Here’s All The Gossip We Gleaned From The ‘Real Housewives’ Video Junkee Panel
#1 It. Isn't. Scripted.
Whether you passionately love it or despise it with every fibre of your being, you can’t deny that Real Housewives is seriously entertaining.
Since starting life as the standalone The Real Housewives Of Orange County back in 2006, the franchise has become one of the best-known (and most volatile) reality shows in history, with editions now being filmed in more than a dozen cities across the globe.
Australia finally got in on the action in 2014 with the launch of The Real Housewives of Melbourne, and Sydney followed suit in 2017.
While on stage at the inaugural Video Junkee in Sydney, Melbourne Housewife Janet Roach and Sydney’s Melissa Tkautz dished the behind-the-scenes dirt of the series, aided by Executive Producer Kylie Washington and show publicist Jamie Campbell.
Here’s what we learned.
#1 It. Isn’t. Scripted.
No, seriously. All those insults (and cocktail glasses) that fly across the table at dinner parties are completely spontaneous.
“This shit is REAL,” insisted Campbell.
Washington concurred, saying the producers are as surprised and shocked as anyone else by the shit that goes down.
“The producers don’t know what’s going to happen, and we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Tkautz. “Then you put a couple of skinny bitches in the mix, and it all happens!”
Sometimes, the producers are the ones trying to de-escalate the craziness.
“At [Janet’s] birthday party, I asked the waiter to put water in the shot glasses,” admitted Washington. “It was all getting a bit much.”
#2 It Also Isn’t Edited *That* Much
Most of us know that the heroes and villains of reality shows are actually created in the editing room. So it was somewhat surprising to learn that this selective editing doesn’t generally occur within the Housewives franchise, at least in Australia.
“I’ve never had a scene on the show be edited differently to how I remember it,” said Roach, while Tkautz nodded along beside her.
Washington agreed, adding that she’s proud of the fact that in all the seasons of the Aussie shows, “no one has come out in the press saying ‘you edited me badly.'”
#3 It Takes A Special Person To Be A Housewife
High maintenance? Difficult to work with? A little batshit crazy? Well good news, you’d be perfect for a role on the Real Housewives.
“They have to be high maintenance,” says Campbell. “If these women were easy to deal with, they wouldn’t be Housewives.”
The producers generally know within the first few minutes of meeting a potential Housewife if they have the goods or not, according to the panel.
It is possible to be too wild though, which was the case with Andrea Moss in the first season of RHOM.
“Andrea was too difficult. She had to go,” says Campbell.
#4 Yep, They Actually Do Hate Each Other In Real Life
If you thought that once the cameras were off the women would just chill out and chat amiably about their kids…you’d be wrong. The conflict that we see on the camera always spills out in real life.
“The women legitimately do not get along,” shrugs Washington. “Conflict comes very easy.”
Roach nodded furiously, before casually throwing some shade at her on-screen nemeses Gian Liano and Lydia Schiavello, labelling them “the dark side.”
“One time I was on a plane with Athena X…and she was trying to bring up an argument we had the day before, and I was just like ‘Can you just shut up? Can you save it for the camera?!'” recalled Tkautz.
#5 The Sydney Series Was Nasty From The Start
The Sydney franchise copped quite a bit of criticism upon its release earlier this year, with many commentators saying its level of nastiness was simply too extreme.
“It was a difficult series,” Campbell admitted, before Washington explained that there were already big issues between the women before filming even started.
“Krissi and Athena kicked off in the casting video, so by the time Nicole’s welcome home drinks were held in the first episode, there was already that drama bubbling,” she revealed. “But the audience didn’t know that. We were already in so deep, and we couldn’t find a way to go back.”