The Cast of 'RHONY' Is Great. Why Isn't the Season?

Their polished restraint is appreciated, but not quintessentially Bravo.

Since the refreshed and rebooted The Real Housewives of New York City hit Bravo in July 2023, the biggest complaint about the show from Bravoholics has been that it’s “not the O.G. RHONY.” True enough, but that can also be a point in its favor. The former New York Housewives—including founding members like Luann de Lesseps and Ramona Singer, and later additions like Sonja Morgan and Dorinda Medley—delivered over a decade of iconic, quotable, and rewatchable moments. Toward the end of their run, however, it became clear that the show as we knew it had run its course. That’s not a slight against the women who made the franchise what it is, but an acknowledgment that all good things must come to an end—and that we were ready for something new.

It’s only natural that fans would have greeted the RHONY reboot with trepidation: Starting in Season 14, Bravo introduced a brand-new cast of largely unknown fresh faces, plus one established name, ex-J. Crew president and creative director Jenna Lyons, bringing a bit of added credibility for those who had (wrongly) dismissed the reality show as dated and trashy. The latest iteration of the series has had some growing pains, particularly in trying to create a cohesive friend group out of women who don’t actually know each other. Now more settled in Season 15, the new RHONY ladies have shown that they do have something to bring to the table. The question that remains is whether that makes them the right fit for Real Housewives.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to being a standout Housewife, but there are a number of traits and trends that have defined the role over the years. Looking at someone like the Countess Luann herself, you can see what it means to check all the boxes: a touch of elitism (telling Bethenny that a driver should not refer to her by her first name), character growth (her much chiller demeanor in later years), quotable lines (“Herman Munster shoes”), iconic moments (falling in the rose bush), and a lack of self-awareness (her singing). For the most part, we’ve seen almost none of this from the new RHONY cast.

That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily lost causes. It’s important to take into account that this current cast is also shifting viewer expectations for what it means to be part of the Bravo Universe, bringing a more grounded vibe and contemporary aesthetic to the show. It’s clear that the future of the franchise is going to look very different from when it started, and Housewives executive producer Andy Cohen has been clear that this RHONY cast is here to stay. In a new interview with Deadline, he reiterated that production is “looking to the future” with the current stars. “I really believe in this group of women,” Cohen said. “I think they’re very aspirational. I think they’re fun to watch. I think the clothes and the window into a different kind of New York is all what we wanted it to be.”

Regardless of Cohen’s support, however, if these women want to be lasting members of the next generation of Housewives, they’re going to have to make some serious adjustments. Right now, the new RHONY ladies are too far from their forebears to grab viewers’ attention—their polished restraint may feel more 2024, but it’s not quintessentially Bravo. To get a sense of the strengths they can capitalize on as well as where they need to step it up, we’re breaking it down cast member by cast member.

Jenna Lyons

As the one known quantity on the rebooted RHONY cast, Jenna Lyons—once influential enough to be called “the woman who dresses America”—was under ample pressure to deliver. Her first season was a little shaky (she’d be the first to admit that she didn’t really know what she was doing), but her effortless cool made her a quick fan favorite, even if her castmates weren’t as endeared. (Telling your castmate exactly how many labels she should be wearing is cool, just not a great way to make friends.) In her second season, Jenna is fortunately coming across as more comfortable, which she credits to the addition of a new Friend Of, designer Rebecca Minkoff, a fashion industry peer, and a full-time Housewife, art curator Racquel Chevremont, another queer woman in her age bracket.

Fans weren’t even sure that Jenna would be back for a second season, especially since she seems keen to keep her private life private. But even without filming with her fiancée Cass Bird—which co-star Jessel Taank called a “double-edged sword”—also feels less inorganic than fans feared. Jenna has done an impressive job of creating boundaries without coming across as withholding, something that could make the Housewife gig more appealing to talent at her level. Like it or not, the Housewives franchise’s slipping ratings mean producers are likely to want more recognizable women on the series, and Jenna is presenting a model that bigger names can aspire to.

At the same time, this is a reality show, and presenting only one side of yourself will always hold you back from greatness, not to mention keeping the series as a whole feeling overly polished. Jenna also remains resistant to butting heads with her castmates, perhaps because she doesn’t really consider them friends, but it reads as conflict-averse, a big Housewife no-no. Big name or not, she’ll eventually have to reveal a more honest or perhaps even uglier side on camera to take herself and RHONY to the next level.

Sai De Silva

No one had a tougher Season 14 than Sai De Silva, whose career as an influencer rubbed some fans the wrong way before the first episode aired. It’s true that the Housewives franchise had typically shied away from influencers, but there’s no denying the role that social media content creators and tastemakers play in contemporary New York society, making her a good fit for the series. She’s not necessarily the Housewife she wanted—she’s the Housewife we needed. And as the sole RHONY cast member in Brooklyn and a Puerto Rican woman, she’s also helping to diversify the show in ways that viewers had been clamoring for.

But before fans could embrace Sai, she came in hot in her first season, with her relentless attacks on Jessel and her repeated food-based complaints, earning her the title of villain. Thankfully, she’s softened in Season 15, showing off her new zen vibes along with a more intimate look at her family than anyone else on the cast. The powerful scene of her spreading her late mother’s ashes underlined how key she has become to keeping the series grounded. Sai earns the “Most Improved” trophy among the RHONY women, and her second-season performance is a great reminder that listening to fan feedback (however painful!) can sometimes make all the difference.

If there’s a mark against Sai this season, it’s that she’s perhaps overly conscious of slipping back into the villain role. Following a (frankly deserved) outburst at Brynn in the premiere, she’s been noticeably holding back. Being a good Housewife is all about finding the balance between mess and grace, something a newly zen Sai should have no trouble with.

Ubah Hassan

Ubah Hot isn’t just the name of Ubah Hassan’s hot sauce brand—it’s also a moniker the Somali-Canadian model earned for a spicy personality that made her a standout in her first season. It would be easy enough for someone who gets into it with several of her castmates to emerge as a villain, but Ubah understands a key aspect of Real Housewives: It’s about conflict and conflict resolution. Her ability to defend herself and take jabs without losing sight of the big picture has made her one of the most dynamic and likable RHONY additions.

Like Jenna, Ubah is also keeping some things private, including Connecticut-based boyfriend Oliver Dachsel. Where Ubah has the advantage is that she comes across as more in touch with her feelings and more revealing about her inner life than most of the other ladies. If the future of Housewives is going to involve more of these self-imposed boundaries, we need cast members like Ubah who are willing to share everything but their S.O.

The real work Ubah has to do to ensure her future on RHONY is to accept that the way gossip spreads; a practice that she’s somewhat confusingly likened to being a pigeon is simply how the story moves forward. If most of these women are overly conscious of their role as Real Housewife, Ubah could stand to have a little more awareness about how the sausage is made. (She can still get mad at the pot-stirrer! That’s part of the sausage, too.)

Erin Lichy

Although Real Housewives series are ensembles by nature, the first season of new RHONY found a sort of protagonist in Erin Lichy. It’s natural for one cast member to become a bit more central than the others, and Erin, perhaps the most down-to-earth and “normal” of the Housewives, had enough in common with early Bethenny Frankel to fill the role. The real estate agent-turned-entrepreneur might have more money in the bank than Bethenny did before building her Skinnygirl empire (minus the bitcoin that husband Abe sold behind her back), but Erin has a similarly sharp tongue and a voice-of-reason approach to conflict.

Erin offers another glimpse at a potential future for the franchise, and she’s doing it by being a throwback. Before these shows became overwhelmed by opulence and glam squads, there were more Housewives like Erin. (If Erin’s lifestyle seems high-end, and it does by normal standards, consider that new Salt Lake City Housewife Bronwyn Newport is wearing a $4 million necklace.) There’s a place for excess and over-the-top looks—The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has made it a brand—but the future of Real Housewives may be more about balance: relative normies forced to interact with cartoonishly dramatic divas.

But for Erin to survive on Bravo, even as one of the more grounded Housewives, she can’t be so controlling about her image. Her acknowledgment this season of financial anxiety and related marital tension with Abe was a good step forward; her freakout when he merely referenced shrooms on camera was two steps back. Recall that for all her woman-of-the-people energy in early RHONY seasons, Bethenny also delivered some of the series’ most iconic meltdowns. Erin can’t be a main character unless she’s willing to embrace at least a little mess before tidying up.

Brynn Whitfield

If Erin is a throwback to early Bethenny, Brynn Whitfield pays homage to a number of Housewives who came before her. She’s a little bit Sonja “The Straw That Stirs the Drink” Morgan, with a fair amount of Lisa Vanderpump’s penchant for the double entendre. That Brynn seems hyper-aware of Housewife “types” and her own role on the series isn’t necessarily a bad thing. With nearly two decades of the franchise to look to for inspiration, all current-era Housewives members are conscious of the existing tropes. For the most part, Brynn is showing that you can borrow from the best and still make your own mark.

But Season 15 has been a tough one for PR consultant Brynn, who is learning in real time that there are consequences to being the person who stirs up drama—even if the plot requires it. The producers (or at least the shady editors) aren’t making things any easier for her, flashing back to conversations with the other women that show how wildly she’s stretching the truth to get a rise out of someone. One of Brynn’s biggest offenses this season was a brief moment in which she tried to coach Becky Minkoff on fighting with her, an unpleasant reminder of how forced and even fictional the drama on RHONY has become.

Real Housewives has embraced fourth-wall-breaking out of necessity—these are household names now!—which has given the shows a more meta quality. Whatever innocence we once had is gone. Now, the franchise’s future relies on women like Brynn who understand how the game is played and act accordingly. Brynn’s mistake is in taking that knowledge too far and trying to self-produce, a fatal error for so many failed Housewives before her. Her behavior this season has ranged from clumsy to cringey, but she’s thankfully savvy enough to appreciate the power of course-correction. If anyone can turn things around at the reunion, it’s someone who has how to tell a comeback story from the best. 

Jessel Taank

While the word “basic” has been circling Jessel Taank on this season of RHONY, she’s really anything but. In fact, Jessel became the breakout star last season, thanks to her chic style (even with one too many labels) and some charmingly strange idiosyncrasies. She feels like a kind of Housewife we haven’t seen before. Yes, being out-of-touch, like asking if Tribeca is “there” as a neighborhood, is a foundational trait of the franchise, but Jessel’s quirks are all her own.

She’s a little awkward, a little try-hard, a little blunt. (Her sudden announcement that something smells before asking Erin if she was wearing natural deodorant again was a perfect Jessel moment.) What she has is something that’s hard to pinpoint: She’s a character. This is what Housewives casting directors need to be looking for—not refinement, but someone who performs refinement with a lot of rough edges that can’t be sanded away.

If Jessel is fading into the background a bit this season, that’s in part because RHONY has struggled to identify and follow compelling narrative threads, a problem that goes well beyond any one cast member. That doesn’t mean Jessel’s entirely off the hook, of course. Her focus on wanting to have another child is classic Housewives to a fault, and she’s allowed herself to become a side character in the other ladies’ drama. Even if her recent therapy session with Pavit showcased real issues between them, she’s still largely siloed off from her co-stars. We love Jessel being on her own planet, but she can’t keep orbiting everyone else’s. To become a lasting Bravo icon, she’ll need to throw herself into the ensemble.

Racquel Chevremont

Joining RHONY for Season 15, Racquel Chevremont is the ideal addition: She makes total sense for the existing cast while still feeling entirely brand-new. Along with her fiancée Mel Corpus, Racquel is showing viewers a queer life that they might not otherwise get to see; we’ve certainly never heard a Housewife and her spouse talking about being tops or bottoms before. She’s also sharing her unique perspective on being a Black woman in the arts world, and bonding with Ubah about the challenges of their modeling careers. These are conversations very much worth having.

Over the years, Bravo’s flagship franchise has made a number of attempts to diversify by casting more women of color and different sexual identities, but past efforts have often felt hamfisted, particularly when established casts have seemed resistant to new additions. By launching a hard reboot with a cast that better reflects 2024 New York, RHONY has created a space where Racquel can be right at home, an important step for Housewives to start telling new stories. And Racquel is a great storyteller!

But is she a great Housewife? While it’s too soon in her Bravo career to make a call one way or the other, we can already see where there’s room for improvement. Racquel is a fantastic example of what the future of Real Housewives can look like. Now, she just needs to take a page from Real Housewives’ past. As so many women before her have learned, standing out means speaking up, getting your hands dirty, building authentic friendships (and authentic frenemy-ships) with your co-stars. Like so much of current RHONY, Racquel is too measured. To her credit, she does also seem fearless, and that could be what helps her become a top-tier cast member.

Rebecca Minkoff

Depending on your interest in designer handbags, Rebecca Minkoff may not be quite the name that Jenna Lyons is. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have serious credentials of her own, though, and her presence on Season 15 of RHONY underlines the show’s newly fashion-forward ethos. As for what else Rebecca brings to the series, the jury’s still out. Is she “boring” as Sai called her in a hot mic moment on Jeff Lewis Live? Not exactly. If anything, the pregnancy prank she just pulled shows a more intriguing dark side that she might not be willing to explore.

It was always unlikely that Becky would go deep on the Scientology controversy—and it doesn’t help that her castmates are completely unwilling to hold her feet to the fire—but she’s not offering much of anything else either. As it stands, Becky represents a darker future for Real Housewives in which new cast members bring a certain cachet and a fair amount of buzz without providing anything for viewers to latch onto. It’s Housewives as promotional tool, and while that might be good for business, it’s bad for entertainment.

It doesn’t have to be this way! Whether or not Becky can become a great Housewife—or if that’s something she’s even interested in, ultimately—remains to be seen. Right now, however, she’s an important cautionary tale for RHONY and for the franchise as a whole.

For Housewives itself to endure, the show has to remain appointment viewing with women who are messy, complicated, and, above all else, real. If too many future cast members follow Becky’s example, the series will fade into background television. That’s something all current New York Housewives need to remember as well, with the very fate of RHONY on the line: We all want to be in control of our image and how we’re perceived, but it’s relinquishing control that leaves a lasting impression. In the end, that’s what being a Real Housewife is all about.