The Real Housewives of Orange County Season 18 reunion, which concluded Thursday night, looked a lot like the last one. The backdrop—a stunning beach scene on a giant screen—was basically the same. And the cast, with the exception of newbie Katie Ginella, was pretty similar, too. But the vibe of this year’s reunion, where the Housewives meet up to squash and reignite their beef from the season, couldn’t have been more different.
This time, it was Shannon Beador who was in the driver’s seat. Supported by the majority of the cast—and the fans watching at home—she waved goodbye to her nemesis, Alexis Bellino, and said: “It’s time for the ‘friend’ to exit the room!”
RHOC’s three-part reunion was a far cry from last year, where Beador was on the ropes after comments she had made about her co-star, Gina Kirschenheiter, who plead guilty to a DUI in 2019. (Beador falsely claimed that, at that time, Kirschenheiter’s children were in danger of being taken into care by child protective services.) Then, days after that fractious reunion, Beador herself was arrested after drunk-driving her car into a stranger’s home, after an argument with her now-ex-boyfriend and mortal enemy, John Janssen. Oh how the tables had turned.
Rather than a public flogging, Beador has instead received a surprising amount of support from Bravo fans this season. This is mostly down to how openly she has shared every step of the aftermath of her DUI—often in excruciating detail. In the Housewives world, Beador exemplifies that, sometimes, terrible (and even criminal) decisions can be the best thing to happen to a reality star—as long as they’re willing to take us along for the ride.
When Season 18 of RHOC began, many fans expected Kirschenheiter and Beador to come to blows. Beador was, by her own admission, unsupportive of her co-star when she got a DUI back in 2019 amid personal, marital (and hair) problems. Now that the shoe was on the other foot, some fans expected (and wanted) Kirschenheiter to twist the knife. But rather than fall out all over again, Beador offered Kirschenheiter a genuine apology, one that came with the personal experience of legal issues and a very public shaming. A friendship formed between the two of them, plus their co-star and Kirschenheiter’s bestie, Emily Simpson.
As Beador made new relationships, her long-standing bonds became fractured. Tamra Judge, a long-time ally, and one of the longest-serving Real Housewives ever, took it upon herself to deliver some “tough love.” As it became clear that Beador was still drinking socially, much to the disapproval of some of the cast, Judge frequently branded Beador an “alcoholic” in public settings. She also pulled out of the “tres amigas,” a performing trio that they, alongside Vicki Gunvalson, participate in live shows together across the country.
Things soon got even worse, when Beador’s ex boyfriend, John Janssen, sued her for $75,000 he claimed to have loaned her while they were together. (Beador denied the money was a loan, but says she settled the lawsuit to avoid substantial legal costs.) That wasn’t the end of it, though: Janssen’s new girlfriend, former RHOC cast member Alexis Bellino—who some fans might know as “Jesus jugs”—was asked to return to the show in a “friend” role.
Bellino wasted no time antagonising Beador and spent much of the season acting as a mouthpiece for her boyfriend, who she kept endlessly referring to as “Johnny J.” This culminated in one of the Housewives franchise’s darkest storylines in recent years: Bellino revealed that Janssen had compromising footage of Beador, taken on his home security camera when she was allegedly drunk and behaving erratically. As news of the footage trickled out, the cast were divided—and Beador was pushed to the edge.
Against this backdrop, it might sound strange —and even a little sadistic—to describe Beador’s DUI as a good thing. It has undoubtedly caused her no shortage of personal trauma, not to mention the risk she posed to others, including her golden retriever Archie, who was in the car with her. But in terms of her reality TV stardom, it’s had an undeniably positive impact. As some of the cast have taken low blows at her, Bravo’s usually-fractured fandom has rallied behind her with a unity that I haven’t seen in many years.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
Teresa Giudice, the last remaining “OG” on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, was famously convicted of tax fraud in 2015 and served a 11-month sentence. (Her husband, Joe Giudice, served 41 months and was deported to Italy in 2019.) The Real Housewives of New York City star Luann de Lesseps also found herself in legal trouble when she was arrested in Palm Beach in 2019, behaving drunkenly and erratically. In both of these cases, it was not simply that the women made bad choices. It was how they responded to those choices.
Both women allowed Bravo’s cameras to film the often-ugly aftermath, including embarrassing setbacks and missteps, commanding a certain respect from fans. With the help of Bravo, Giudice rebuilt her life again after her stint in prison, while de Lesseps launched a successful (and now international) cabaret career. Both women emerged as survivors.
On RHOC this season, Beador has continued this tradition. We’ve seen her breathe into a breathalyser in her car, have conversations with her daughters about her mistakes, and even show her castmates a photo of herself bloody and bruised in the immediate aftermath of the accident. And in the final part of the reunion, in additional scenes filmed days later, more disturbing revelations came out about the night Beador was arrested, which she called “the worst night of her life.” It’s been raw.
Part of this is down to what I’d call a “crisis of sharing” in reality TV. As the medium has graduated from a new phenomenon to a staple of our entertainment ecosystem, it’s been harder to find new reality stars who are willing to share the gory details of their lives. Many of them—like the cast of Bravo’s entirely rebooted RHONY, which continues to draw abysmal ratings and widespread fan ire—are too aware of the cameras, and the potential of the reality TV platform.
Concurrently, veteran reality stars, who have been on TV since before the reality TV-to-influencer pipeline was formed, have become gradually more guarded, either because they have more to lose, or because they think what they’ve shared in the past has “earned” them more privacy. And these stars are becoming more rare: across Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise, the newbies vastly outnumber the “OGs.”
Since joining in season 9, Beador has shared a tumultuous decade of her life on TV, including a nasty divorce, drastic weight gain, alcohol-related legal troubles and a breakup. In a reality TV environment where sharing is an increasingly valuable commodity, a Real Housewife who is willing to share her worst moments feels even more impressive. Beador’s loudest critics—Bellino and Janssen—suggest she is a master of getting sympathy she doesn’t deserve. But in the eyes of many fans, she’s earned it.
Watching how Bravo’s fervent online fandom has discussed Beador as RHOC has unfolded, it’s obvious that she feeds into the queer trope of a “survivor” woman. As much as this subdivision of the “gay icon” stereotype inspires an adoration of women like Judy Garland and Britney Spears, I wonder whether it’s right that we expect —and reward—women for suffering for our entertainment. And whether it’s a good thing that, if you’re able to create #content out of it, a DUI can catapult someone to a new level of stardom.
Regardless, Beador and her legal troubles—and the vulnerability with which she has shared the aftermath—has provided a blueprint for what we really want for reality stars today. This hasn’t just changed her own fortunes, but it’s reinvigorated RHOC as a show, with the drama surrounding her rapidly upending the group dynamics.
On the Real Housewives franchise, it seems that reality stars can mess up and hit rock bottom, and the fans will forgive them—but only if they let us watch as they try to pick up the pieces.
