The Real Housewives

The Real Housewives is an American media franchise that consists of several reality television series broadcast on Bravo. The shows document the lives of several affluent housewives residing in varying regions throughout the United States. The first series, The Real Housewives of Orange County, premiered on March 21, 2006; its success resulted in spin-off series located in New York City, Atlanta, New Jersey, D.C., Beverly Hills, Miami, Potomac, Dallas and Salt Lake City. The subsequent installments have proven similarly successful, and have resulted in numerous spin-off series of their own. International versions are also broadcast by several television channels worldwide.

Conception
The Real Housewives was first announced as one of six reality television series ordered by the American television channel Bravo in May 2005. It was inspired by scripted soap operas Desperate Housewives and Peyton Place, and would document the lives of upper-class women who "lead glamorous lives in a picturesque Southern California gated community where the average home has a $1.6 million price tag and residents include CEOs and retired professional athletes." The series was announced as The Real Housewives of Orange County in January 2006, and premiered on March 21 of the same year.

In September 2007, Bravo started the production for the series Manhattan Moms, which would "follow an eclectic group of Gotham socialites and their families." The series was later retitled as The Real Housewives of New York City in January 2008, becoming the first spin-off from The Real Housewives franchise. It premiered on March 4, 2008. The second spin-off The Real Housewives of Atlanta was announced in June, and premiered on October 7. The third spin-off The Real Housewives of New Jersey was mentioned in May 2008 before the confirmation of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. It premiered afterwards on May 12, 2009. The Real Housewives of D.C. was announced in October 2009. It premiered on August 5, 2010 and ended on October 21, 2010 after one season. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was announced in March 2010 and premiered on October 14, 2010. In March 2010, Bravo ordered a series titled Miami Social Club, which would serve as a reconstruction of the series Miami Social. The series was later re-titled to The Real Housewives of Miami. It premiered on February 22, 2011 and ended on November 4, 2013 after three seasons.

In November 2015, Bravo announced two new The Real Housewives series, The Real Housewives of Potomac and The Real Housewives of Dallas. Prior to being announced, The Real Housewives of Potomac was initially titled Potomac Ensemble during its early production. It premiered on January 17, 2016. While The Real Housewives of Dallas had originally been titled Ladies of Dallas during its early production, a potential spin-off series to Ladies of London. The series premiered on April 11, 2016. In November 2019, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City was announced.

Future
On December 2, 2016, executive producer of Bravo's The Real Housewives series Andy Cohen spoke on the future of the franchise, saying if there were to be a new installment to the franchise that it could be set in Nashville, Tennessee. Cohen also stated that an All Star edition would serve as an end-goal for the franchise when ratings begin to drop. He added that it would likely feature eight housewives with "big personalities" from each series on an island together. Later in December 2016, during an interview with Harry Connick Jr., Cohen stated that they look for cities with strong personalities, and agreed that New Orleans fits that criterion.

Criticism
The reality series is critiqued as promoting consumerism through programming. It is also seen as perpetuating gender stereotypes by highlighting women as shoppers more so than career women. Their lavish lifestyles have also contributed to the misconception that financial wealth equals happiness. Feminist leader Gloria Steinem has vociferously criticised the "Housewives" franchise for "presenting women as rich, pampered, dependent and hateful towards each other." Steinem summed up her dislike of the show in 2013, "It is women, all dressed up and inflated and plastic surgeried and false bosomed and incredible amount of money spent, not getting along with each other. Fighting with each other. It is a minstrel show for women. I don't believe it, I have to say. I feel like it's manufactured, that the fights between them are manufactured and they're supposed to go after each other in a kind of conflicting way."

The New York Times ran an article in October 2019 criticising how the casts of the different Housewives franchises are "segregated" by skin color. Author Tracie Egan Morrissey pointed to Potomac and Atlanta for their almost entirely African American casts, while the other iterations (Beverly Hills, Orange County, Dallas, New York, and New Jersey) are overwhelmingly white and have featured few women of color. Real Housewives of New York has never featured a woman of color as a "Housewife", while the addition of Kary Brittingham to Dallas in 2019 marked the show's first non-white cast member. Beverly Hills, with the exception of Season 4's Joyce Giraud, featured "a racially homogeneous cast throughout its run", until the addition of Garcelle Beauvais, also in 2019.

Appearances on The Apprentice
The Real Housewives franchise is closely associated with The Apprentice series. Bravo, of which The Real Housewives airs, is property of NBCUniversal.

Syndication
The first four series entered weekday broadcast syndication in the majority of United States markets on September 13, 2010, with episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County. The Real Housewives of Atlanta started airing episodes in the syndicated time slot on October 25, 2010; The Real Housewives of New York City on November 29, 2010; and The Real Housewives of New Jersey on January 17, 2011. More episodes of Orange County and an encore of Atlanta finished off the season.

Game
In July 2012, Bravo released a social networking video game version of The Real Housewives of New York City titled Real Housewives: The Game. The game, now discontinued, was accessed as a Facebook application. Every week, after a new episode aired on TV, a new story was available on the game.

Parodies
Since the conception of the series, The Real Housewives franchise has been parodied in television, film, theatre and online media.
 * In 2009, The unReal Housewives of Kansas City began airing online on May 13, 2009, and went on to air a total of seven episodes. The online series was directed by Jon Davis, and starred Michelle Davidson, Meagan Flynn, Erin McGrane, Tasha Smith and Jennifer Plas. Davidson, Flynn and Plas also served as writers for the series.
 * From 2009 to 2012, a sketch titled The Real Housewives of Late Night aired as a sketch on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The sketch featured the men dressing up as their wives in a parodied version on The Real Housewives franchise.
 * The 30 Rock episodes "Queen of Jordan " and "Queen of Jordan 2: Mystery of the Phantom Pooper" were done in the style of a fictional reality show called Queen of Jordan which parodied several personalities and events of The Real Housewives franchise, particularly The Real Housewives of New Jersey. The episode "Idiots Are People Three!" also featured Denise Richards parodying LuAnn de Lessep's song "Chic, C'est La Vie" as "Ja'dore La Piscine".
 * The Real Housewives of South Boston is a YouTube parody series created by Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs in October 2011.
 * In 2009, Amy Phillips began impersonating stars from Bravo and many other celebrities on her YouTube channel and eventually began parodying the women from The Real Housewives. Since she began, Phillips has since been endorsed by Bravo and has made several appearances on Watch What Happens Live. In January 2016, Phillips parodied both The Real Housewives and Star Wars in Star Wars: The Housewives Awaken, during her segment Reality Checked with Amy Phillips, on SiriusXM's Radio Andy.
 * Saturday Night Live parodied The Real Housewives franchise, on November 2, 2010, with a segment titled Women of SNL. The segment was stylised as a reunion special, which guest starred Andy Cohen as the host. The segment featured classic housewives moments spoofed by many women who are apart of Saturday Night Live, including Rachel Dratch, Nora Dunn, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Laraine Newman, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Molly Shannon and Kristen Wiig.
 * On February 25, 2011, Third Degree Films released a pornographic parody film of the franchise, titled The Real Housewives of San Fernando Valley.
 * The Real Husbands of Hollywood is a BET parody series created by Kevin Hart that premiered at the 2012 BET Awards show.
 * The Real Housewives of Toys "R" Us is a stop motion YouTube parody series created by Australian YouTubers Sam and Mickey. The series features Barbie and Bratz dolls as well as Mrs. Potato Head, in the format of The Real Housewives series, centered around being in the toy shop, Toys "R" Us. It has aired 3 episode since its initial episode in 2014.
 * On February 26, 2012, The Real Housewives was parodied during episode 2 in the fifth season of The Celebrity Apprentice, during a task sponsored by Medieval Times. Contestant and star of The Real Housewives of New Jersey recreated her table-flipping scene from The Real Housewives of New Jersey in a segment titled The Unreal Housewives of Camelot.
 * Saturday Night Live parodied The Real Housewives again on March 3, 2012 with a sketch called Real Housewives of Disney guest starring Lindsay Lohan as Rapunzel.
 * The series was parodied in August, 2012, with a musical titled The Real Drunk Housewives of the San Fernando Valley. The musical featured Rachel Reilly.
 * On August 14, 2012, The Real Housekeepers of Long Island was released online as parody of the series, which created by Tyler Gildin.
 * On October 12, 2012, a segment was published on Funny or Die, titled The Real Dragwives: Very Rich. The video is a parody of a scene from The Real Housewives of Atlanta, with Latrice Royale in the role of NeNe Leakes and DiDa Ritz in the role of Sheree Whitfield.
 * In the 2013 film The Best Man Holiday, Melissa De Sousa's character "Shelby" is shown as a star of the fictional reality show The Real Housewives of Westchester.
 * On January 23, 2013, The Real Housewives was parodied during episode 9 in the fourth season of Hot in Cleveland. Actress, and cast member of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Heather Dubrow guest starred as Nikki, the wife of Emmet (Alan Dale), who is trying to get on the fictional series True Housewives of Tampa St. Pete.
 * Real Housewives of Benning Road is a YouTube parody series created Brooks and Amon Williams of Hardhead Films. The series premiered on April 17, 2013, and went on to air for 3 seasons. No episodes have been released since July 16, 2014.
 * In February 2014, Michael Kulich produced a pornographic film called The Real Housewives of Westport featuring Nina Hartley.
 * The musical parody The Real Housewives of Walnut Creek began showing from April 17, to May 11, 2014, at Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. The musical is created by Molly Bell, who also starred, and is presented by the Center REPertory.
 * The Hotwives is a parody series that premiered on July 15, 2014 on the video streaming website Hulu. First season focuses on Orlando, Florida and the second focusing on Las Vegas.
 * In Kenya, a parody of The Real Housewives began airing in July 2014, titled Real Househelps of Kawangware. The series was added to the South African mobile streaming service ShowMax in October 2016.
 * SBS 2's The Feed parodied the franchise in August 2014, with a segment titled The Real Newsreaders Of Sydney. The segment featured Sandra Sully, Lee Lin Chin and Natalie Barr.
 * On October 29, Nerdist began airing The Real Housewives of Horror, which concluded on December 4, 2014. The series is written and created by Brea Grant, who also stars in the series, and is a mash-up of the horror movie genre and The Real Housewives franchise.
 * In the United Kingdom, a theater production titled The Real Hoosewives - Fae Glesga ran from September 10, to September 14, 2014, at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow.
 * On November 5, 2014, a parody titled Housewives of Narromine aired in Australia, on ABC's Indigenous sketch show, Black Comedy. The skit featured back and forth comedy between two characters located in Narromine, played by Deborah Mailman and Elizabeth Wymarra.
 * On April 12, 2015, former Big Brother contest Will Hueser, released a video titled The Real Housewives of Louisville on his YouTube channel, that went on to serve as the first season. On June 16, 2016, Hueser began airing a second season of his series. The series features Hueser parodying multiple women from Louisville, including his own mother.
 * On May 4, 2015, The Real Housewives was parodied during the tenth episode in the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race. In a mini-challenge titled Fake Housewives of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the contestants were challenged to create a tagline, replicating the taglines of The Real Housewives franchise, as well as replicating plastic surgery using tape.
 * From May 24 to November 8, 2015, the Australian sketch show Open Slather frequently parodied the series with the sketch The Real Housewives of The World. The sketch featured prominent women in politics in the format of The Real Housewives. The cast included Marg Downey as Helen Clark, Gina Riley as Hillary Clinton and Madga Szubanski as Angela Merkel. In the same series, Gina Riley also played a parodied version of The Real Housewives of Melbourne cast member, Gina Liano.
 * In June 2015, Dirty Cues Productions produced the parody The Real Housewives of Westeros, combining the popular HBO show Game of Thrones with the Real Housewives franchise.
 * The Real Housewives of Melbourne was parodied on July 29, 2015 with an online segment called The Real Tradies Of Melbourne. The video was created to promote awareness for Tradies National Health Month. The video featured Shane Jacobson, as well a special guest appearance from original cast member from The Real Housewives of Melbourne, Andrea Moss.
 * On December 9, 2015, a Facebook page called The Real Whorewives of Melbourne began uploading voice dubbed parodies of The Real Housewives of Melbourne. The parody incorporates crude humour and black comedy, showing the housewives in various professions including sex work, ghost busting and drug dealing. As of December 2016, the parody series has featured twenty one episodes, two seasons and a number of extras.
 * From January to May, 2016, a performance titled The Realish Housewives: A Parody toured cities across the United States. Each performance was titled "The Realish Housewives of (the city they performed in)".
 * In April 2016, a musical parody of the series called Real Housewives of Toluca Lake had several shows at the Falcon Theatre, in Burbank, California. Molly Bell wrote the book, music and lyrics to the musical.
 * On June 16, 2016, the franchise was parodied in episode 9 in the fourth season of Inside Amy Schumer, Amy Schumer parodied The Real Housewives' reunion with Andy Cohen making a guest appearance as himself, as the host.
 * From July 16 to September 12, 2016, a parody theater piece called Housewives of Secaucus, a Suburban Travesty was shown in New Jersey and New York across several venues. The show also parodied reality television series Jersey Shore and Mob Wives.
 * In a collaboration with Bravo, Mashable began airing a mini series online titled The Real Housekids. The mini series began on August 1, 2016, and featured children recreating iconic scenes from the franchise. In total four episodes have been released, three featuring scenes from The Real Housewives of Atlanta and one featuring a scene from The Real Housewives of Orange County.
 * On August 11, 2016, during an episode of Watch What Happens Live, Andy Cohen featured a segment titled The Real Housewives Of Rio. The segment was inspired by the 2016 Summer Olympics and featured Olympians Nadia Comaneci and April Ross saying their taglines.
 * In late August 2016, Real Housewives of Christchurch began airing as an online series. The series is designed as a parody of The Real Housewives of Auckland and showcases everyday women, rather than the wealthy and polished women featured on the Auckland series. In September 2016, cast-members of The Real Housewives of Auckland, Gilda Kirkpatrick and Anne Batley-Burton, were featured in a video meeting with the ladies of The Real Housewives of Christchurch.
 * In New Zealand, a parody series called Fresh Housewives of South Auckland aired on TV2 during the Saturday morning segment Fresh and was released online. It ran for eight episodes from November September 11, to November 2, 2016.
 * In October 2016, a web series titled The Real Houseboys of Waiheke began airing as a parody of The Real Housewives and more specifically The Real Housewives of Auckland.
 * On October 14, 2016, a parody video was released online called The Real Housewitches of Salem. The video parodied The Real Housewives as well as Hocus Pocus and Mean Girls.
 * On October 27, 2016, a scene from The Real Housewives of New York City, featuring Aviva Drescher throwing her prosthetic leg was parodied by Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 during the reunion for the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars.
 * On October 26, 2016, the We the Voters campaign released a video online titled Real Voters of the USA, which used the format of The Real Housewives franchise to display that people could discuss politics without fighting. The video featured three housewives who were portrayed by Anabelle Acosta, Charlotte McKinney and Analeigh Tipton.
 * In October 2016, a musical titled The Real Wicked Witches of Halloween Hills was performed over 2 nights on October 29 and October 30, at Westchester Broadway Theatre and Emelin Theatre in New York. The musical is created as family friendly Halloween take on The Real Housewives franchise.
 * In January 2017, a parody titled The Real Housewives of ISIS aired in the United Kingdom. The parody aired on BBC2's Revolting, a political satire sketch show, as well as being released online. The sketch featured women affiliated with the terrorist organisation in the style of The Real Housewives franchise.