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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/trhobh_s8.jpg]]
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3Bravo DocuSoap created by Creator/AndyCohen featuring various glamorous women in different parts of the United States. First aired in 2006 with the Real Housewives of Orange County, the success of which was followed by shows set in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity New York City]] (2008), [[UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} Atlanta]] (2008), [[UsefulNotes/NewJersey New Jersey]] (2009), [[UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC Washington, D.C.]] (2010), [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Beverly]] [[ItCameFromBeverlyHills Hills]] (2010), {{UsefulNotes/Miami}} (2011), [[UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC Potomac]] (2016), [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas]] (2016), [[UsefulNotes/{{Utah}} Salt Lake City]] (2020), and UsefulNotes/{{Dubai}} (2022). Each series follows a cast of about six women and chronicles the ups and downs of their relationships.
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5In 2021, a {{Main/Crossover}} edition titled ''The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip'' premiered on {{Creator/Peacock}}. As of April 2023, three seasons have been aired with Housewives from all cities taking trips to Turks and Caicos, Great Barrington[[note]] in UsefulNotes/{{Massachusetts}} where they stayed at Dorinda Medley's Blue Stone Manor[[/note]], and Thailand.
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7''The Real Housewives'' series with their own pages:
8* ''Series/TheRealHousewivesOfAtlanta''
9* ''Series/TheRealHousewivesOfBeverlyHills''
10* ''Series/TheRealHousewivesOfPotomac''
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12!!''The Real Housewives'' contains examples of:
13* TheAlcoholic: Kim Richards.
14** OC's Braunwyn Windham-Burke revealed herself as one on Season 15.
15* ArtifactTitle: The title is meant to be contrary to the soap opera ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', while the setting of the first series seems to be have been chosen based on the similarly popular ''Series/TheOC''. However, ''Real Housewives'' has since grown to feature other cities and countries, and being a housewife (or even married) is not a strict requirement to be on the show. Furthermore, ''Desperate Housewives'' ended in 2012 and ''The OC'' ended in 2007.
16* BackForTheFinale: The reunion shows often bring in the husbands and other side characters, particularly when there's [[RuleOfDrama drama]] attached.
17* BerserkButton: Don't ''dare'' criticize any of the wives' marriages, children, or parenting styles, especially Teresa Giudice's.
18* BigFancyHouse: Several! Not all the women live in palatial quarters, but plenty of them do; Lisa Vanderpump's Villa Rosa, for instance.
19* BlueBlood: Some of the New York cast were married into nobility, such as Luann De Lesseps, who was married to a French Count, and Carole Radziwill, whose late husband was a Polish prince.
20* BuxomBeautyStandard: Averted about as often as it's played straight; both the acquisition and removal of breast implants are popular storylines.
21* CastFullOfRichPeople: The housewives are generally very well-off.
22* CatFight: Some last multiple seasons. Perhaps the most notable cat fight on the show was the infamous "table flip" episode featuring Theresa Giudice and Danielle Staub.
23** Another fairly infamous case was in the second season of the Beverly Hills series, between Taylor Armstrong and Camille Grammer, when the latter accused the former of lying about being abused by her husband. An image of Taylor from the episode "Malibu Beach Party From Hell" would later become a meme, used to show her yelling at an ''actual'' cat.
24* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Generally, each new season brings new information about the cast members; for example, Beverly Hills' Camille began in season one hated by the fans and the rest of the cast, but after her divorce from Creator/KelseyGrammer she returned in season two to a much more positive reception. Other times, this trope doesn't play out so positively--New Jersey's Teresa Giudice lost a lot of fans after they saw her troubled relationship with her sister-in-law.
25* ConfessionCam: The talking heads in which the cast members comment on the events of the episode after-the-fact.
26* DaddysGirl: Teresa Giudice's daughters. Many of the Housewives qualify as this too.
27* DeadpanSnarker: Several of the characters have their turn (especially in the [[ConfessionCam talking heads]]), but particularly notable examples are Lisa Vanderpump (Beverly Hills) and Bethenny Frankel (NYC).
28* DocuSoap: Most of the emphasis in the show is on the cast member's relationships with each other which can be [[RuleOfDrama fraught with drama]]. Other storylines revolve around their careers and family lives.
29* FlippingTheTable: One of the most iconic moments of the show's history was New Jersey's Teresa Giudice flipping a restaurant table.
30* EarlyBirdCameo: Many later-casted Housewives have made appearances in seasons prior to their official debut:
31** Meghan King Edmonds, Emily Simpson, and Braunwyn Windham-Burke of ''Orange County'' have all made cameo appearances prior to being casted.
32** Dorinda Medley of ''New York City'' has a cameo in Season 4 before becoming an apple-holder in Season 7.
33** Dolores Catania of ''New Jersey'' appears a few times in the early seasons of the show before her addition to the cast during Season 7.[[note]]this is made even more interesting when you consider that Dolores was supposed to a part of the cast during the show's inaugural season[[/note]]
34** Lisa Rinna of Season 5 and Denise Richards of Season 9 of ''Beverly Hills'' both appear as guests in Seasons 4 and 5 of the show respectively.
35* ForeignRemake: In addition to the American shows, there are also The Real Housewives of [[UsefulNotes/{{Greece}} Athens]], {{UsefulNotes/Vancouver}}, {{UsefulNotes/Toronto}}, {{UsefulNotes/Hungary}}, {{UsefulNotes/Melbourne}}, {{UsefulNotes/Sydney}}, {{UsefulNotes/Auckland}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} Cheshire]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} Jersey]], [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Johannesburg]], [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Durban]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Nigeria}} Lagos]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} Naples]], and UsefulNotes/{{Dubai}} along with the French version, ''Les Vraies Housewives'', that is set in [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Beverly Hills]].
36** There are also a host of shows in other countries that aren't official but follow the same format.
37* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Brandi Glanville, as a very firm example of this trope both on and off-show combined with being an AlphaBitch and the CountryMatters insults she occasionally spews. Even on the ''Ultimate Girls Trip'' spinoff time has NOT aged her being a {{Jerkass}}.
38** Carlton Gebbia is this to Kyle Richards and a few others within the Beverly Hills cast, while on the NYC side of things Alex [=McCord=] and Aviva Drescher have somewhat become this with a few exceptions.
39* HappilyMarried: While many of the housewives have been married several times, or only had short-term marriages, there are exceptions. Notable ones include Kyle Richards and her husband Mauricio (married since 1996), Lisa Rinna and Creator/HarryHamlin (married since 1997), Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd (since 1982), just to name a few.
40* {{Housewife}}: In spite of the show's name, only some of the women fill this role. Most have successful careers outside of RealityTV, and many are unmarried.
41* MamaBear: Despite some of their indiscretions, many of the Wives genuinely do care about their children, and if another Wife criticizes their parenting style, be prepared for BerserkButton.
42* ManipulativeEditing: A common complaint from the Wives when they start to look bad.
43* ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife: A seriously DownplayedTrope, doesn't matter which location.
44* PointAndLaughShow: For some viewers, the pleasure of watching the show takes the form of smug schadenfreude.
45* RagsToRiches: OC's Lauri Peterson, who was rich and lived in a big home, but became poor once she got divorced without financial settlement, but later got rich again after meeting a new man. One of her taglines also mentioned about her changing financial status.
46* RambunctiousItalian: The Real Housewives of New Jersey plays off on this trope, especially Teresa Giudice.
47* RealityTV: Probably one of the most successful of the genre.
48* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Depending on your interpretation of "real life"...
49* SassyBlackWoman: The Real Housewives of Atlanta and The Real Housewives of Potomac.
50* {{Socialite}}: The show plays around this trope. Many of the Housewives are either the daughters of wealthy families, married to wealthy men, or wealthy in their own right.
51* SouthernBelle: Atlanta's Phaedra describes herself this way.
52* SpicyLatina: The Real Housewives of Miami runs on this trope.
53* SpinOff: Some of the housewives get their own shows.
54* TeamMom: Caroline Manzo for New Jersey.
55* TokenMinority: DC's Stacie Scott Turner was the only black housewife outside Atlanta until Potomac (which, incidentally, is also in the DC area).
56** Dallas has Tiffany Hendra from Season 1 and Tiffany Moon from Season 5, who are both Asian-Americans.
57** OC has the only Latina housewife in its first two seasons, Jo De La Rosa. So do Beverly Hills and Dallas in their fourth seasons with Joyce Giraud and Kary Brittingham, respectively.
58** Garcelle Beauvais is Beverly Hills' first black housewife who appears in its 10th season, while Crystal Kung Minkoff appears in the following season as its first Asian-American housewife.
59** Eboni K. Williams is New York's first black housewife appearing in season 13.
60* TokenWhite: Kim Zolciak, the only white housewife in the Atlanta cast.
61** Caroline Stanbury for the Dubai cast.
62* TrophyWife: Some of the Housewives are these, but plenty are successful in their own right.
63* TwoferTokenMinority: Jules Wainstein from The Real Housewives of New York City on Season 8, who is both Asian and Jewish.
64** Salt Lake City's Jen Shah is one of the only two POC housewives in its main cast, being Tongan-Hawaiian, and she's also a Muslim, after converting from Mormonism.
65* VacationEpisode: There's always a group trip to a more-or-less exotic location.
66* WhiteDwarfStarlet: Atlanta's Kandi Burruss was a member of 90's girl group Xscape.
67* WitchWithACapitalB: Carlton Gebbia in the Beverly Hills cast, full stop.
68** Lampshaded in both sides as Gebbia is a self-proclaimed wiccan too, as well. It has not endeared her to her previous castmates, if at all.

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