The Real Housewives of New York City

### Executive Producers

Andy Cohen, Megan Estrada, Pam Healey, Lisa Shannon, Lauren Volonakis, Barrie Bernstein, Anne Swan, Rajah Ahmed, Kate Murphy, Alfonso Rosales and Kimmy Cucci

### Production Company

Ricochet
 Shed Media

### Related

Bethenny Ever After
 Bethenny & Fredrik
 Luann & Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake

**The Real Housewives of New York City** (often abbreviated as **RHONY**) is an American reality television series. The show premiered on Bravo on March 4, 2008 and aired for fourteen seasons. It is the second instalment of The Real Housewives franchise.

It focuses on the personal and professional lives of several women residing in New York City.

## Overview

### Season 1-4

While in pre-production, the show was initially titled Manhattan Moms. It was later rebranded to become the second instalment of the then-new Real Housewives franchise. The first season premiered on March 4, 2008, and starred Bethenny Frankel, Luann de Lesseps, Alex McCord, Ramona Singer, and Jill Zarin. Cast members were paid for their appearances on the series. Bethenny Frankel, for example, was paid $7,250 for the season.

Kelly Killoren Bensimon was added to the cast for the second season, which premiered on February 17, 2009. The third season premiered March 4, 2010 and saw the addition of Sonja Morgan as a main cast member, along with Jennifer Gilbert in a recurring capacity. In August 2010, Frankel left the show in order to expand her Skinnygirl product line.

Cindy Barshop replaced Frankel for the show's fourth season, which premiered on April 7, 2011. After the fourth season, McCord, Zarin, Killoren Bensimon, and Barshop were effectively let go from the show.

### Season 5-8

In April 2012, Bravo announced a revamp to the cast for its fifth season, integrating Aviva Drescher, Carole Radziwill, and Heather Thomson into the main cast. The season premiered on June 4, 2012. Production for the sixth season was set to begin on May 8, 2013, but the cast instead chose to go into salary negotiations with Bravo, effectively delaying shooting. Drescher, Morgan, Radziwill, Singer, and Thomson renewed their contract in May 2013, while de Lesseps was demoted to a recurring role. The sixth season premiered on March 11, 2014, a year later than planned with Kristen Taekman as the latest housewife. Drescher was dismissed after the sixth season.

The seventh season premiered on April 7, 2015, featuring the return of Frankel and addition of Dorinda Medley, while de Lesseps returned in a full-time role. Taekman and Thomson exited the series after the season ended. For the eighth season, which premiered on April 6, 2016, Jules Wainstein was added to the cast, while Thomson returned in a guest appearance, Taekman did not return. Wainstein left the show in September 2016 for personal reasons.

### Season 9-13

The ninth season premiered on April 5, 2017. Tinsley Mortimer joined the cast, while former housewives Thomson and Zarin appeared as guests. The tenth season premiered on April 4, 2018, with the cast of the ninth season returning. Drescher, Killoren Bensimon, Thomson and Zarin all appeared as guests. It served as Radziwill's final appearance on the show.

The eleventh season premiered on March 6, 2019. Barbara Kavovit joined as a friend of the housewives, and Zarin appeared as a guest. Frankel departed the series after the season for a second time. The twelfth season featured Leah McSweeney joining the cast, which premiered on April 2, 2020. Zarin and Thomson appeared as guests in the twelfth season. Mortimer and Medley announced their departure from the series in June 2020 and August 2020 respectively. Mortimer coincided her announcement with her relocation to Chicago, to pursue her romantic relationship with Scott Kluth, while Medley later stated she was fired from the show.

The thirteenth season premiered on May 4, 2021, with Eboni K. Williams joining the series, in addition to Heather Thomson and Bershan Shaw appearing as friends of the housewives. In September 2021, it was confirmed by Bravo that the thirteenth season reunion was officially cancelled.

### Season 14-present

On March 23, 2022, it was announced that following the thirteenth season's negative reception, the showrunners had made the decision to 'most likely' recast the show from scratch for the fourteenth season, and create a second version of the show following some of the show's original housewives, referred to as RHONY: Legacy or RHONY: Throwback. It was later announced that veteran housewives de Lesseps and Morgan would star in their own spin-off series titled Luann & Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake. Filming for the spin-off began in July 2022 in the small town of Benton, Illinois. The series premiered on July 9, 2023. The fifth season of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, a spin-off featuring various women from The Real Housewives franchise, is being billed as 'RHONY Legacy' and is set to premiere in December 2023. Taking place in Saint Barthélemy in the same villa that was featured in the fifth season of The Real Housewives of New York, the cast includes Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Luann de Lesseps, Dorinda Medley, Sonja Morgan, Ramona Singer and Kristen Taekman.

On October 16, 2022, Andy Cohen revealed the new cast for the show's fourteenth season by announcing that Sai De Silva, Ubah Hassan, Erin Lichy, Jenna Lyons, Lizzy Savetsky, Jessel Taank and Brynn Whitfield would be leading the rebooted series. On November 16, 2022, Bravo confirmed that Savetsky was departing the series midway into filming the season. Savetsky claims that the reason behind her decision to quit was that she had received anti-Semitic hate across her social media accounts. The fourteenth season premiered on July 16, 2023.

## Cast Members

### Main

* Ramona Singer (Season 1-13)
* Luann de Lesseps (Season 1-5 and 7-13; guest in Season 6)
* Sonja Morgan (Season 3-13)
* Bethenny Frankel (Season 1-3 and 7-11)
* Carole Radziwill (Season 5-10)
* Dorinda Medley (Season 7-12; guest in Season 4)
* Jill Zarin (Season 1-4; guest in Season 9-12)
* Alex McCord (Season 1-4)
* Tinsley Mortimer (Season 9-12)
* Kelly Killoren Bensimon (Season 2-4; guest in Season 6-7)
* Heather Thomson (Season 5-7; friend in Season 13; guest in Season 8-10 and 12)
* Aviva Drescher (Season 5-6)
* Kristen Taekman (Season 6-7)
* Leah McSweeney (Season 12-13)
* Cindy Barshop (Season 4)
* Jules Wainstein (Season 8)
* Eboni K. Williams (Season 13)
* Brynn Whitfield (Season 14)
* Erin Lichy (Season 14)
* Jenna Lyons (Season 14)
* Jessel Taank (Season 14)
* Sai De Silva (Season 14)
* Ubah Hassan (Season 14)

### Friends of the Housewives

* Jennifer Gilbert (Season 3; guest in Season 5)
* Barbara Kavovit (Season 11; guest in Season 3-6 and 8-9)
* Elyse Slaine (Season 12; guest in Season 9-10)
* Bershan Shaw (Season 13)

## Spin-offs

* Bethenny Ever After
* Bethenny & Fredrik
* Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake