When Bravo revealed the new overhauled cast of Real Housewives Of New York in 2022, it gave the second city in the longstanding franchise what it most desperately needed: diversity. After all, New York City is one of the most culturally diverse places in the world so why we spent 15 years in the very waspy, very white Upper East Side with the same ol’ tired storylines is beyond me. RHONY 2.0 was a breath of fresh air, delivering the first Indian Housewife, the second openly gay Housewife, and a cast that’s primarily made of people of color. But the reboot cast also had a varied range of backgrounds and life experiences that provided substance to what can otherwise feel like a dull 48 minutes of glam (Beverly Hills). With all new Housewives, RHONY was also free of longtime cast members self-producing (Orange County) or recruiting newbies onto their “team” (New Jersey), and the drama didn’t devolve into unintelligible screaming matches (at least, not yet). Seriously, how often have we heard Housewives talk about their traumas struggling with poverty, being abandoned by their parents, or being outed by New York tabloids in the 2010s?
