The Real Housewives of New York City, abbreviated RHONY, is an American reality television series that premiered on Bravo on March 4, 2008. It has aired fifteen seasons and focuses on the personal and professional lives of several women residing in New York City.
The cast of the current sixteenth season stars Carole Radziwill, Sai De Silva, Erin Lichy, Jessel Taank, Hailey Glassman, Erika Hammond, and Daisy Toye. The cast of the first season starred Bethenny Frankel, Luann de Lesseps, Alex McCord, Ramona Singer, and Jill Zarin. Other housewives that starred in multiple of the first thirteen seasons include Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Sonja Morgan, Cindy Barshop, Heather Thomson, Kristen Taekman, Jules Wainstein, Dorinda Medley and Tinsley Mortimer. The series was rebooted in its fourteenth season, making it the first series in the franchise to be completely recast, and starred Ubah Hassan, Jenna Lyons, Brynn Whitfield, and Racquel Chevremont.
Developed as the second installment of The Real Housewives franchise, the success of the series has resulted in three spin-offs: Bethenny Ever After, Bethenny & Fredrik, and Luann & Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake.
Overview Seasons 1–13: Original series While in pre-production, the show was initially titled Manhattan Moms. It was later rebranded to become the second installment 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.
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. 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./https://people.com/tv/rhony-will-not-film-a-season-13-reunion-due-to-scheduling-challenges/
Seasons 14–present: Rebooted series
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. Although the series has partially shifted its cast before, this marked the first time that the network had decided to completely replace the cast. As a result, the series’s fourteenth season was billed as a series reboot, with little to no connections to the original cast of the series. It was later announced that 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, being billed as RHONY Legacy premiered in December 2023 on Peacock. Taking place in Saint Barthélemy in the same villa that was featured in the fifth season, the cast includes Killoren Bensimon, de Lesseps, Medley, Morgan, Singer and Taekman.
Sai De Silva, Ubah Hassan, Erin Lichy, Jenna Lyons, Lizzy Savetsky, Jessel Taank and Brynn Whitfield were announced as the cast of the rebooted fourteenth season on October 16, 2022. Savetsky exited the series midway into filming the season on November 16, alleging that she had received anti-Semitic hate across her social media accounts. The fourteenth season premiered on July 16, 2023. In March 2024, Bravo announced that the show was renewed for a fifteenth season, with all six housewives from the fourteenth season returning. In April 2024, it was announced that Rebecca Minkoff would be joining the series in a friend of capacity. In June 2024, it was announced that Racquel Chevremont would also be joining the fifteenth season of the series as a full-time housewife. The fifteenth season premiered on October 1, 2024. In February 2025, ahead of the conclusion of the fifteenth season reunion, it was announced Minkoff would be exiting the series after one season.
In May 2025, a spokesperson for Bravo told Us Weekly speculated reports of the franchise's cancelation were untrue. This was in response to a report published by Page Six suggesting the franchise had been canceled by the network, with "hopes" to revive it in the future; in response to the Page Six article, Frankel made claim on her TikTok that the franchise had indeed been canceled. De Silva responded to the cancelation as "fake news" on her social media pages, while Cohen supported claims that "nothing has happened" with the franchise. Cohen further addressed the report on his SiriusXM radio show, stating, "We are between seasons", revealing producers had met with ten potential new housewives to join the franchise. The following month, Whitfield announced her departure, citing her decision to step away from reality television. Summer House co-stars Paige DeSorbo and Lindsay Hubbard, as well as makeup artist Daisy Toye were named as potential new housewives. During BravoCon in November 2025, Cohen revealed information regarding the sixteenth season and its cast would be announced "soon". That same month, Lyons announced her exit; she disclosed that despite being invited back in a "friend of" capacity, due to her unwillingness to film her personal life, and ultimately decided to depart.
On March 2, 2026, Bravo revealed the cast for the sixteenth season. Returning from the previous season included De Silva Lichy, and Taank. Hailey Glassman, Erika Hammond, and Toye were introduced as new, full-time housewives. Radziwill's return in a "friend of" role was also announced. Production was reported to begin the week of March 2. That May, it was reported Devyn Simone had joined the cast as a friend. The season premiered on September 8, 2026. Radziwill, initially announced as a "friend of", was promoted to a series regular and featured cameo appearances by Martha Stewart.
Cast
+ Cast members timeline Cast member Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Bethenny Frankel colspan="3" colspan="3" colspan="5" colspan="5" Luann de Lesseps colspan="5" colspan="1" colspan="7" colspan="3" Alex McCord colspan="4" colspan="12" Ramona Singer colspan="13" colspan="3" Jill Zarin colspan="4" colspan="4" colspan="4" colspan="5" Kelly Killoren Bensimon colspan="1" colspan="3" colspan="1" colspan="2" colspan="9" Sonja Morgan colspan="2" colspan="11" colspan="3" Cindy Barshop colspan="3" colspan="1" colspan="12" Aviva Drescher colspan="4" colspan="2" colspan="10" Carole Radziwill colspan="4" colspan="6" colspan="5" colspan="1" Heather Thomson colspan="4" colspan="3" colspan="3" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="3" Kristen Taekman colspan="5" colspan="2" colspan="9" Dorinda Medley colspan="3" colspan="1" colspan="2" colspan="6" colspan="4" Jules Wainstein colspan="7" colspan="1" colspan="8" Tinsley Mortimer colspan="8" colspan="4" colspan="4" Leah McSweeney colspan="11" colspan="2" colspan="3" Eboni K. Williams colspan="12" colspan="1" colspan="3" Sai De Silva colspan="13" colspan="3" Ubah Hassan colspan="13" colspan="2" colspan="1" Erin Lichy colspan="13" colspan="3" Jenna Lyons colspan="13" colspan="2" colspan="1" Jessel Taank colspan="13" colspan="3" Brynn Whitfield colspan="13" colspan="2" colspan="1" Racquel Chevremont colspan="14" colspan="1" colspan="1" Hailey Glassman colspan="15" colspan="1" Erika Hammond colspan="15" colspan="1" Daisy Toye colspan="15" colspan="1" Friends of the housewives Jennifer Gilbert colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="11" Barbara Kavovit colspan="2" colspan="4" colspan="1" colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="5" Elyse Slaine colspan="8" colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="4" Bershan Shaw colspan="12" colspan="1" colspan="3" Rebecca Minkoff colspan="14" colspan="1" colspan="1" Devyn Simone colspan="12" colspan="1" colspan="2" colspan="1"
Episodes
Critical reception Then-current cast member Frankel stated in 2017 that she would like to see the series "represent New York more." Writing for The New York Times in October 2019, author Tracie Egan Morrissey posed the question, "If less than half of the city is white, why is 100 percent of the cast of The Real Housewives of New York City white?" Former cast member Heather Thomson also stated that during her time on the series she had pitched several women of color to the show's producers to diversify its cast members due to her concerns about the issue. The women also received backlash for highlighting the class divide in America through the ignorance and mistreatment of staff featured on the show.