The Real Housewives Are Managing Their Storylines More than Ever and It’s Killing the Franchise
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A good reality show is like good plastic surgery: You know it’s fake, but you don’t want to be able to tell that it’s fake. That’s becoming increasingly difficult, as viewers and talent are pretty keenly aware of how the proverbial sausage is made. Viewers know to approach certain storylines with some skepticism, as they understand how much drama is heightened by producers, and more and more, cast members visualize what might make for good TV and play up their own drama accordingly. The latter is known among Bravo fans as “self-producing,” and it’s become a problem in the last few months on The Real Housewives.
A few weeks ago, Real Housewives of Potomac fans were rocked after Robyn Dixon took to Patreon to explain away rumors that her now-husband Juan had cheated. The week before, Dixon’s castmate Karen Huger had brought up the cheating rumors on camera. Robyn acted shocked, laughed off the accusations (even though it wasn’t exactly out of character—their first marriage ended because Juan cheated) and called Juan, who denied the rumors on speakerphone. But behind her podcast’s paywall, Dixon told paid subscribers that, in fact, she knew all about a woman Juan was flirting with and whose hotel room he’d once paid for. That still might not be the truth, but at least she acknowledged the rumors (for a price, obviously).
Producers were not aware that Robyn knew all along, and Andy Cohen called her out on Watch What Happens Live! for deliberately saving juicy intel from her personal life for her paid podcast subscription. Fans were pissed, too. “She chose to not show it on the show and share the tea on her podcast instead? Demote her ass immediately,” wrote one Redditor in r/BravoRealHousewives, a subreddit with 267,000 members.
They have a right to be upset. We might know that some parts of reality TV are produced: meetups are orchestrated, entire supposed friend groups are really more just coworkers obligated to hang out with one another, but the drama is supposed to be real…ish. This is the social contract of reality TV! You signed up for this. Lying on camera to make yourself look better and hiding your skeletons cheapens the entire experience, because then, what are we even watching? If Jen Shah can get arrested on camera, Robyn Dixon can handle a cheating allegation. Many a Housewife has done it before.
This kind of behavior also pisses off the cast members who do bare it all—again, rightfully so. Candiace Dillard Bassett, one of Dixon’s castmates on RHOP, wrote on Twitter: “There is an expectation that - doing no harm - we show up to this platform as our authentic selves.” She added that an omission like this, “tarnishes the integrity of the premise of our show.” It’s like when you have that coworker who slacks off while you do all your work, only your work is revealing salacious details about your life. Yes, I realize we're talking about authenticity and integrity in discussing the Real Housewives, but is it so wrong to want at least the pretense of realness?
Carole Radziwill, who was on seasons 5-10 of The Real Housewives of New York City, dealt with her share of castmates who weren’t forthcoming. “Of course, some women didn’t show the messier parts of their life,” she says. “It’s reasonable, but yes, sometimes frustrating to the rest of the cast. In any event, it usually came out, even if it took several seasons.”
Self-producing is like walking a tightrope, because just as playing coy can break trust with fans, so can saying too much. We saw this on the past season of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, where viewers got a snoozer of a multi-episode arc about the black eye Heather Gay sustained while on a girls’ trip to San Diego. What should have been resolved (or at least, explained) in one sentence was dragged out for multiple episodes because Heather kept changing her story, and in the end, we still don’t know what happened.
Because the black eye was played up for the cameras as this will-she-won’t-she mystery, it just became a huge let-down. Kaya Wilson and Aaron Marcellus of the Bravo! We’re Black podcast found it annoying: “You’re not only lying to our face and trying to outsmart us, but you’re also contradicting yourself at the same time.”
Despite Dixon’s lie by omission, The Real Housewives of Potomac still had a dramatic, exciting season—not because of her, but because the other women on the cast brought plenty of drama (and we thank you for your service). The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, on the other hand, couldn’t even be saved by Jen Shah facing federal charges during filming. So much air time was dedicated to Heather’s nothingburger story, so late in the season, that it ended on an anticlimactic note.
While some have called for Gay and Dixon to be downgraded from full-time cast, it’s unclear if they’ll face repercussions from the network.
“I don't believe the contracts explicitly say you cannot monetize things that happened, or are happening in your life, on another platform,” Radziwill says. “Many women write books while they are on the show, and generally speaking, you are not required by contract to spill your own secrets.”
And while fans may feel entitled to watch every piece of a Housewife’s dirty laundry play out on their screens, Radziwill doesn’t think it’s a big deal to directly monetize their own drama—especially since, compared to scripted TV, the cast doesn’t make that much. “If women want to make money on a side hustle I don’t see the issue. It’s capitalism and here’s the rule: Get that coin, ladies!”
Viewers may not be happy, but I don’t think the answer is to immediately boot Housewives caught self-producing off the show—the answer is to hold their feet to the fire. I imagine next season during filming it will come up. She and Gizelle will have to be transparent about their personal lives. And when Housewives are doing too much to try to spin a story, production needs to be better about nipping it in the bud.
In the age of TikToks and subreddits and podcasts, we’ll never be able to go back to the days when we’d watch reality TV in a vacuum, cut off from outside knowledge about the truth about the talent’s lives. But if Housewives want to keep their jobs (and maybe more importantly, their fans), they’re going to have to stop trying to put everything through a filter.
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