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The Real Housewives is Bravo’s most successful show in years. The reality series follows a wide variety of affluent housewives in different parts of the world. While the franchise debuted in the United States, the success of the show inspired several international versions. The series is without a doubt a guilty pleasure for many, and while some love to hate the show, some just hate it. Despite dishing out divorces, drama, and delusions of grandeur, there are definitely ones that missed the mark.

The ‘Real Housewives’ of the U.S.

The show that started it all was The Real Housewives of Orange County. It premiered on March 21, 2006. Little did Bravo know the show would go over so well, it would serve as the blueprint for a handful of other series based in other regions. The Real Housewives franchise took over New York City, Atlanta, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Beverly Hills, Miami, Potomac, and Dallas. Out of the nine series, only two have ended, The Real Housewives of D.C. which ended after a single season and The Real Housewives of Miami which lasted three seasons.

The ‘Real Housewives’: International

Five years after The Real Housewives of Orange County changed the game for Bravo the first international spin-off was born — The Real Housewives of Athens. Following Athens, Real Housewives took over Vancouver, Les Vrais, Melbourne, Cheshire, Auckland, Sydney, Toronto, Hungary, and recently Johannesburg. The Real Housewives is even making its way to Asia with The Real Housewives of Bangkok! All but The Real Housewives of Melbourne, The Real Housewives of Cheshire, The Real Housewives of Hungary, and The Real Housewives of Johannesburg are off the air.

What ‘Real Housewives’ do people hate the most?

The Real Housewives of Orange County
The Real Housewives of Orange County | Phillip Faraone/Bravo

Looking at the longevity of the national shows The Real Housewives of D.C. and The Real Housewives of Miami are the worst installments. The ratings say the same. The D.C. housewives only received 2.4/10 on IMDb while the Miami housewives didn’t do much better with a 2.9/10. While the IMDb ratings are scathing, Google users were a bit kinder with 59% and 78% of users liking the shows respectively.

Internationally, The Real Housewives of Athens takes the cake for worst series. Despite being set in beautiful Greece, the show only received a 2.2/10 on IMDb.

To put things in perspective, IMDb has the majority of both the national and international series coming in between 4.1 and 5.4. Clearly, The Real Housewives of D.C. and The Real Housewives of Athens are the bottom of the barrel in an otherwise pretty successful franchise. But while the series being cut short and the numbers answer which ones flopped, it doesn’t answer why.

What’s the problem with ‘Real Housewives of D.C.’?

The Real Housewives of D.C. is seen as the most controversial in the entire franchise, which you would think would be a good thing. During filming, Michaele Salahi managed to sneak into the White House state dinner. While Salahi’s espionage provided tons of entertainment for viewers, it rubbed plenty of people the wrong way and landed Bravo in hot water since they went along for the ride.

With such a crazy event, how could this show be the worst? Outside of the shenanigans, the only season that aired was extremely boring. It was so boring; D.C. was the first installment producers pulled the plug on.  All of the drama viewers were searching for didn’t happen until long after the season ended. All five ladies eventually divorced their men, something that could have possibly saved the show if it all happened just a bit earlier.

Another problem was “competition” with several other D.C. based shows, Real World D.C, Top Chef D.C., and D.C. Cupcakes which left viewers tired of hearing about the city. To make matters worse filming restrictions in D.C. made it challenging to make the most of the high-profile residents of the city.

Instead of just letting the installment die it was brought back as The Real Housewives of Potomac with new cast members a few years later. Thankfully that one is going over better with Real Housewives loyalists.

Why do fan’s dislike ‘The Real Housewives of Athens’?

When the show premiered around 600,000 people tuned in to watch Athens’ housewives. While the viewership wasn’t terrible, there was a glaring problem with the show. It followed the standard format — follow the lives of glamorous ladies in luxury locations. While this works in most other places, it didn’t go over well in Greece. The show completely overlooked the status quo for the majority of Greece’s citizens. At the time the economy tanked due to the nation’s debt crisis. Not using the platform to shine a light on the struggles, just didn’t vibe with viewers.

Clearly, the key to a successful reality show is doubling down on drama and taking into account current events.

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