How the ‘Real Housewives of Dubai’ Are Rescuing Bravo From Darkness

Don’t call it a comeback, call it a takeover.

When The Real Housewives of Dubai finally returned for its second season after a two-year wait, the hype was low and expectations lower. Burnt out by middling seasons of The Real Housewives of Potomac and The Real Housewives of New Jersey, many Bravo fans were cautious to welcome back RHODubai after a tepid debut season of its own. That all changed as Season 2 premiered and fans began asking, “Wait, is Dubai… good?”

The first international franchise produced by NBCUniversal (while The Real Housewives of Melbourne once aired on Bravo, it and other international iterations have no relation to the main network), RHODubai came with a unique hurdle: “It had to be the right locale. It had to be the right cast. And we have to feel like, even though this is thousands of miles away, this still feels like a Housewives show,” Sezin Cavusoglu, Senior Vice President of Unscripted Current Production at NBCUniversal Entertainment, told The Daily Beast’s Obsessed.

With Season 2, the show has embraced its Housewives roots. The cast balances petty squabbles with real friendship-ending stakes, allowing audiences to invest themselves in the budding franchise. Bravo took its time with the second season, holding focus groups and looking internally to figure out why audiences didn’t initially glom onto the series, according to Cavusoglu, who added that the Dubai filming commission took more kindly to the series’ second outing, having been happy with Season 1.

Doors were opened to new filming locations, allowing the ladies to show off their opulent lifestyles as their discussions grew from liking french fries to arguing over who had the best seats at Beyoncé’s exclusive concert. That, along with the show’s first explosive dinner party and a dynamic shattering trip to Bali, has elevated RHODubai far beyond its rookie status. That’s something many in the Bravo fanbase have noted, seeing Dubai as a refreshing return to the lighter days of Bravo entertainment—especially at a time when sex scandals, physical fights, and shocking lawsuits have plagued other Housewives franchises.

“I love all the positivity that we’re getting online,” cast member Chanel Ayan said. “I love that people are comparing us to the old days of Housewives. The old days when it was fun, we were all being silly, we don’t take ourselves so seriously. We get to laugh. We’re fighting about V.I.P and V.V.I.P.”

“I love that we’re not so dark,” she added. “You want to be friends with us and we want to be friends with you.”

Ayan studied the ancient texts to prepare for her second outing, watching each Real Housewives Season 2, and she feels that Dubai blows some of its peers out of the water.

“I feel like we’re on Season 7, the way we are [going],” Ayan said. “People are forgetting: this is our second season. Go back to all the other Housewives, watch Season 2 of their show, and compare to how we are.”

One refreshing aspect of the Dubai cast is their ability to fight and move on, in an era of increasing stalemates across the franchise. That’s something cast member Chanel Ayan appreciates about her castmates, bemoaning other cities that drag their drama beyond the point of interest.

“When somebody fights and that fight is dragged for like six episodes, I’m like, ‘You don’t have anything else happening in your life?’” Ayan said. “You want to tell me you have the same issue for six weeks? Because I have issues every day. Every five minutes, I have issues. And I think that’s one of the best things about my castmates, that I love about us. We argue and then the cameras go off. We have lunch together, we hang out. So it’s easy to move on.”

While Dubai has found its footing, it still faces lower ratings and Housewives fans reluctant to give the show a shot. While a typical episode of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City accumulates well over 1,500 comments per live discussion on r/BravoRealHousewives, RHODubai discussions typically sits around 200 comments.

Ayan quipped that Americans are simply asleep at 9 pm Eastern, when the show airs. Still, wanting the show to find its audience, she put out a call to fans to watch the show in early July. The response was overwhelmingly positive, she said.

For some fans, though, the biggest hurdle to overcome is Dubai’s repressive views on gay rights, as well as obstructive laws that keep the show from embracing its Housewives roots (no screaming in public takes away a sacred right of each and every Housewife).

While the network isn’t “blind to those issues,” RHODubai isn’t the only franchise to take place in a problematic nation, Cavusoglu argued, pointing to the U.S.

“I would say it’s very rich to hear American people talk about rights in other countries. I think we have a lot of issues of our own here,” she said. “I think that we have to take a look at ourselves first before we start criticizing other countries and governments.”

Despite its detractors, the newest member of the franchise has cultivated a devoted audience—one that still trails the franchise’s higher rated flagships—allowing RHODubai to find a much-needed lane.

That rise comes on the heels of a tumultuous few years in the Bravo-sphere. While Vanderpump Rules skyrocketed to its best-ever ratings on the heels of the Scandoval, whereas RHOSLC cemented its elite status with its buzziest season yet, The Real Housewives of Atlanta has been afflicted by declining returns and a fanbase fed-up with middling seasons.

What was supposed to be the big comeback season is already mired by controversy after veteran Kenya Moore exited the show amid major scandal, accused of distributing sexually explicit photos of new cast member Brittany Eady during Moore’s hair salon opening. To keep the show on track, Bravo has thrown a last-minute hail mary by recruiting formerly disgraced star Phaedra Parks to return, despite being fired years earlier for spreading false allegations of sexual assault against former Housewife Kandi Burruss.

Over in New Jersey, an impenetrable cast divide led Bravo to cancel the reunion—the second time in franchise history, and the first led to the cancelation of the original The Real Housewives of New York City. That comes after convoluted legal drama kept Margaret Josephs and Teresa Giudice apart all season, while Giudice avoided sister-in-law Melissa Gorga as well after coming to blows following a decade-long rollercoaster relationship. On top of it all, a physical fight broke out between Housewives Jennifer Aydin and Danielle Cabral, creating even more division in an already shattered dynamic.

Couple that with lawsuits plaguing the Morocco season of The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip, which is in post-production purgatory more than a year after filming and is increasingly unlikely to air following Caroline Manzo’s accusations of sexual assault against Brandi Glanville, and you have some fans ringing alarm bells.

The network itself isn’t too concerned with the fickle nature of the fanbase, though: “It’s very hard to win sometimes,” Cavusoglu said.

“I don’t worry about the future of the franchise,” she added. “I think that Housewives is going to be around for a long time. But as good as it is to see Dubai having a great season and being liked by fans, I want all of our shows to succeed. I want all of them to do well.”

The Bravo fanbase has grown increasingly volatile in recent years, to the point fan accounts are now actively part of the RHONJ drama, while Vanderpump Rules’ breakout success led to a parasocial fandom that had every cast member walking on eggshells for fear of retribution. As social media grows in veracity, many fans have looked to control the casting process far more than ever before, further increasing the temperature.

“When things get too toxic or dark or deep sometimes, I think the fans are sometimes complicit in that, too. And I think the women follow all these comments so closely and religiously, and that adds fuel to the fire,” Cavusoglu said. “The discourse should always stay civilized. We need to remember this is not life and death.”

For production, it’s less about finding Housewives everyone likes and more about telling compelling stories. When it comes to resident Dubai villain Caroline Brooks, Cavusoglu promised fans will see a softer side of her later in the season, reminding fans that every Housewife arc ebbs and flows.

“We’ve seen a lot of times when a cast member may be disliked one season, and then they come back and course correct and become the fan favorite,” Cavusoglu said. “So if you don’t give them a chance for that to happen, we’re gonna have to cycle through a lot of different women.”

“I hope that the fans trust us enough to know to be along for the ride, instead of calling for these rapid firings and snap judgments,” she added.

As RHODubai heads into filming its second reunion, Ayan said she feels nervous to rehash some of the season’s drama, but grateful to be part of a cast who truly get along—and she’s confident it will stay that way (for the most part).

“We’re actually a group of friends that really care and support each other, and love each other, and also just like to argue with each other and be bitches,” she said. “We’re seeing 10 years of this.”