‘The Real Housewives Of D.C.’ Made A Seismic Impact on Bravo’s Flagship Franchise — One That’s Never Really Been Fully Acknowledged

For a long time in the Bravo universe, The Real Housewives of D.C. felt almost like an urban legend. There have been plenty of one season wonder actual Housewives through the years, but RHODC is the first and only one season wonder Real Housewives franchise. And, if you didn’t watch it when it originally aired on Bravo back in 2010 or missed its pandemic era marathon for the show’s 10th anniversary, it’s been somewhat difficult to watch in recent years. 

So, when Bravo opened its vault this spring and made RHODC available to stream for the first time on Peacock, it proved prime for a rewatch. There was an unanswered curiosity over how the show aged after almost a decade and a half and how it might fit into the larger Housewives oeuvre when one considers how much the juggernaut has evolved during that time period. Over the course of nine episodes and a two-part reunion, D.C. proved to be ahead of its time in several ways. It’s a series that burned fast and bright and — perhaps surprisingly — laid some of the groundwork for what was to come for Real Housewives overall.

The Real Housewives of D.C. was the fifth franchise to debut on Bravo, following in the footsteps of Orange County, New York, Atlanta and New Jersey (Beverly Hills would premiere two months after D.C.). It premiered less than two years into President Barack Obama’s first term in the White House, and the show filmed during his first year as president. Obama’s election famously brought renewed cultural interest to the nation’s capital, which included the world of reality TV. The 23rd season of MTV’s The Real World aired just before RHODC, and the network also filmed an episode of Teen Cribs there the same year. Bravo wanted a piece of that pie and, in casting in a city that was over 50% Black at the time, production made an effort to reflect the city through its cast. As the only Black cast member on RHODC, Stacie Turner became the first woman of color cast as a Real Housewife outside of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, which featured an all-Black cast (with the exception of Kim Zolciak). It would be another 10 years until The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast its first Black cast member in Garcelle Beauvais, and 11 years until The Real Housewives of New York City cast its first Black cast member in Eboni K. Williams.

Stacie’s casting on RHODC wasn’t simply a checked box, either. Throughout the course of the season, her presence on the show, engagement with current events, and passion for politics forced the show to tackle issues related to race head-on. There were several moments where her cast mates’ microaggressions were called out and became topics of conversation, and her British co-star Cat Ommanney found herself in hot water after apparently feeling uncomfortable as the only white person at a gathering for Stacie’s extended family. Stacie and her then-husband, Jason, weren’t the only people of color on D.C. pushing the conversation forward, either: Paul Wharton and Ted Gibson, two gay Black men who featured prominently as friends of the cast, also led the way, and cast member Lynda Erikelitian’s interracial relationship with Ebong Eka represented another dynamic to be explored.

While there were certainly comments and moments that didn’t age well, the fact that some of these discussions were happening at all on Real Housewives 14 years ago feels fairly seminal to the space — particularly if you consider that they came right after the Obama’s election, which was a time when the myth of post-racial America came to be. Conversations around race didn’t make it to the forefront of Bravo as a whole until the racial reckoning and proliferation of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, yet RHODC discussed race and other important topics like the legalization of gay marriage over a decade ago.

Of course, you also can’t talk about RHODC without mentioning Michaele Salahi and her husband, Tareq, who thrust the show into the international spotlight before it even started airing when they crashed President Obama’s first state dinner at the White House in November 2009. The incident, which is documented in the season finale of the show, kicked off a formal investigation and resulted in the couple appearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee. Cameras went down immediately following the controversy, but picked back up months later to follow the fallout, filming the other cast members watching the Salahis’ hearing on CSPAN and attempt to get more details out of Michaele and Tareq. Bravo picking cameras back up to document a high-interest scandal is also something viewers are used to now: They’ve done it recently for Scandoval, Kyle Richards’ separation, Drew Sidora’s divorce and various splits on The Valley, to name just a few instances. People forget that RHODC did it first.

In many ways, too, the controversy — which is often blamed for RHODC not returning for a second season — paved the way for future zeitgeist-invading legal scandals born out of The Real Housewives: Teresa and Joe Giudice’s trial and subsequent stints in prison, the Erika Jayne and Tom Girardi lawsuits, Jen Shah’s arrest by the FBI and current stint in prison. These were all watershed moments for Bravo and its crown jewel Real Housewives franchises, and one could argue that the White House crashing scandal helped to prepare Bravo and its production partners for such moments. It taught them how to deal with the scrutiny and FBI involvement and international attention, as ridiculous as that may sound.

While RHODC never got a chance to prove itself beyond its one entertaining and infamous season, it absolutely made an impact — even if it doesn’t often get credit for it. It’s not perfect and the Salahis undoubtedly overshadowed its run, but The Real Housewives of D.C. was ahead of its time. And, for that, its cast should be proud. Plus, if RHODC hadn’t gotten canceled, there’s a high probability Bravo fans never would’ve gotten The Real Housewives of Potomac. Now that would’ve been tragic.

Gibson Johns is an award-nominated entertainment journalist, host, podcaster, and reality TV commentator known for his Bravo hot takes, celebrity interviews and prolific tweeting. His work has appeared in Esquire, Men’s Health, Betches, Yahoo! and more. He’s conducted hundreds of interviews with top celebrities like Khloe Kardashian, Matt Damon, Chrissy Teigen, Kate Hudson and Gabrielle Union, as well as interviews with over 80 “Real Housewives.” He’s appeared as a moderator at multiple BravoCons, hosted premiere panels for Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Potomac and Dancing Queens, and been a guest on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy.