaidene thinks he’ll spend more than 4,000 Euros on the weekend. “I stopped counting,” he said as he pointed to a $20 glass of wine.
When asked what brought him to BravoCon, Oussaidene told Rolling Stone, “Everything.”
“The Bravolebrities, the fun, and most importantly the people I meet here are worth it. I don’t regret spending anything,” he explained. “In 2011, I came to the United States for the holidays, switched on the TV, and saw Real Housewives of Orange County. I saw the girls and I said, ‘What is this? I love it,’ and it was my guilty pleasure. Now I love all of the shows, especially Potomac and Winter House.”
At a time when fandoms can be mostly relegated to online communities, BravoCon attendees appreciate the opportunity to gather together in real life and cultivate friendships with each other. Jill George from Indiana decided to travel to BravoCon solo, even though it meant spending her 60th birthday without her friends and family.
“We’re talking about the shows and the celebrities but this is really about the community and the people, these people,” George told Rolling Stone. “The people that you meet here are amazing. A lot of people who call into Radio Andy will say something like, ‘I had a really tough time with X,Y, and Z and Bravo really got me through it. I think that’s another throughline in this community: You’re not alone with things that you may be going through.”
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