This column originally appeared in Brian Moylan’s newsletter, The Housewives Institute Bulletin. Sign up here to be the first to read the next edition.

Shamea Morton got into it with her RHOA castmates; RHOSLC’s Mary Cosby was the belle of BravoCon; RHOM’s Adriana de Moura’s coffee maker gag was weak.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Bravo (Nicole Weingart, Trae Patton)

BravoCon is over and my body is but a desiccated husk, my brain a cesspool of reality-television information, opinion, and gossip. All I can think about is selfies, all I can see is Bravolebrities, and all I can dream about is Andy Cohen looking deep into my eyes and telling me that RHONJ will return one day and save us all. It was a great weekend that I mostly spent dashing between covering panels and interviewing people on the press line while trying to hang out with my friends and not run afoul of Bravo PR. I was both successful and unsuccessful at all of it.

While it was great seeing my favorite reality stars in the flesh, the best part is always interacting with my fellow attendees. It was said onstage many times this weekend that Bravo fans are the best fans in the world, and it was so amazing to feel that love in the room. Sure, it’s great to get a selfie with Britani Bateman (as I managed to), but the high point of BravoCon is always talking to people who speak the same language and get every obscure in-joke that you want to make. All weekend, everyone was ready to party and happy to turn a stranger into a friend, even if they then turned on that friend, made them into an enemy, and fought all the way to the reunion.

If you followed Vulture’s BravoCon live blog, you know a lot of the greatest hits of the weekend, and if you missed it, go check it out now for a wine-toss-by-wine-toss recap. (And if you don’t have time for all that, just go watch this clip teasing the upcoming Below Deck Down Under side of the RHOSLC crossover.) To fill in the blanks a bit more, though, here are some BravoCon superlatives I dreamed up just for you, the best fans in the world.

➼ The Newsiest News to News: Vulture has already written up most of the big announcements, including the Real Housewives of Rhode Island trailer with Dolores Catania and her doppelgänger, but here’s a selection of tidbits in case you missed them: Andy Cohen gave Vicki Gunvalson her orange back so she’ll be full time for RHOC’s 20th season next year … The RHOP midseason trailer shows Karen Huger sitting down for a post-prison interview with Andy … Andy also reported that they’ve greenlit a new season of Ultimate Girls Trip, which is a road trip where a still-unannounced cast will travel together by car to cities with Housewives franchises and meet with iconic ladies from the shows’ first two decades … There’s a Traitors season-four trailer, but it doesn’t give away much.

➼ BravoCon MVP: No one had a better BravoCon than Mary M. Cosby. Not only did she win two awards at the Bravos with her bestie, Angie Katsanevas (and accepted one by saying, “I wasn’t even gonna come,”), everyone was thrilled to see her at the hotly anticipated RHOSLC panel, expertly hosted by Bitch Sesh’s Casey Wilson and Danielle Schneider. When she was asked her first question, she got a huge spontaneous round of applause and the audience started chanting, “Mary! Mary! Mary!” She thanked everyone for their love and support, and you could hear in her voice she was welling up a bit. The Mary love continued throughout the weekend: When Andy Cohen was asked which Housewife he would want to put on another city, he said he just wants Mary to go to every franchise and observe how she feels about them. At Next Gen NYC’s panel, Riley Burruss talked about how much she loves Mary and bonded with her over the weekend, and Riley knows from iconic Housewives. On the Below Deck panel, everyone who crewed on the RHOSLC and Below Deck Down Under crossover said Mary was their favorite to work with. Who would have thought that the woman who opted out of everything to eat a Filet-O-Fish in the back of a Sprinter a couple of years ago would turn out to be the belle of BravoCon?

➼ Biggest Boos: There are a few contenders for this honor, like Charlie Zakkour on the Next Gen NYC panel any time he opened his mouth, Julia Lemigova when fans thought she wasn’t being nice enough to Guerdy Abraira on the RHOM panel, or Erika Jayne when she said she didn’t want Garcelle Beauvais back on RHOBH at Watch What Happens Live. But the biggest by far was when Britani Bateman had her boyfriend, Jared Osmond, stand up in the audience to universal condemnation from the crowd.

➼ Largest Ovation: Kandi Burruss got her Wifetime Achievement Award at the Bravos, and the crowd leapt to its feet as she gave a speech about her journey. She thanked the ladies she’s fought with, the fans who have shown her love, and Andy Cohen for getting her “more checks” than she could imagine. Everybody had to get out their cry angles.

➼ The Best “Squash That Beef” of BravoCon 2027: On a panel full of unexpected duos, Southern Charm’s Madison LeCroy said that RHONY’s Sai De Silva is “the meanest girl I’ve ever met.”

➼ Crossover Bravo Execs Are Salivating Over: During Saturday’s Summer House panel, Carl Radke said he had his eye on Venita Aspen from Southern Charm. At Sunday’s Southern Charm panel, Venita said the two of them hung out together at an all-talent party and even called it a date. She said she’d like to see him again. I would say they’re the next Ashley Darby and Luke Gulbranson, but those two didn’t last more than a hot minute.

➼ Most Tired Trope: We get it, Captain Jason is hotter than Takis in hell, but do we need to talk about him possibly dating every single woman on the whole damn network?

➼ Shadiest Fan Question: One nice gentleman asked Andy Cohen, “Which would you rather have, happy fans or Tamra [Judge] on Real Housewives of Orange County?”

➼ The Least Fussed: Fans don’t seem that pressed about two RHOP queens’ most recent altercations with the law. When Karen Huger, fresh out of prison, returned to present an award at the Bravos, the audience lost its collective mind. When Wendy Osefo took the stage for the show’s panel, there was another huge round of applause. That’s the thing about Bravo fans: They’ll forgive a lot if you’re fierce.

➼ The Bizarrest Bazaar: One of my favorite things about BravoCon is the Bravo Bazaar, where the Bravolebs sell their wares. This year, though, something was off. Sewing Down South and Loverboy had a big presence, of course, but overall the merch vibes were lacking. You could get a Brooks Marks track suit, a Meredith Marks bath bomb, or Captain Jason’s signature scent (though it’s not for sale because it launches … Monday?), but everything was either too expensive or didn’t seem that interesting. I don’t want Jen Fessler’s high heels or Marysol Patton’s hair extensions. Where were Melissa Gorga’s sprinkle cookies or the famous “Send It to Darrell” hoodies? I want a keychain that says “Money Can’t Buy You Class” so I can buy ten and give them to all my friends. I did buy a “High Body Count Hair” T-shirt from Angie K, which came in a “High Body Count Hair” tote, but when I make only one purchase all weekend, there’s something strange going on.

➼ The Wendy’s Wayfair Activation Brought to You By Clorox and Called by T Mobile: There seemed to be more corporate sponsorships than ever before, and I’m not even mad about it. Never skip a beat or a bag, as Kandi Burruss says. Also, I give Bravo a lot of credit for making the brands bend to the culture rather than the other way around. Wayfair created Housewives-inspired rooms for fans to take pictures in, State Farm had Sewing Down South-inspired bags and tea towels you could get custom embroidered, and Wendy’s, which is basically owned by Lisa Barlow at this point, not only provided a cool set for even more selfies, but also gave out free Frosties!

➼ Biggest Food Desert: We needed those free Frosties because there is just nothing to fucking eat at BravoCon. Many of us were in the building from a 9am Meredith Marks DJ set until the last panel at around 5pm, with only chips, candy bars, or some gross ass sandwiches that have been sitting in a cooler all day for nourishment. And, of course, booze. One of the fans told Andy she wanted more Top Chef tie-ins, and I’m not sure if that request was genuine or she was just starving and wanted there to be something resembling actual food to eat.

➼ Best Costume Not Couture: The fans always turn it out with some inventive getups that are way better designed than the Bravo-sponsored merch. There was the duo I saw in T-shirts featuring Dorit smoking a bedazzled cigarette, a woman with a lemon beret and an all-citrus ensemble resembling Dorit’s drink order, and two sisters dressed as Bronwyn in her hot dog couture and Gretchen’s pink pearls and bows confessional look. But the winner is the dashing young woman who came as Dorinda Medley’s Fish Room (RIP) with a giant swordfish on her head.

➼ Least Peachy Panel: I’m not going to lie, the Friday panels were such a snoozefest you would think it was dreamed up by bed-loving queen Paige DeSorbo. Saturday, however, it really got popping when Shamea Morton, Drew Sidora, and Kelli Farrell got into it, honey, on the RHOA panel. I’m not sure exactly what they were yelling about but it had something to do with who is a better singer, whose album is charting, who even has an album and not just singles, and whether Kelli’s waffles are better than Waffle House. Moderator Rachel Lindsay let them cook and it was one of those perfect moments when the panel turns into watching an episode of Housewives, which is exactly what attendees paid a lot of money for.

➼ Biggest Waste of Time: The RHOM panel was also like watching the show, in that we got to see Adriana de Moura bomb so hard she looked like the trailer for Oppenheimer. First, she brought out a coffee maker from behind the couch, saying that was the brand the Haitian mortician got. Then she said she was going to reveal his identity right there on stage, begging for a woman named Melissa to come out of the audience and give her the picture of the man. When Juila Lemagova got to her feet to argue with Adriana, Lisa Hochstein then rose and tried to get Adriana to sit down. Finally, Adriana left the stage only to return a few minutes later with a phone that supposedly had the photo on it. She showed it to the moderator, Kiki Monique (yes, that Kiki Monique) and it was a picture of Phaedra Parks. Vegas hasn’t had the air sucked out of a room like that since the last vacuum cleaner convention.

➼ The Best Panel: There were Scheananigans at RHOM, fights at RHOA, and the absolute perfection of Mary Cosby at RHOSLC, but the one panel that really got me going was one with four veteran editors who’ve worked on a number of Bravo shows over the years. They gave us a great behind-the-scenes look at how they turn something like RHOC’s iconic Ireland Trip, which had no footage, into reality TV gold. Bonus points for the fans, who asked wonderfully insightful questions that let our unsung heroes have a moment to shine.

➼ Gossipiest Gossip to Gossip: Since we started with the news, we should end with the gossip. After all, todays’ gossip is tomorrow’s news. Andy said that the new RHONY won’t be a blend of Legacy Ladies and Reboot Returnees. Instead, I’m hearing it’s three ladies from the reboot and three newbies. Erin Lichy, Sai de Silva, and Jessel Taank were all at BravCon, so that answers who is staying. They’ll start filming early 2026… News broke just before BravoCon that Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula are living apart, but both Kyle and Lindsay Hubbard shot down those rumors in their appearances over the weekend. However, Kyle and Amanda only appeared together on the Summer House panel and fans were concerned… DeuxMoi reported that Scheana Shay and Salley Carson got into a physical fight at a BravoCon party, but both ladies (and everyone I talked to) denied that it happened… Tongues were wagging that Below Deck’s Fraser Olender has a new (and rather well-known) boyfriend. It’s nice that this hottie has an equally attractive anchor.

Sign up for the Housewives Institute Bulletin

Dame Brian Moylan breaks down all the gossip and drama, on- and off-screen, for dedicated students of the Reality Television Arts and Sciences.

Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice

Related