[This story contains spoilers from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City‘s season six premiere.]
Heading into their sixth season, the team behind The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City knows there’s pressure to deliver another compelling installment.
But after losing one cast member in 2023 to prison time for partaking in a telemarketing scam and forfeiting another housewife a year later for her role in an Instagram troll account, it’s safe to say the Salt Lake City housewives can bounce back from any and all setbacks.
With no shortage of marital issues, conflict amongst the group, and viral upon viral moments (“Receipts! Proof! Timelines! Screenshots!” or “Rumors and nastiness,” to name a few), there’s something about RHOSLC that stands out from other shows in the Bravo franchise. Showrunner Lori Gordon and Noah Samton, svp of unscripted production for NBCUniversal, believe that special ingredient is the women.
“They’re the perfect combination of drama, humor and personal story. They check every box that you want from a housewife,” Samton tells The Hollywood Reporter, while Gordon adds, “I don’t think it’s any coincidence that five of the original women are [still] on the show.”
With five OGs from the founding cast that was assembled in 2020 still in tact heading into season six, the women of Salt Lake City understand what’s expected as housewives. Where the cast of the Beverly Hills cycle is often criticized for shielding pieces of their lives from cameras, or the New York City reboot was slammed for manufacturing storylines, Mary Cosby says the housewives of Salt Lake City have an undeniable “authenticity” factor that resonates with viewers.
“We, as a cast, have grown into that area where we are all coming from an authentic place,” Cosby explains. “We’re being real, and it’s hard to achieve that, but we mastered being able to be our true selves, and we carry all this drama every single year.”
In separate conversations edited together below, Gordon and Samton dish on what sets Salt Lake City apart from the rest of the Real Housewives franchise and address rumors of ex-castmates Jen Shah and Monica Garcia ever returning to the series in the future, while Cosby, Heather Gay and Meredith Marks reflect on the season six premiere and how their cast will continue raise the bar.
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The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City has emerged as a juggernaut of the Real Housewives franchise. What do you credit to Salt Lake City’s swift rise?
LORI GORDON (SHOWRUNNER) It’s the women. They’re always very authentic and very open in what’s really going on in their lives. This season, Whitney [Rose] was very forthcoming with the failure of the business venture that her and her husband delved into. There’s Mary and her son, which is a continuous story and battle for them, to this day as we speak, that she is constantly working on and being open about. It’s a very hard subject. She’s not like, “Oh, everything’s great.” She knows it’s an uphill battle for him; he falls back into delving into drinking and drugs, and then he is good for a few months. She’s really embracing the reality of what that situation looks like for people, which I think is important and relatable. Nobody wants to tune in on a show and think, one stint in rehab and your kid’s fine. And really all of them, whether it’s business, accusations of lawsuits, rumors about their marriages, getting their kids to college — it’s all relatable. One of them always seems to be tapping into something for the audience every season. [Writer’s note: Lori Gordon’s interview was conducted before TMZ reported on Robert Jr. Cosby’s alleged arrest.]
NOAH SAMTON (SVP OF UNSCRIPTED PRODUCTION, NBCUNIVERSAL) They’re the perfect combination of drama, humor and personal story. They check every box you want from a housewife. There’s a really powerful storyline this coming season with Bronwyn [Newport] and what she’s going through with her family, not to mention what she’s shown with her daughter, Gwen, and the challenges she faced having her at such a young age in this shadow of the Mormon Church and pressure that put on her. They’re just so open and willing to share about themselves, and yet at the same time, they are some of the funniest housewives on Bravo.
As three of the five original cast members still on the series, Mary, Heather and Meredith, what has it been like watching the success and reach of RHOSLC continue to grow year after year?
MARY COSBY Wow, it’s been a journey. Surreal. It’s unbelievable, but at the same time, it’s kind of become a way of life. It’s part of who I am now.
HEATHER GAY Can you believe it? I’s obviously changed my entire life. And more than that, it’s changed my entire perspective. At a time of my life where I really thought I was being put out to pasture, this whole second chapter has opened up, and it’s only that much more fun because I’m sharing it with these women. If I had won the lottery, it would not be the same experience; it wouldn’t have changed my life as much. My life has been changed by money and fame as much as it has been changed by my unique relationship with these women.
MEREDITH MARKS It’s pretty wild, because I do think the chips were a bit stacked against us. Early on, we were kind of discarded as, “Oh, it’s Salt Lake City.” We’re not New York, we’re not Beverly Hills, we’re not Miami. I think a lot of people were like, “How’s this gonna be so great?” So to be in the place we’re in is very validating, and feels great.
A unique element about RHOSLC is the component of Mormonism. Before Salt Lake City, there was Sister Wives, and now we have The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. What has it been like to see this rise of Mormons taking over reality TV, especially for you, Heather, as someone who has opened up about your story with the Church?
SAMTON I’m glad to see them all sort of jumping on our bandwagon and following along in what the Salt Lake City women have done so well. [Mormonism] was the original hook to the show. I had spent some time in Salt Lake City, but until I got into this show, I didn’t really know how unique of a place it was. It’s just a very special, unique kind of person that seems to grow up in that world. There’s this tenant in the Mormon Church to aspire to perfection. Not just being perfect at your job, it’s about being perfect looking. There’s more med spas in Salt Lake City than there are in Beverly Hills.
GAY I love it, I’m here for it. I feel like we really broke the code and brought it into this modern day world, and made Mormonism part of the zeitgeist and sparked all the curiosity about it. I think it’s a rich, interesting, fascinating culture, and we’ve just barely started to scratch the surface. Housewives started it, and that’s where we’re gonna keep the crown, if you don’t mind. We’re gonna keep the Mormonism crown. Everybody’s welcome to put their two cents in, but we started it and we’re gonna keep it.
Something that is very exciting with season six is the crossover with Below Deck Down Under. Noah, where did this idea come from, and how did your team go about executing it?
SAMTON I oversee the Below Deck franchises, and for many years we have all talked about, “Wouldn’t it be great to have Housewives on Below Deck?” After years of discussing it, we said, “This is the perfect time to really do a real crossover. The housewives will charter the yacht, and we’ll shoot it for Salt Lake City at the same time we’re shooting it for Below Deck Down Under.” It’s going to be two separate shows telling the same story from two very different points of views.
And it was incredibly challenging. It’s already incredibly challenging to shoot a TV show on a boat. You add in seven dynamic housewives on top of the Below Deck crew, and it’s almost an impossible task. The showrunners for both shows were really put through their paces and stretched as thin as possible, but we always knew it was going to be great, because the Housewives of Salt Lake City are the ultimate challenging guests to have on Below Deck. And this cast for Below Deck Down Under has some very familiar faces coming back. We felt like they would be up to the task. Daisy [Kelliher] is the chief stew, Captain Jason [Chambers], Chef Ben [Robinson] … we felt like they would be up for the challenge, and they were.
Lisa Barlow is notably missing from the season six premiere episode. At the time that filming picked up, there were rumors she might have not been coming back to the show. Was there any validity to those rumors, or did she really just have work at that moment in time?
GORDON She was always going to be part of the show. But I think it’s really up to the audience of how they look at her decision to not be on that trip, in my opinion. I think it’s nice to leave that open ended. She told the women she had work, she did have work. Could she have moved her trip to be there? That’s something I think the viewers have to decide. Ultimately, her not being there gave the women the ability to say some things maybe they wouldn’t have been able to say [with her present]. I think her not being there also affected her in the season. How that pans out is interesting, because it gave this rise for people to talk about some rumors and whether they’re embellishing them, truth or not.
This season, we also have Britani Bateman back as a friend. In the premiere, Britani fought with both Whitney and Meredith. Mary, Heather and Meredith, do you think Britani making sure that she had dialogue with a few of the cast members was her fighting for a snowflake?
COSBY Of course it was. Absolutely (Laughs). I think Britani’s role works for the group as a friend role. As a housewife, you have to open up and show the world and share what you’re going through, and be your true and authentic self. I don’t think Britani offers that. I think Britani offers the level of a friend.
GAY I don’t think that she knows the difference between full force effort and not giving a fuck. I don’t think it’s a curated effort, but it’s just the read I get when I’m with her. She is a little bit always herself, and that’s a little bit oblivious. I think it’s a natural state for her to be constantly inserting herself in the dialogue. I don’t think her agenda is directly linked to a snowflake at all. I think she just wants to be there in general.
MARKS Britani’s kind of just all over the place. We’ve seen that she’ll say anything. Everything is, “Oh, let me make this right by telling you I lied about that.” It’s the most bizarre thing. I don’t get it. She’s just all over the place.
What were your reactions when Angie Katsanevas compared Lisa to Jen Shah?
GORDON It’s interesting. There was a lot of miscommunication in how it came out and how the women took it. There was a lot of mystery around Jen, and not until later in [the] third season was [there] a lot of, “Who is Jen? What do we know about her?” Like, we want to believe everything she’s told us, because we love her and she’s in our friend group. But the second she pleaded guilty, it became a different story. So I think it’s the women treading lightly. They’re a little bit scared of being burned again like that.
COSBY That was a little too far. No one deserves to be compared to Jeh Shah. Absolutely no one. It was a little much for me. Lisa runs a legitimate business, and Jen Shah didn’t. It was a little far. [Angie] tried to retract it, though.
GAY I was shocked, and it felt like it came out of left field and seemed a little preposterous.
MARKS Not great. Because the thing is, these are civil charges, and there are other criminal charges out there about other cast members. So I don’t really understand why this was such a big deal. Anybody can file a civil lawsuit. This isn’t the government, it’s not the state. It’s not the United States going after Lisa, it is an individual. I can file a lawsuit against any of those women tomorrow if I felt like it, and then let’s see what they have to say (laughs).
Monica Garcia recently said that people think the RHOSLC team is waiting until Jen is released from prison to bring both women back to the show at the same time. Is there any validity to this rumor?
GORDON That’s hysterical. No, there’s no validity to it. There’s so much to do in every season between shooting the show and editing the show that we’re so hyper-focused on this season, we don’t really even think about a next season until we’re in it.
SAMTON There is no plan in place one way or another. Honestly, we’re so happy with the cast and where they are right now. Ask me again, maybe in January, and we can have a different conversation about it. But as of right now, nobody’s even thinking about Jen Shah and Monica. Jen’s not even out of jail yet, right? So, yeah, we’re not there. But of course, if I was a fan, I would be speculating the same thing.
With Jen’s prison release roughly a year away, is there a world where you see her coming back to the show? Or do you think the weight of her crimes and her pleading guilty deters her from potentially returning?
GORDON: I may have opinions that are considered because I’ve been working on the show for so long, but that’s above my pay grade (laughs). I feel like ultimately that comes down to a Bravo, NBCUniversal [decision]. But honestly, whether or not Jen or Monica or anybody comes back, I don’t know.
SAMTON: That’s a very tough question, and I don’t know that I have an answer for you right now. There’s a lot of things to weigh and consider with that. We’re not even far enough in thinking or discussing for me to give you any direction at all on that one.
Does it frustrate you when people ask if Jen will come back? The cast has obviously continued on without her, but there’s always going to be that question because of her story.
GORDON No, you know why it doesn’t? Because it goes to show that they really like the people on the show. And by the way, Jen was amazing in so many ways. She made bad choices that she definitely regrets and she’s paying for, but ultimately, I loved working with Jen. I loved working with Monica. I love working with all of them. And the truth is, the audience also recognizes the great things about Jen. She wasn’t an entirely awful person, and neither was Monica. There [were] good things and bad things about them, just like there’s good and bad things about every cast member. The only difference is they’re not on the show anymore. So I think if people didn’t ask me about Jen or Monica, I would think, Wow, they really just didn’t care about those people, which would be more upsetting. It’s more of a compliment that they do ask. Because that means the women did their job, and we as a team did our job in telling great stories.
When Jen and Monica left the show, there was skepticism about how RHOSLC would move on and if the cast would be able to continue without them, but you all have proved skeptics wrong. How does it feel to continuously prove people wrong while also raising the bar with, arguably, the best modern Real Housewives franchise?
GORDON Every season going into every major thing we do, I give a pep talk to women in terms of encouraging them to surprise me, surprise the audience. They know what the expectation is; they’re hard on themselves, and they don’t settle. I always say, “Tell me something I don’t know. Say something new and don’t be a yes man. Don’t be the friend that everything is perfect. Nobody wants that person as a friend.” And also, nobody ever wants to confide in the person that you get on the phone with, and they’re like, “Oh, everything’s great. My marriage is great. My kids are great. Everything’s amazing.” It’s like, no, be the friend that everybody in the audience wants to call. Be honest, be relatable, surprise me. And they really always do. They up the ante, and they have such a great way of doing it.
GAY It’s so thrilling to think how far we’ve come. We were really underestimated. I love these women in Salt Lake. We have grown together. We have been through a lot, and that makes me feel like it’s part of the magic of our friendships. No matter how badly we hate each other or aren’t getting along, equal to the conflict, there is a lot of love and shared experiences and codependency. We can fight hard but we can play hard, and that’s what keeps us connected to each other.
MARKS A lot of times it gets lost, not just with Salt Lake, but all of the cities, that it’s an ensemble [cast]. It’s not one person making [the show]. So as long as the dynamics are strong within that group, pulling one person out probably isn’t going to make that big of a difference. It’s not about who’s the star or who’s supporting or whatever. I think the more that the women get that, the better it works.
COSBY It comes from authenticity. It comes from living your real, true life in front of the cameras. I believe in being myself. Either you like me or you like us, or you don’t. As a cast, we have grown into that area where we are all coming from an authentic place. We’re being real, and it’s hard to achieve that, but [in] some kind of way, we mastered to be able to be our true selves, and we carry all this drama every single year.
Mary, last season, you and your son opened up about some struggles that Robert Jr. has been going through [with addiction]. That moment is one of, if not the most, heart-wrenching moments in the Real Housewives franchise. Looking back, what has the reception been to opening up about that journey last season, and how are you guys doing today?
COSBY It’s been good. People responded good. That’s a silent epidemic. It’s a problem in our world, not just our country. It’s real, it’s happening. It’s in people’s homes. We’re not the only ones facing it. My son and I didn’t even plan [to talk about that on camera]. The cameras started rolling, and he and I just started talking. He was shocking me and I was shocking him, and we were just being ourselves as if cameras wasn’t there. To be able to get that reaction and feedback from people is mind-blowing. It’s humbling. It feels good. I’m glad I did it. I wouldn’t change anything. And how we’re doing today is, you know, my son is on his own journey and he has to make his own mind up. I can’t do it for him. I can be supportive. I can try and steer him in the right way, but at the end of the day, it’s his journey and it’s his life. It’s his mindset. [If] his mind’s not made up, there’s not really a whole lot I can do, you know? But we’re working through that.
Looking back on season six, who surprised you the most out of all of the women?
COSBY Maybe Britani being there … no, I’m just kidding. Maybe Meredith surprised me, and the way she moved through this season. Meredith kind of stepped up this season.
GAY I’m still continually surprised by how involved Mary is. For so long, Mary was just like, “You idiots, go do that. I’m not gonna participate.” But she really is in it with us, on every level. She camped — she sat around a campfire, and it was her activity (laughs). I’m constantly surprised, and I think her story has been as remarkable as anyone’s.
MARKS That’s a really hard question. Heather.
Describe season six of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City in one word.
COSBY Amazing.
GAY Unstoppable.
MARKS Lies.
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New episodes of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season six release Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Bravo, and stream the next day on Peacock.