{"id":149365,"date":"2025-09-17T01:50:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/149365\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T01:50:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:50:04","slug":"meredith-mary-and-heather-on-drama-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/149365\/","title":{"rendered":"Meredith, Mary and Heather on Drama Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This story contains spoilers from The Real Housewives<\/a> of Salt Lake City\u2018s season six premiere.]<\/p>\n

\n\tHeading into their sixth season, the team behind The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City<\/a> knows there\u2019s pressure to deliver another compelling installment.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut after losing one cast member in 2023 to prison time<\/a> for partaking in a telemarketing scam and forfeiting another housewife a year later for her role in an Instagram troll account<\/a>, it\u2019s safe to say the Salt Lake City housewives can bounce back from any and all setbacks.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith no shortage of marital issues, conflict amongst the group, and viral upon viral moments (\u201cReceipts! Proof! Timelines! Screenshots!<\/a>\u201d or \u201cRumors and nastiness<\/a>,\u201d to name a few), there\u2019s something about RHOSLC that stands out from other shows in the Bravo<\/a> franchise. Showrunner Lori Gordon and Noah Samton, svp of unscripted production for NBCUniversal<\/a>, believe that special ingredient is the women.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey\u2019re the perfect combination of drama, humor and personal story. They check every box that you want from a housewife,\u201d Samton tells The Hollywood Reporter, while Gordon adds, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s any coincidence that five of the original women are [still] on the show.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWith five OGs from the founding cast that was assembled in 2020 still in tact heading into season six, the women of Salt Lake City understand what\u2019s expected as housewives. Where the cast of the Beverly Hills cycle is often criticized<\/a> for shielding pieces of their lives from cameras, or the New York City reboot was slammed<\/a> for manufacturing storylines, Mary Cosby<\/a> says the housewives of Salt Lake City have an undeniable \u201cauthenticity\u201d factor that resonates with viewers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe, as a cast, have grown into that area where we are all coming from an authentic place,\u201d Cosby explains. \u201cWe\u2019re being real, and it\u2019s hard to achieve that, but we mastered being able to be our true selves, and we carry all this drama every single year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn separate conversations edited together below, Gordon and Samton dish on what sets Salt Lake City apart from the rest of the Real Housewives franchise and address rumors of ex-castmates Jen Shah and Monica Garcia ever returning to the series in the future, while Cosby, Heather Gay<\/a> and Meredith Marks<\/a> reflect on the season six premiere and how their cast will continue raise the bar.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Real Housewives of Salt Lake City has emerged as a juggernaut of the Real Housewives franchise. What do you credit to Salt Lake City\u2019s swift rise?<\/p>\n

\n\tLORI GORDON (SHOWRUNNER) It\u2019s the women. They\u2019re always very authentic and very open in what\u2019s really going on in their lives. This season, Whitney [Rose] was very forthcoming with the failure of the business venture that her and her husband delved into. There\u2019s Mary and her son, which is a continuous story and battle for them, to this day as we speak, that she is constantly working on and being open about. It\u2019s a very hard subject. She\u2019s not like, \u201cOh, everything\u2019s great.\u201d She knows it\u2019s an uphill battle for him; he falls back into delving into drinking and drugs, and then he is good for a few months. She\u2019s really embracing the reality of what that situation looks like for people, which I think is important and relatable. Nobody wants to tune in on a show and think, one stint in rehab and your kid\u2019s fine. And really all of them, whether it\u2019s business, accusations of lawsuits, rumors about their marriages, getting their kids to college \u2014 it\u2019s all relatable. One of them always seems to be tapping into something for the audience every season.\u00a0[Writer\u2019s note: Lori Gordon\u2019s interview was conducted before TMZ<\/a> reported on Robert Jr. Cosby\u2019s alleged arrest.]<\/p>\n

\n\tNOAH SAMTON (SVP OF UNSCRIPTED PRODUCTION, NBCUNIVERSAL) They\u2019re the perfect combination of drama, humor and personal story. They check every box you want from a housewife. There\u2019s a really powerful storyline this coming season with Bronwyn [Newport] and what she\u2019s going through with her family, not to mention what she\u2019s shown with her daughter, Gwen, and the challenges she faced having her at such a young age in this shadow of the Mormon Church and pressure that put on her. They\u2019re just so open and willing to share about themselves, and yet at the same time, they are some of the funniest housewives on Bravo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season six cast.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKoury Angelo\/Bravo, Otavio Rabelo<\/p>\n

\n\tAs three of the five original cast members still on the series, Mary, Heather and Meredith, what has it been like watching the success and reach of RHOSLC continue to grow year after year?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMARY COSBY Wow, it\u2019s been a journey. Surreal. It\u2019s unbelievable, but at the same time, it\u2019s kind of become a way of life. It\u2019s part of who I am now.<\/p>\n

\n\tHEATHER GAY Can you believe it? I\u2019s obviously changed my entire life. And more than that, it\u2019s changed my entire perspective. At a time of my life where I really thought I was being put out to pasture, this whole second chapter has opened up, and it\u2019s only that much more fun because I\u2019m sharing it with these women. If I had won the lottery, it would not be the same experience; it wouldn\u2019t have changed my life as much. My life has been changed by money and fame as much as it has been changed by my unique relationship with these women.<\/p>\n

\n\tMEREDITH MARKS It\u2019s pretty wild, because I do think the chips were a bit stacked against us. Early on, we were kind of discarded as, \u201cOh, it\u2019s Salt Lake City.\u201d We\u2019re not New York, we\u2019re not Beverly Hills, we\u2019re not Miami<\/a>. I think a lot of people were like, \u201cHow\u2019s this gonna be so great?\u201d So to be in the place we\u2019re in is very validating, and feels great.<\/p>\n

\n\tA unique element about RHOSLC is the component of Mormonism. Before Salt Lake City, there was Sister Wives, and now we have The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives<\/a>. What has it been like to see this rise of Mormons taking over reality TV<\/a>, especially for you, Heather, as someone who has opened up about your story with the Church?<\/p>\n

\n\tSAMTON I\u2019m glad to see them all sort of jumping on our bandwagon and following along in what the Salt Lake City women have done so well. [Mormonism] was the original hook to the show. I had spent some time in Salt Lake City, but until I got into this show, I didn\u2019t really know how unique of a place it was. It\u2019s just a very special, unique kind of person that seems to grow up in that world. There\u2019s this tenant in the Mormon Church to aspire to perfection. Not just being perfect at your job, it\u2019s about being perfect looking. There\u2019s more med spas in Salt Lake City than there are in Beverly Hills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGAY I love it, I\u2019m here for it. I feel like we really broke the code and brought it into this modern day world, and made Mormonism part of the zeitgeist and sparked all the curiosity about it. I think it\u2019s a rich, interesting, fascinating culture, and we\u2019ve just barely started to scratch the surface. Housewives started it, and that\u2019s where we\u2019re gonna keep the crown, if you don\u2019t mind. We\u2019re gonna keep the Mormonism crown. Everybody\u2019s welcome to put their two cents in, but we started it and we\u2019re gonna keep it.<\/p>\n

\n\tSomething that is very exciting with season six is the crossover with Below Deck Down Under. Noah, where did this idea come from, and how did your team go about executing it?<\/p>\n

\n\tSAMTON I oversee the Below Deck franchises, and for many years we have all talked about, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be great to have Housewives on Below Deck?\u201d After years of discussing it, we said, \u201cThis is the perfect time to really do a real crossover. The housewives will charter the yacht, and we\u2019ll shoot it for Salt Lake City at the same time we\u2019re shooting it for Below Deck Down Under.\u201d It\u2019s going to be two separate shows telling the same story from two very different points of views. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd it was incredibly challenging. It\u2019s already incredibly challenging to shoot a TV show on a boat. You add in seven dynamic housewives on top of the Below Deck crew, and it\u2019s almost an impossible task. The showrunners for both shows were really put through their paces and stretched as thin as possible, but we always knew it was going to be great, because the Housewives of Salt Lake City are the ultimate challenging guests to have on Below Deck. And this cast for Below Deck Down Under has some very familiar faces coming back. We felt like they would be up to the task. Daisy [Kelliher] is the chief stew, Captain Jason [Chambers], Chef Ben [Robinson] \u2026 we felt like they would be up for the challenge, and they were.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWhitney Rose, Captain Jason Chambers and Heather Gay.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBryan Schnitzer\/Bravo<\/p>\n

\n\tLisa Barlow is notably missing from the season six premiere episode. At the time that filming picked up, there were rumors she might have not been coming back to the show. Was there any validity to those rumors, or did she really just have work at that moment in time?<\/p>\n

\n\tGORDON She was always going to be part of the show. But I think it\u2019s really up to the audience of how they look at her decision to not be on that trip, in my opinion. I think it\u2019s nice to leave that open ended. She told the women she had work, she did have work. Could she have moved her trip to be there? That\u2019s something I think the viewers have to decide. Ultimately, her not being there gave the women the ability to say some things maybe they wouldn\u2019t have been able to say [with her present]. I think her not being there also affected her in the season. How that pans out is interesting, because it gave this rise for people to talk about some rumors and whether they\u2019re embellishing them, truth or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis season, we also have Britani Bateman back as a friend. In the premiere, Britani fought with both Whitney and Meredith. Mary, Heather and Meredith, do you think Britani making sure that she had dialogue with a few of the cast members was her fighting for a snowflake?<\/p>\n

\n\tCOSBY Of course it was. Absolutely (Laughs). I think Britani\u2019s role works for the group as a friend role. As a housewife, you have to open up and show the world and share what you\u2019re going through, and be your true and authentic self. I don\u2019t think Britani offers that. I think Britani offers the level of a friend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGAY I don\u2019t think that she knows the difference between full force effort and not giving a fuck. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a curated effort, but it\u2019s just the read I get when I\u2019m with her. She is a little bit always herself, and that\u2019s a little bit oblivious. I think it\u2019s a natural state for her to be constantly inserting herself in the dialogue. I don\u2019t think her agenda is directly linked to a snowflake at all. I think she just wants to be there in general.<\/p>\n

\n\tMARKS Britani\u2019s kind of just all over the place. We\u2019ve seen that she\u2019ll say anything. Everything is, \u201cOh, let me make this right by telling you I lied about that.\u201d It\u2019s the most bizarre thing. I don\u2019t get it. She\u2019s just all over the place.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMary Cosby, Angie Katsanevas and Britani Bateman.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNatalie Cass\/Bravo<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat were your reactions when Angie Katsanevas compared Lisa to Jen Shah?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGORDON It\u2019s interesting. There was a lot of miscommunication in how it came out and how the women took it. There was a lot of mystery around Jen, and not until later in [the] third season was [there] a lot of, \u201cWho is Jen? What do we know about her?\u201d Like, we want to believe everything she\u2019s told us, because we love her and she\u2019s in our friend group. But the second she pleaded guilty<\/a>, it became a different story. So I think it\u2019s the women treading lightly. They\u2019re a little bit scared of being burned again like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCOSBY That was a little too far. No one deserves to be compared to Jeh Shah. Absolutely no one. It was a little much for me. Lisa runs a legitimate business, and Jen Shah didn\u2019t. It was a little far. [Angie] tried to retract it, though.<\/p>\n

\n\tGAY I was shocked, and it felt like it came out of left field and seemed a little preposterous.<\/p>\n

\n\tMARKS Not great. Because the thing is, these are civil charges, and there are other criminal charges out there about other cast members. So I don\u2019t really understand why this was such a big deal. Anybody can file a civil lawsuit. This isn\u2019t the government, it\u2019s not the state. It\u2019s not the United States going after Lisa, it is an individual. I can file a lawsuit against any of those women tomorrow if I felt like it, and then let\u2019s see what they have to say (laughs).<\/p>\n

\n\tMonica Garcia recently said<\/a> that people think the RHOSLC team is waiting until Jen is released from prison to bring both women back to the show at the same time. Is there any validity to this rumor?<\/p>\n

\n\tGORDON That\u2019s hysterical. No, there\u2019s no validity to it. There\u2019s so much to do in every season between shooting the show and editing the show that we\u2019re so hyper-focused on this season, we don\u2019t really even think about a next season until we\u2019re in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSAMTON There is no plan in place one way or another. Honestly, we\u2019re so happy with the cast and where they are right now. Ask me again, maybe in January, and we can have a different conversation about it. But as of right now, nobody\u2019s even thinking about Jen Shah and Monica. Jen\u2019s not even out of jail yet, right? So, yeah, we\u2019re not there. But of course, if I was a fan, I would be speculating the same thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Jen\u2019s prison release roughly a year away, is there a world where you see her coming back to the show? Or do you think the weight of her crimes and her pleading guilty deters her from potentially returning?<\/p>\n

\n\tGORDON: I may have opinions that are considered because I\u2019ve been working on the show for so long, but that\u2019s above my pay grade (laughs). I feel like ultimately that comes down to a Bravo, NBCUniversal [decision]. But honestly, whether or not Jen or Monica or anybody comes back, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\n\tSAMTON: That\u2019s a very tough question, and I don\u2019t know that I have an answer for you right now. There\u2019s a lot of things to weigh and consider with that. We\u2019re not even far enough in thinking or discussing for me to give you any direction at all on that one.<\/p>\n

\n\tDoes it frustrate you when people ask if Jen will come back? The cast has obviously continued on without her, but there\u2019s always going to be that question because of her story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGORDON No, you know why it doesn\u2019t? Because it goes to show that they really like the people on the show. And by the way, Jen was amazing in so many ways. She made bad choices that she definitely regrets and she\u2019s paying for, but ultimately, I loved working with Jen. I loved working with Monica. I love working with all of them. And the truth is, the audience also recognizes the great things about Jen. She wasn\u2019t an entirely awful person, and neither was Monica. There [were] good things and bad things about them, just like there\u2019s good and bad things about every cast member. The only difference is they\u2019re not on the show anymore. So I think if people didn\u2019t ask me about Jen or Monica, I would think, Wow, they really just didn\u2019t care about those people, which would be more upsetting. It\u2019s more of a compliment that they do ask. Because that means the women did their job, and we as a team did our job in telling great stories.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWhitney Rose, Meredith Marks, Heather Gay and Britani Bateman in season six.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGerald Hazizi\/Bravo<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Jen and Monica left the show, there was skepticism about how RHOSLC would move on and if the cast would be able to continue without them, but you all have proved skeptics wrong. How does it feel to continuously prove people wrong while also raising the bar with, arguably, the best modern Real Housewives franchise?<\/p>\n

\n\tGORDON Every season going into every major thing we do, I give a pep talk to women in terms of encouraging them to surprise me, surprise the audience. They know what the expectation is; they\u2019re hard on themselves, and they don\u2019t settle. I always say, \u201cTell me something I don\u2019t know. Say something new and don\u2019t be a yes man. Don\u2019t be the friend that everything is perfect. Nobody wants that person as a friend.\u201d And also, nobody ever wants to confide in the person that you get on the phone with, and they\u2019re like, \u201cOh, everything\u2019s great. My marriage is great. My kids are great. Everything\u2019s amazing.\u201d It\u2019s like, no, be the friend that everybody in the audience wants to call. Be honest, be relatable, surprise me. And they really always do. They up the ante, and they have such a great way of doing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGAY It\u2019s so thrilling to think how far we\u2019ve come. We were really underestimated. I love these women in Salt Lake. We have grown together. We have been through a lot, and that makes me feel like it\u2019s part of the magic of our friendships. No matter how badly we hate each other or aren\u2019t getting along, equal to the conflict, there is a lot of love and shared experiences and codependency. We can fight hard but we can play hard, and that\u2019s what keeps us connected to each other.<\/p>\n

\n\tMARKS A lot of times it gets lost, not just with Salt Lake, but all of the cities, that it\u2019s an ensemble [cast]. It\u2019s not one person making [the show]. So as long as the dynamics are strong within that group, pulling one person out probably isn\u2019t going to make that big of a difference. It\u2019s not about who\u2019s the star or who\u2019s supporting or whatever. I think the more that the women get that, the better it works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCOSBY It comes from authenticity. It comes from living your real, true life in front of the cameras. I believe in being myself. Either you like me or you like us, or you don\u2019t. As a cast, we have grown into that area where we are all coming from an authentic place. We\u2019re being real, and it\u2019s hard to achieve that, but [in] some kind of way, we mastered to be able to be our true selves, and we carry all this drama every single year.<\/p>\n

\n\tMary, last season, you and your son opened up about some struggles that Robert Jr. has been going through [with addiction]. That moment is one of, if not the most, heart-wrenching moments in the Real Housewives franchise. Looking back, what has the reception been to opening up about that journey last season, and how are you guys doing today?<\/p>\n

\n\tCOSBY It\u2019s been good. People responded good. That\u2019s a silent epidemic. It\u2019s a problem in our world, not just our country. It\u2019s real, it\u2019s happening. It\u2019s in people\u2019s homes. We\u2019re not the only ones facing it. My son and I didn\u2019t even plan [to talk about that on camera]. The cameras started rolling, and he and I just started talking. He was shocking me and I was shocking him, and we were just being ourselves as if cameras wasn\u2019t there. To be able to get that reaction and feedback from people is mind-blowing. It\u2019s humbling. It feels good. I\u2019m glad I did it. I wouldn\u2019t change anything. And how we\u2019re doing today is, you know, my son is on his own journey and he has to make his own mind up. I can\u2019t do it for him. I can be supportive. I can try and steer him in the right way, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s his journey and it\u2019s his life. It\u2019s his mindset. [If] his mind\u2019s not made up, there\u2019s not really a whole lot I can do, you know? But we\u2019re working through that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking back on season six, who surprised you the most out of all of the women?<\/p>\n

\n\tCOSBY Maybe Britani being there \u2026 no, I\u2019m just kidding. Maybe Meredith surprised me, and the way she moved through this season. Meredith kind of stepped up this season.<\/p>\n

\n\tGAY I\u2019m still continually surprised by how involved Mary is. For so long, Mary was just like, \u201cYou idiots, go do that. I\u2019m not gonna participate.\u201d But she really is in it with us, on every level. She camped \u2014\u00a0she sat around a campfire, and it was her activity (laughs). I\u2019m constantly surprised, and I think her story has been as remarkable as anyone\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\n\tMARKS That\u2019s a really hard question. Heather.<\/p>\n

\n\tDescribe season six of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City in one word.<\/p>\n

\n\tCOSBY Amazing.<\/p>\n

\n\tGAY Unstoppable.<\/p>\n

\n\tMARKS Lies.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tNew episodes of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season six release Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Bravo, and stream the next day on Peacock.<\/p>\n