‘Ultimate Girls Trip’ Cast: Bravo Assembles Seven Real Housewives All-Stars to Celebrate Franchise Turning 20

As foretold at BravoCon by Andy Cohen — the executive producer of “The Real Housewives,” and the host of Bravo‘s nightly talk show “Watch What Happens Live” — the network will celebrate the franchise turning 20 by producing “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th,” an all-star season featuring a core cast of seven Housewives from seven different cities. Cohen made the announcement on “Watch What Happens Live” Wednesday night, when Porsha Williams of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” and Venita Aspen from “Southern Charm” were his guests.

Williams will be representing “Atlanta,” as the show makes its way through five different locations where “Real Housewives” has filmed. OG of the OC Vicki Gunvalson (“The Real Housewives of Orange County”), Kyle Richards (“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”), Countess Luann de Lesseps (“The Real Housewives of New York City”), Teresa Giudice (“The Real Housewives of New Jersey”), Gizelle Bryant (“The Real Housewives of Potomac”) and Lisa Barlow (“The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City”) will go from Orange County to Beverly Hills, then travel to Atlanta and Miami before ending the trip in New York City. The show will premiere later this year.

Along the way, the main cast will be joined by more than 60 additional Housewives, and that is where NeNe Leakes comes in for her much-heralded (and much-rumored) return to Bravo after her 2022 lawsuit in which she sued NBCUniversal, Bravo, True Entertainment, Cohen personally and other involved parties for violating federal employment and anti-discrimination laws. In Leakes’ lawsuit, which she withdrew later in 2022, she alleged the network and its parent company “maintain a corporate culture that is insensitive to Black talent and fosters racially-offensive behavior that goes unpunished.”

Leakes was part of the original cast of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” in 2008, and was one of the first Bravo stars who showed what the platform could do: Her lightning-quick wit, equally fast comebacks, compelling backstory and immense charisma made her an audience favorite. She quickly became the most quoted and GIF’d Bravo star, as “Close your legs to married men!,” “I said what I said,” “So nasty and so rude,” among many, many other NeNe moments entered the pantheon. Leakes also caught the attention of powerful TV boss Ryan Murphy, who created a recurring role for her on “Glee” and cast her as a series regular on the NBC sitcom “The New Normal.” As her fortunes changed, she remained on “Real Housewives of Atlanta” (though she went part-time for a few seasons), and left officially after Season 12 in 2020.

After filing the lawsuit in 2022, though, Leakes became persona non grata at the network, and the following year, she went on former Bravo star (turned anti-Bravo activist) Bethenny Frankel’s podcast to say she’d been blacklisted in the entertainment industry, and was being “severely punished.” In 2024, though, something began to thaw at NBCUniversal, and Leakes was hired to be one of the presenters for “Live From E!: Emmy After Party.” The thawing continued: In an interview from BravoCon from this past November with Frances Berwick — the chairman of Bravo and Peacock Unscripted — when asked whether Leakes might ever fully reconcile with the network, Berwick said, “Yes, she can be on a show again.” Indeed, it’s Berwick whom Leakes thanks first in an emotional post on Instagram earlier Wednesday, in which she collaborated with Bravo to announce her official return. “Couldn’t celebrate 20 years without you,” Cohen wrote in the comments of the post.

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Filming is imminent on “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th” (which is the series’ working title). According to the network’s official description for the show, “Starting where it all began in Orange County and culminating in an epic East Coast grand finale, each stop will feature appearances by fan favorites from different cities to pay tribute to the past, embrace the present and look toward the many miles still ahead. Along the way, viewers can expect nostalgic reunions, heartfelt revelations, effortless humor and the larger-than-life dynamics that only Housewives can deliver.”

“The Real Housewives of Orange County” premiered on Bravo on March 21, 2006, and was intended to be a reality version of “Desperate Housewives,” then among the top shows on television. Nearly 20 years later, Bravo plans to aggressively commemorate the milestone for the franchise. As Berwick put it at BravoCon, “Let’s just say the audience will be very aware that it is the 20th anniversary of ‘Real Housewives,’ with many celebrations around that.”

“The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th” is produced by Shed Media with Lisa Shannon, Dan Peirson and Darren Ward serving as executive producers. Cohen also serves as executive producer.