Not every Housewife deserves a comeback. Some belong exactly where they are: buried deep in the Bravo fossil record.
Cindy Barshop — RHONY Cindy gave us awkward energy, family drama, and very little reason to bring her back. Some fossils are better left undisturbed.
Aviva Drescher — RHONY The leg is iconic. Aviva’s return is not necessary. We already have the prosthetic flying through the air. What more do we need?
Jules Wainstein — RHONY Her one season was uncomfortable enough. Let’s leave this particular fossil in the archive.
Carlton Gebbia — RHOBH The mansion was memorable. The Housewife herself never quite found her place in Beverly Hills.
Teddi Mellencamp — RHOBH We have heard enough about accountability. The excavation is officially over.
Diana Jenkins — RHOBH She had the money, the house, the clothes and absolutely no chemistry with the group. No need to dig her back up.
Eden Sassoon — RHOBH Interesting family history, but her Housewives run was brief and never really clicked. The fossil can stay buried.
Joyce Giraud — RHOBH Beautiful, successful and perfectly nice. Unfortunately, being perfectly nice isn’t enough to earn another trip to Beverly Hills.
Peggy Tanous — RHOC She wasn’t terrible. She just didn’t leave enough of a Housewives footprint to justify a comeback.
Peggy Sulahian — RHOC The cars were memorable. The season was considerably less so.
Lydia McLaughlin — RHOC Once was enough. Twice was already plenty. We do not need a third excavation.
Amber Marchese — RHONJ Jersey has produced enough chaos without reopening this particular chapter.
Siggy Flicker — RHONJ The cake. The screaming. The chaos. The artifacts have been catalogued. Please close the museum.
Annemarie Wiley — RHOBH We discussed the esophagus. We discussed it some more. The case has been closed.
Kathy Wakile — RHONJ Kathy is perfectly lovely, but Jersey needs chaos. She can stay with the cannoli.
Some Housewives are legends. Some are villains. Some are one-season wonders.
And some should remain permanently preserved in the Bravo fossil record. 🦖
Ramona Singer spent 13 seasons on The Real Housewives of New York City doing what Ramona Singer does best: getting offended, getting emotional, getting drunk, getting into arguments and occasionally throwing whatever happens to be in her hand.
There were a LOT of Ramona moments. These are some of the best.
1. The Brooklyn Bridge Meltdown
Season 3 gave us one of the greatest Ramona arguments ever.
Ramona and Bethenny Frankel went for a perfectly innocent walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and somehow ended up attacking each other with increasingly personal insults.
Ramona told Bethenny she had no friends and that she would probably screw up her relationship with Jason.
It was vicious.
It was deeply personal.
And it was made even better by Ramona’s giant, unblinking eyes as she delivered every insult.
Ramona later admitted she had gone too far and apologized to Bethenny.
2. The Runway Walk
Ramona’s Season 3 fashion-show runway walk is one of the most inexplicable things ever filmed on RHONY.
The bulging eyes.
The hip movements.
The determined expression.
The complete confidence.
Jill Zarin famously wondered whether an alien had taken over Ramona’s body.
Ramona, meanwhile, walked like she was closing New York Fashion Week.
And honestly, nobody has ever walked a runway quite like Ramona.
3. “Take a Xanax, Calm Down!”
Aviva Drescher was having one of her many Aviva moments, and Ramona decided the appropriate response was medical advice.
“Take a Xanax, calm down!”
It became one of Ramona’s most famous Housewives quotes.
This was Ramona’s preferred method of conflict resolution: insult someone, tell them to calm down and then somehow make the argument even louder.
4. The Hope Lodge Fight With Luann
Season 2 Ramona was already demonstrating that she had absolutely no concept of “read the room.”
At a charity event at Hope Lodge, Ramona and Luann got into an argument over Bethenny’s dating life—and Ramona managed to insult the Count’s age while doing it.
In front of Luann’s daughter.
At a charity event for cancer patients.
Andy Cohen later included the argument among his favorite RHONY moments.
Luann’s eventual conclusion was basically that Ramona had no manners.
She had a point.
5. The Berkshires Air Conditioner
Ramona arrived at Heather Thomson’s Berkshires house and immediately decided the accommodations were unacceptable.
Her infamous reaction to the house was essentially: Is this the house or the garage?
Then she had an air conditioner delivered.
And installed.
In Heather’s house.
Because apparently being a guest means you get to renovate the host’s bedroom.
This is one of those moments that could only happen to Ramona.
6. The Kristen Taekman Wine-Glass Incident
Ramona was sitting in a canoe with Sonja when Kristen Taekman splashed her.
This was a terrible mistake.
Ramona was furious about her hair getting wet and reacted by throwing wine at Kristen.
Then she threw the entire wine glass.
The glass hit Kristen in the face and cut her lip.
Ramona later spent the reunion arguing over whether the glass was actually glass or plastic, which somehow became part of the spectacle.
Kristen got cut.
Ramona got defensive.
And RHONY got one of its most infamous Housewives drink-throwing moments.
7. Turtle Time
Not every Ramona meltdown was destructive.
Sometimes she just wanted everyone to drink Pinot Grigio and dance.
Thus, Turtle Time was born.
During the Scary Island trip, Ramona announced that it was time to let loose and have fun.
Considering that this was the same trip that eventually descended into one of the most bizarre cast trips in Housewives history, Ramona’s cheerful Pinot-fueled enthusiasm was almost comforting.
Almost.
“Turtle Time” became one of the defining Ramona-isms of the entire franchise.
8. “Kadooz!”
Ramona did not simply mispronounce words.
She created an entirely new language.
In Season 2, she attempted to say “kudos” while congratulating herself and Jill Zarin after a charity event.
What came out was “kadooz.”
And thus another Ramona-ism entered Housewives history.
She also famously struggled with “reggae,” calling it a “ruh-gey” band.
Ramona’s vocabulary was its own character on RHONY.
9. The “Oil and Vinegar” Speech
During an argument with Bethenny, Ramona tried to explain their relationship using science.
She declared that they were like oil and vinegar because they “don’t go together.”
This was not exactly a groundbreaking scientific discovery.
But it was peak Ramona: taking a relatively simple disagreement and turning it into a bizarre philosophical discussion about condiments.
10. The Ramotional Berkshires Escape
The Berkshires trip produced another classic Ramona moment when she became overwhelmed and emotional in the woods.
Rather than simply having a quiet cry like a normal person, Ramona eventually escaped the woods via private plane.
Because of course she did.
Ramona getting so overwhelmed that the logical solution was apparently “get me a plane” is one of the most Ramona things imaginable.
Ramona Singer wasn’t merely a Housewife.
She was an experience.
And sometimes that experience involved Pinot Grigio, a runaway air conditioner, a flying wine glass and a completely unnecessary argument on a bridge.
Brandi Glanville was never going to be the Housewife who quietly sat in the corner, complimented someone’s centerpiece and went home at 10.
When she arrived on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, she was funny, brutally honest, unpredictable and more than willing to say the things everyone else was too afraid to say. For a while, it worked. Brandi was reality television gold.
But somewhere along the way, the chaos stopped being entertaining and started becoming a liability.
Here are five ways Brandi Glanville wrecked her Housewives career.
1. She confused “unfiltered” with “say absolutely anything”
Brandi’s lack of a filter was initially one of her biggest assets.
She would walk into a dinner, hear something ridiculous and immediately say what everyone else was thinking. It made her hilarious, unpredictable and completely incapable of behaving at a normal dinner party.
But eventually, the filter became so nonexistent that even Brandi’s supporters had to start wondering where she was going with some of this stuff.
There is a difference between being the Housewife who says the outrageous thing and being the Housewife everyone is waiting to see say something outrageous.
Brandi increasingly became the latter.
The problem with constantly pushing the envelope is that eventually you run out of envelope.
2. The Joyce Giraud feud made her look like the villain
Brandi’s fourth season on RHOBH was not exactly her finest hour.
Her treatment of Joyce Giraud was particularly ugly. From mocking Joyce’s name to making bizarre comments about her being unable to swim, Brandi seemed determined to make Joyce uncomfortable.
The infamous pool confrontation became especially difficult to defend.
Brandi had always been a shit-stirrer, but there is a difference between stirring the shit and climbing into the toilet.
The audience was no longer necessarily laughing at Brandi’s antics. A lot of people were asking why she was behaving this way in the first place.
That’s a dangerous transition for a Housewife.
You want viewers to think, “Oh my God, she’s awful. I love her.”
You don’t want them thinking, “Oh my God, she’s awful. Get her away from Joyce.”
3. She destroyed her alliance with Lisa Vanderpump
Brandi and Lisa Vanderpump were an extremely entertaining pairing.
Lisa had the elegant British mansion, the restaurants, the miniature horses and enough pink chiffon to upholster a small hotel.
Brandi had a bottle of wine and absolutely no impulse control.
It worked.
Unfortunately, Brandi eventually managed to turn one of her most valuable relationships on the show into a war.
Their friendship deteriorated dramatically, culminating in the infamous confrontation in Puerto Rico.
And once that friendship was gone, Brandi lost one of her strongest relationships on the cast.
4. She made chaos her entire personality
This is probably the biggest problem with Brandi’s Housewives career.
Being chaotic is entertaining.
Being funny is entertaining.
Being willing to say the thing everyone else won’t say is entertaining.
But if every single interaction turns into a confrontation, eventually viewers get tired.
Brandi increasingly seemed to operate at maximum volume. There was always a fight, an accusation, an insult, a drunken argument or some new controversy waiting around the corner.
The problem wasn’t that Brandi created drama.
That’s literally the job.
The problem was that there eventually wasn’t enough Brandi left outside of the drama.
The audience never really got to sit back and watch her simply be funny or have a normal conversation. Everything had to become A Thing.
And when every scene is A Thing, eventually none of the things feel special.
5. The Caroline Manzo incident changed everything
This is where Brandi’s career went from messy Housewives chaos to a much more serious situation.
During filming of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip in Morocco in 2023, an incident occurred involving Brandi Glanville and Caroline Manzo. Manzo alleged that Brandi kissed and touched her without consent. Brandi has denied wrongdoing, and the accounts of what happened have differed.
Both women left the production, and Bravo ultimately shelved the Morocco season.
That was a major turning point.
Housewives arguments, drunken fights and bizarre feuds are one thing. A controversy involving allegations of unwanted sexual contact is something entirely different.
Whatever your interpretation of the incident, it became extremely difficult for Bravo to treat Brandi as simply a fun chaos agent who could be dropped into any cast and expected to cause mayhem.
The network had brought Brandi back repeatedly over the years because she was entertaining.
After Morocco, the question became whether putting Brandi into a Housewives environment was worth the enormous amount of baggage that came with her.
And that’s a much harder question to answer.
The Final Verdict
Brandi Glanville didn’t ruin her Housewives career by being too dramatic.
Honestly, the drama was the reason she had a career in the first place.
Her problem was that she kept escalating.
The woman who once seemed like a refreshing antidote to the overly polished Beverly Hills cast gradually became someone whose behavior could overshadow the entire show.
Brandi had one of the most valuable commodities in reality television: she was unpredictable.
But unpredictability only works when the audience is excited to see what you’ll do next.
Eventually, with Brandi, people started worrying about what she might do next.
And that is one hell of a difference.
Brandi Glanville didn’t single-dinoedly invent her Housewives downfall.
Sorry for getting this one up a little late! I was a very tired dinosaur last night. 🦖 Hopefully tonight’s episode gives us a little more to work with than the last few episodes, because this excavation has been getting dangerously quiet. Let’s see if these Housewives can finally wake up and give us some drama!
The ladies are hitting Atlanta, which will be the third city on their excursion, and Porsha is very excited to give them the full peach experience. First up is a drag brunch, followed by an alter ego party. And because this is Atlanta, Nene will be there. Now we’re talking.
Gizelle and Luann discuss Vicki, who has apparently become the Debbie Downer of the trip. Luann admits she isn’t really mixing with Vicki, which is probably for the best because Vicki seems to be operating on an entirely different frequency than the rest of the group.
Teresa, meanwhile, has decided that Lisa Barlow is a “fresh of breath air.” We are immediately treated to a montage of Teresa’s greatest malapropisms over the years, which is basically an archaeological dig through the English language. It’s one of those things Teresa does so naturally that you almost forget how spectacularly she mangles the English language until Bravo puts them all together in one place.
Phaedra is in charge of the drag brunch, so expectations are high. If anyone can turn a Housewives vacation activity into a full production, it’s Phaedra. We’ve got drag queens, Atlanta, Teresa butchering the English language, and Nene on the way. Maybe this excursion is finally about to get interesting.
We get even MORE flashbacks of iconic Atlanta moments over the years. And at this point, I’m starting to wonder if I’m recapping RHUGT or watching a Bravo clip show.
So far, this episode has once again been mostly flashbacks, and I am officially over it. I did not sign up for an archaeological dig through Bravo’s greatest hits. I need these women to actually do something.
This shit better not put me to sleep. I have to teach in a couple of hours, and I refuse to be standing in front of my students later looking like a dinosaur who hasn’t slept since the Cretaceous period.
Vicki does not like drag shows, which is unfortunate because everyone else is ready to have a good time and start drinking at 10 a.m. The group is clearly operating on vacation time, where the concept of “too early” simply does not exist. Vicki, on the other hand, seems determined to maintain her Debbie Downer status.
Nene arrives and admits she is a little nervous and hopes the ladies will be nice to her. Nene? Nervous? This is already shaping up to be a strange Atlanta experience.
We get more looks back at things that have happened in the past, because apparently Bravo has decided we need to excavate every available piece of footage before allowing these women to actually interact.
The drag show finally starts, and the MC speaks to each of the women for a little bit. And…that’s pretty much it. I’m sorry, but I cannot make this funny. There is simply nothing happening. I am sitting here trying to excavate some drama and hitting nothing but empty dirt.
I have to teach in a couple of hours. If this episode doesn’t wake up soon, I may be the one who needs a drag brunch.
The show starts and drag queens dressed like the women come out to dance and entertain. And you will never guess what we get more of! Flashbacks.
Nene finally comes out on stage, and everyone goes absolutely crazy. Thankfully, we have finally reached the part of this episode that actually feels like something.
All of the women love Nene, and Kyle tells us that she and Nene are really good friends and have been for years. Nene says it is emotional being back with the women, and she opens up about her departure from the show and what that experience was like.
Gizelle reveals that Nene has said some negative things about her in the past, so she decides to call her out. Apparently, Nene once told Karen Huger to beat Gizelle up. Oh, dear.
Nene says she was just talking shit, and thankfully, they move on pretty quickly. I was hoping for at least a little more chaos, but I guess I’ll take what I can get.
They then talk about Greg and his passing, and we get flashbacks of him throughout the years. It’s a much more emotional turn for the episode, and seeing Greg again after all these years is genuinely sad.
At this point, I am seriously considering calling out of work this afternoon and taking a nap. I have been awake for this entire excavation, and these Housewives are not making it easy.
Nene introduces her boyfriend to the women and he kinda reminds me of Greg. In a good way.
Later, the women get ready for the alter ego dinner, and watching them get glammed up is just…not interesting. I’m sorry. I know I’m supposed to find this entertaining, but I am running out of ways to make watching women put on makeup sound exciting.
We do find out that Ashley Darby will be at the party, which should make things considerably more interesting. Ashley has been putting the moves on Mauricio, so I have a feeling this alter ego dinner might finally give us something worth excavating.
Lisa Barlow says she feels like she has been boring. She isn’t the only one. She is nervous about seeing the SLC girls who have been “mean” to her.
So, we see flashbacks of that. Shoot me.
Each of the women explains her alter ego costume, and I’m going to be honest: I fast-forwarded through it. I have limits.
Kyle sees Ashley and decides to address the Mauricio situation. She introduces herself, and Ashley immediately tries to explain herself. Things get a little awkward when Ashley refers to Mauricio as Kyle’s “ex-husband,” and Kyle quickly corrects her. They are, in fact, still married.
That seems like a pretty important distinction.
They move on, and there is no beef between Kyle and Ashley, which is probably for the best. But at least we don’t get any more flashbacks. I’ll consider that a victory.
Gizelle starts asking Angie K. and Heather Gay about their problems with Lisa. None of them have spoken since the SLC reunion, so there is clearly some unfinished business there. Unfortunately, we don’t get much time to dig into it because…
That’s literally the end of the show.
And that’s it. It was nice seeing everyone, I guess. Nene was great, the drag brunch was fun, and we got a little bit of drama with Gizelle and Nene. But overall? Not exactly the roaringest of 20s.
I’m sorry, but this episode was a struggle. I spent most of it waiting for something to happen and the rest of it trying not to fall asleep. Maybe next time these dinosaurs will give me something to work with.
