Bravo’s ever-expanding The Real Housewives Of universe has long been a favorite of queer audiences, so perhaps it was an inevitability that we’d one day get a gay spin on its tried-and-true “reality” dramatics.
Well, that day is here with the announcement of MTV’s The Real Friends Of WeHo—centering on the intermingling lives and careers of six successful gays in the eponymous LA neighborhood—and the internet is… conflicted!
Per the logline, the show aims to be an “an unfiltered and honest look at a select group of friends living, loving, and pursuing their passions in the West Hollywood community.”
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The alleged “group of friends” in question consists of “some of Hollywood’s most influential and successful LGBTQ+ celebrities, personalities, and entrepreneurs,” which herein means the following:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Celebrity stylist Brad Goreski (who’s really been killing it as a judge on Canada’s Drag Race of late), singer-choreographer Todrick Hall (who’s been beset with a fair amount of controversies as of late), recently out actor Curtis Hamilton (of The Kings Of Napa and Insecure fame), skincare mogul Dorión Renaud (CEO of Buttah), entertainment news host Jaymes Vaughn (notably, husband to Mean Girls‘ Jonathan Bennett), and influencer Joey Zauzig (who Good Morning America named “the internet’s best friend” last year).
Related: Jonathan Bennett and Jaymes Vaughan just made history with this magazine cover
The first-look trailer keeps things very brief—only giving real screen time to half the cast—but it does tease some of the drama to come. There’s Goreski, musing over how to balance being a public figure with being a good example for the LGBTQ+ community. Vaughn mentions his famous beau, but we strangely don’t see him in the clip, or even hear a mention of his name.
And then there’s Hall, who seems keen on addressing the scandals that have surrounded him the past few years. The headlines flashed on-screen in the clip are hilariously vague, but we have to assume that means the blowback to his Celebrity Big Brother run and “the case of the missing rent” will both play into the season, among other controversies.
You can watch the preview clip for yourself below:
In a very sly move, MTV will debut The Real Friends Of WeHo on January 20, with new episodes every Friday—in a prime time slot, right after RuPaul’s Drag Race.
So, will the legions of Drag Race fans who followed the show to its new network stay tuned in to watch these gay men run amok in West Hollywood? After a brief temperature check on Twitter, our assessment is… TBD.
Reactions to the upcoming reality series are all over the place today. Here’s just a small sampling of what folks are saying about The Real Friends Of WeHo:
Replace this with a fake reality show about the four gay influencers from The Other Two https://t.co/w4TbFa5dtP
— local swamp gay ???? (@localswampgay) January 5, 2023
Why couldn’t we have a show of non-famous gay friends supporting each other & trying to make it in the city. We don’t need more from Todrick hall!!
— ✧ ✧ (@ohastroboy) January 5, 2023
I’m sure the “Real Friends of Weho” will be fine but I do think we need a couple old queens. These young girls are boring af.
— Patrick Rogers (@patjrogers) January 5, 2023
mtv seeing the reaction to the real friends of weho pic.twitter.com/OkBK5sznWb
— toekneepraysick (@tonypraysick) January 5, 2023
still from Real Friends of WeHo Season 1, Episode 1 pic.twitter.com/Kub0SnbzlF
— ERICONIC (@ericdamianlo) January 5, 2023
Let’s be real – all the f@gs are mad about Real Friends of WeHo because we all think we’d be perfect on such a reality show and we’re sore we’re not pic.twitter.com/B1mRpErAVC
— Rose DeWitt Bukater’s Big Fucking Hat (@Titanic_Gay) January 5, 2023
I’ve watched A LOT of reality tv to know that this new “Real Friends of WeHo” is not gonna be good… I NEED AUTHENTIC FRIENDSHIPS WITH NON FAMOUS GAYS
— King Karma ? (@HaroMarcus) January 5, 2023
There's a ouroboros thing happening here:
MTV creates Laguna Beach: The Real OC which begets Bravo creating The Real Housewives of OC which now begets MTV creating The Real Friends of Weho https://t.co/exiJXJJJxk
— David Cho (@davidcho) January 5, 2023
omw to watch real friends of weho pic.twitter.com/xENCm0cHO9
— chris. ? (@chrispena_16) January 5, 2023
The real friends of weho??? Honey nothing in weho is real https://t.co/pgUGz3XZYM
— Gina Tonic (@ginatonicnyc) January 5, 2023
Related: Todrick Hall blasts haters ahead of new TV show: “You work hard, but I work harder”
MISTERJETT
i’ve never seen REAL HOUSEWIVES of anywhere, but i’ll check this out and see how it is.
CatholicXXX
It’s a contrived mess with starring people whose only claim to fame is Botox, filler, and silicon.
This will be no different.
They’ll “spontaneously” meet when convenient and start drama about nothing that people will actually believe is real.
I’m surprised how…diverse…the cast is. Not an accurate representation of the West Hollywood scene.
SDR94103
No more toxic hall.
throwslikeagirl
It might be fun and it might not be fun, but HONEST!? Hahahahahahahaha.
Ha.
DBMC
Are they giving us something we want?
bigrawtop
Oh, honey. It’s not for us. It’s entertainment for them.
MrGoldman
Hard pass.
Terry
This is interesting. Goreski is no stranger to reality TV (Rachel Zoe project) and a self-admitted Housewives superfan (check his stories on Instagram; he moderated the Beverly Hills panel at the most recent BravoCon), so he knows how the machinery of “reality” TV works. I’m hoping that the producers take a few pages from the lessons learned from The A-List (NY) which had a similar premise, but (in my opinion) failed to raise to the challenge as the relationships didn’t seem genuine, and the drama felt fabricated. Worth a first look tho, I think.
wiggie
ALL the drama of reality tv is fabricated. Been happening since the first season of The Real World
CatholicXXX
I don’t think the early seasons of the real world were entirely fabricated.
When you jam several 20 somethings together, drama is likely to arise.
It’s when “storylines” start to appear that producer influence becomes apparent.
Unfortunately there is always a large group of people that believe it’s all true. Usually the same people that think voting republican is in their best interest.
James
ALL THESE LINKS TO TWITTER.
I’LL PASS.
LumpyPillows
NO!
tjack47
I only know who three of them are, but I loathe these shows. We hoe is more like it. Have fun with it. It sounds as condescending and pretentious as I imagine it is.
TomOH
Do we really need any more of these types of shows? TV is already completely saturated with “real housewives” shows. Now this?
No thanks.
G R
More vapid homosexual queens, just what the world needs.
Charlie in Charge
We had this show before on Logo. It was called The A List: New York. It lasted two seasons.
monty clift
This revival of gay stereotypes “trend” needs to go away already.
BEARY FLINTSTONE
I rather have The Old Gays than these gurls!
Colorful Kent
The fact that they picked Todrick and fired Chris Salvatore for it (rumored), makes me want to pass. Chris wasn’t welcomed because of his OF. Sexual expression is already being censored. I want something sexy and honest, not “girls” fighting.
Are they representing the demographics of WeHo? Three blacks, three whites; no Latinos or Asians.
Honestly, I live for more inclusion on TV and want these types of shows, but I’m not sure I can watch this. If we don’t watch it, then they will say there isn’t a market for it, and it will be
Dwight
A trailer is supposed to draw you in and make you want to watch it.
That trailer was boring and I didn’t see a single interesting thing that would compel me to watch.
Kangol2
Actually, there have been several predecessors of this show. Both The A-List: New York, in 2010-2011 and The A-List: Dallas, in 2011, and then Fire Island, which came on back in 2017 or so.
This new version sounds like a faker, less interesting version, with yet another opportunity for Brad Goreski (he already had his own failed reality show, It’s a Brad, Brad World) and Todrick Hall (please, after his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice, spare us!) to annoy the hell out everyone.
Diplomat
I’ll give it a look see and then give a review.
Godabed
*writes return to sender and puts it back in the mailbox as if it never existed*
strix1
I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS!! And, I don’t know anyone who did. And Todrick Halll…really?! Let me guess, he is an executive producer next to Andy Cohen. JHC!
Karlis
There used to be a show called A-List New York which had a bunch of prissy and bitchy gays. I watched a couple of episodes and gave up on it. No interest in this one either.
ggore
This format has been tried a dozen times before, with the same results: A bunch of bitchy, nelly, pissy queens perpetuating every single gay stereotype on earth, with no help from straight people, just doing it themselves. Those efforts were all awful, so I fully expect this one to be awful as well, and I will not be watching. I actually stopped watching any of the Bravo “Real Housewives” shows years ago as well. I am completely over all that crap.
greekboy
The sad thing is that people will watch this drivel and actually believe it, reinforcing their already warped ideas about gay people. Wait til Lauren Boebert and Maggot Taylor Greene find out about this. We make two steps forward and three steps backward. We can’t afford to lose ground in our struggle for acceptance to simply line the pockets of a few. Shame on everyone involved in this sh#t
huckchuck
Screw the haters, I will definitely be tuning in! Bring on the drama! I thought Andy Cohen should have done this years ago!
lou lou de la falaise
Me too, I love Brad but hate Hall. I didn’t know they ditched Chris for of him (boo hiss), love me some Salavtore!
bachy
I find there’s plenty “reality” in my own living room – even with the television turned off. So-called “reality” TV is a genre based on the need to create cheaper programming. They’ve dispensed with writers, actors, composers, etc – to save money. It’s the Walmart of television viewing.
The overriding character motivation in any reality program is the need for “attention.” Week after week, the entire cast is stupidly mugging for the camera, dispensing with personal dignity, generating imbecilic “drama,” yanking each others’ wigs off – begging for camera time no matter the cost. That mode of behavior doesn’t captivate my interest.
Sorry, but if I’m going to sit down in front of the television for an hour, I prefer a good scripted drama, thriller or comedy with a great writer, trained actors and a composed score.
Simba
No