page_title: The Real Housewives of Melbourne
section_title: Overview and casting
hierarchical_section_title: The Real Housewives of Melbourne / Overview and casting
caption_attribution_description: The Real Housewives Of Melbourne 2016 TV Week Logie Awards
context_page_description: The Real Housewives of Melbourne is an Australian reality television series that premiered 23 February 2014, on Arena. It was developed as one of the international installments of The Real Housewives, an American television series franchise. The series chronicles the lives of several women living in Melbourne, Australia.
  The series originally focused on Gina Liano, Jackie Gillies, Andrea Moss, Janet Roach, Chyka Keebaugh and Lydia Schiavello; the lineup currently consists of Liano, Roach, Schiavello, Gamble Breaux, Anjali Rao, Cherry Dipietrantonio and Kyla Kirkpatrick. Of the original housewives, Moss left after the first season, whilst Keebaugh departed after the third and Gillies after the fourth. The remaining housewives joined in later seasons: Breaux in the second, Rao, Dipietrantonio and Kirkpatrick in the fifth. Other housewives include Pettifleur Berenger, Susie McLean, Sally Bloomfield and Venus Behbahani-Clark.
  Its success has allowed for the development of The Real Housewives franchise by Matchbox Pictures and similar spin-off series based in Sydney and Auckland, New Zealand.
context_section_description: The Real Housewives of Melbourne was first announced by Matchbox Pictures as The Real Housewives of Australia and was set to air in 2013. On 28 July 2013 it was announced that the series had been renamed to The Real Housewives of Melbourne, along with the full cast of the six women. The six women include Jackie Gillies, Chyka Keebaugh, Gina Liano, Andrea Moss, Janet Roach, and Lydia Schiavello. They were handpicked by the producers, from over one-hundred women during an eight-month process. Filming for the series began in July 2013. on 21 January 2014, the official cast photo and premiere date of 23 February 2014 were announced. The series at the time was the second biggest local series launch following SoHo's Wentworth.
  Moss departed the series after the first season.
  On 8 May 2014, the series was renewed for a second season. Brian Walsh, an executive director of Foxtel, discussed the renewal, "There is no doubt that The Real Housewives of Melbourne has been a game changer for Foxtel. The incredible reaction to our Housewives, including the blockbuster ratings, the huge social media impact and the overall buzz surrounding the series has meant the decision for another season was a very easy one." In season two, two newcomers joined the show, Gamble Breaux and Pettifleur Berenger, and premiered 22 February 2015. Manuela Pless-Bennett joined the series in a recurring capacity as a friend to Janet. Pless-Bennett was featured in interviews and attended the reunion.
  Friend to the wives Lisa Tonkin made several guest appearances throughout the season.
  The series was subsequently renewed for a third season. All the housewives returned from the previous season with Susie McLean joining the cast. The third season premiered 21 February 2016.
  On 11 May 2016, Lydia Schiavello revealed there would be a fourth season but filming may be delayed to film The Real Housewives of Sydney first. A month later in June 2016, Liano also confirmed there would be a season four and the filming delay for the Sydney series, adding that "the original girls are out of contract now. They haven't approached us to renegotiate contracts yet." In December 2016, season four was officially confirmed by Foxtel, also being reported that filming is set to begin in early 2017. On 29 April 2017, it was announced that Berenger would not return to the series. On 17 May 2017, the season 4 cast was announced, with Venus Behbahani-Clark and Sally Bloomfield joining the cast. This also confirmed the departures of Keebaugh, Berenger and McLean.
  In September 2019, Foxtel announced a fifth season, set to premiere in 2020. Foxtel Executive Brian Walsh also confirmed the upcoming fifth season would include 'a big cast shake up.' In February 2020, Bloomfield, Gillies & Behbahani-Clark announced they were departing the show, while Schiavello confirmed her return. On 19 February, the cast was released, confirming the return of Liano, Roach and Breaux, alongside the previously confirmed Schiavello, as well as the addition of Anjali Rao, Kyla Kirkpatrick and Cherry Dipietrantonio. According to cast member Janet Roach, Gillies was set to return to the show, however by deciding to leave and to start a family, she was replaced by Schiavello who wasn’t originally set to return to the series.
  On 18 March 2020, Foxtel has announced that filming for season 5 had temporarily been paused due to the 
  COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement released by Foxtel and Matchbox Pictures, “The Health and Safety of our cast and crew is our top priority”.
  On 11 June 2020, it was confirmed by cast member Janet Roach that filming for season 5 was to resume in July, however she announced that Foxtel had decided to push the filming dates back to January 2021
caption: The cast at the 2016 Logie Awards.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "5184", "Image ImageLength": "3456", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 7D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2016:05:09 00:29:05", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "300", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1244", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1358", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7604", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:05:08 07:35:07", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:05:08 07:35:07", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "667/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF SubSecTime": "78", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "78", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "78", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5184", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1212", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5184000/907", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "2961204714", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[24, 70, 0, 0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM"}