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As foretold at BravoCon by Andy Cohen -- the executive producer of "The Real Housewives," and the host of Bravo's nightly talk show "Watch What Happens Live" -- the network will celebrate the franchise turning 20 by producing "The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th," an all-star season featuring a core cast of seven Housewives from seven different cities. Cohen made the announcement on "Watch What Happens Live" Wednesday night, when Porsha Williams of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" and Venita Aspen from "Southern Charm" were his guests.
Williams will be representing "Atlanta," as the show makes its way through five different locations where "Real Housewives" has filmed. OG of the OC Vicki Gunvalson ("The Real Housewives of Orange County"), Kyle Richards ("The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills"), Countess Luann de Lesseps ("The Real Housewives of New York City"), Teresa Giudice ("The Real Housewives of New Jersey"), Gizelle Bryant ("The Real Housewives of Potomac") and Lisa Barlow ("The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City") will go from Orange County to Beverly Hills, then travel to Atlanta and Miami before ending the trip in New York City.
Along the way, the main cast will be joined by more than 60 additional Housewives, and that is where NeNe Leakes comes in for her much-heralded (and much-rumored) return to Bravo after her 2022 lawsuit in which she sued NBCUniversal, Bravo, True Entertainment, Cohen personally and other involved parties for violating federal employment and anti-discrimination laws. In Leakes' lawsuit, which she withdrew later in 2022, she alleged the network and its parent company "maintain a corporate culture that is insensitive to Black talent and fosters racially-offensive behavior that goes unpunished."
Leakes was part of the original cast of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" in 2008, and was one of the first Bravo stars who showed what the platform could do: Her lightning-quick wit, equally fast comebacks, compelling backstory and immense charisma made her an audience favorite. She quickly became the most quoted and GIF'd Bravo star, as "Close your legs to married men!," "I said what I said," "So nasty and so rude," among many, many other NeNe moments entered the pantheon. Leakes also caught the attention of powerful TV boss Ryan Murphy, who created a recurring role for her on "Glee" and cast her as a series regular on the NBC sitcom "The New Normal." As her fortunes changed, she remained on "Real Housewives of Atlanta" (though she went part-time for a few seasons), and left officially after Season 12 in 2020.
