Ready for more New York? Peacock has officially bumped up the launch date for “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy” ahead of the second installment of “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club,” Variety can reveal.
“RHONY Legacy” is set to premiere in December on Peacock, now making it the official fourth season of “Ultimate Girls Trip.” The cast will star original New York Housewives Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Luann de Lesseps, Dorinda Medley, Sonja Morgan, Ramona Singer and Kristen Taekman. They will all travel to the infamous house on Saline Beach in Saint Barthélemy that the “RHONY” cast visited in the show’s fifth season.
Decision to swap the “Ultimate Girls Trip” seasons and post “RHONY Legacy” first comes as fan favorite New York Housewives de Lesseps and Morgan’s spinoff “Luann & Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake” is currently streaming on Peacock to great reception. The spinoff stands as the second most-watched Peacock series premiere of any Bravo original show. “Crappie Lake” airs alongside Season 14 of “The Real Housewives of New York City” (featuring a new cast) on Bravo.
While “Ex-Wives Club” was filmed in January and “RHONY Legacy” in June, the swap comes to serve as a baton pass from the mainstay “RHONY.” After a low-rated 13th season and an influx of conflict, Variety broke the news that the “RHONY” would be revamping its format in a two-part strategy which involved creating one series with former New York Housewives and another with a fresh cast.
However, the network was unable to come to a financial agreement with several of the projected “Legacy” housewives and put the series on pause — which apparently led to a shift in strategy: revamping the series in an “Ultimate Girl Trips” style, not to air on Bravo, but to stream on Peacock.
“RHONY” Season 14’s premiere night delivered the second-highest Sunday night viewership of 2023 year to-date in both P18-49 and P2+ in Linear L+7. Its first episode ranks as the series’ most-watched episode in nearly three years across platforms in its first seven days
The premiere trade, too, comes after the “Ex-Wives Club” cast traveled to Morocco with alleged reports of much discourse amongst Brandi Glanville and Carolina Manzo. Alongside Glanville and Manzo, the season is set to feature Camille Grammer Meyer, Vicki Gunvalson, Eva Marcille, Alex McCord, Phaedra Parks and Gretchen Rossi. The second installment of “Ex-Wives Club” will premiere on Peacock in 2024.
One of the most notable castings for “RHONY Legacy” is Singer — one of the most polarizing Housewives in the Bravoverse who was previously confirmed by Andy Cohen to have gone ways with the franchise. During the 13th season of “RHONY,” Bravo launched an internal investigation to look into formal complaints made about Singer by fellow Season 13 Housewife Eboni K. Williams and an additional crew member. Nonetheless, Singer has now joined the cast for “Legacy” despite her contentious past.