Bravo has set the Season 5 premiere date for “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” for Sept. 18, and all of the Season 4 cast will return — minus Monica Garcia, who was exposed in that season’s finale as an internet troll who had tormented the women before joining the cast. Lisa Barlow, Heather Gay, Angie Katsanevas, Meredith Marks and Whitney Rose are all back, and Mary Cosby will return to the show as a full-time cast member. (Cosby quit/was fired after ditching the show’s Season 2 reunion, but then rejoined the show as a “friend” of the cast in Season 4, during which she showed little enthusiasm for group activities.)
Additionally, Bronwyn Newport will be in the full-time cast, and Britani Bateman and Meili Workman are joining the cast as friends. Newport, according to the announcement, “arrives in couture with her over-the-top fashion and a sense of humor as sharp as the diamonds she wears. A longtime friend of Lisa Barlow, Bronwyn makes a splash with the ladies with her outrageous, fabulous and confrontational style.” Workman, in Bravo’s language, has “her hands full as a model with four young children and husband at home. Originally from California, Meili was raised LDS and moved to Utah to be more involved in the church, but ultimately decided that the faith was not for her.”
As for Bateman, she’s a “real estate developer, actress and accoladed singer in an on-again, off-again relationship. Britani is introduced to the women through her friend Heather, but bumps heads with a few of the ladies from the jump.” When Bateman was reported to be in the mix for Season 5, the blogs accused her of having some troubling social media activity of her own. Which may be why in Gay’s bio for this season, it says in part: “Heather introduces her friend Britani to the group, but when Britani repeatedly puts her foot in her mouth, Heather can’t continue to defend her.”
It was Gay who led the charge against Garcia in the Season 4 finale that aired early this year, exposing her during a cast trip in Bermuda, during which she produced the “Receipts! Proof! Timeline! Screenshots!” that elevated the show into the pop culture stratosphere, while simultaneously launching thousands of memes.
In the announcement, Bravo says: “Last season’s dramatic and shocking finale sky-rocketed into the zeitgeist with re-enactments from celebrity fans and quotes in a congressional hearing. In fact, last season saw an 18% jump in multi-platform viewership from the previous season, and the show’s first reunion episode brought in the highest audience in over two years.”
Speaking of the reunion episodes, Garcia might have had a chance to win over the network again, had she not flopped. In an interview for Variety‘s Making a Scene, Andy Cohen, the executive producer of “The Real Housewives” franchise, who also hosted the reunion, said, “I think if Monica had come out and was able to sway even one of the women back on her side, it might be a different conversation right now.”
Here’s the Season 5 trailer.
Source Agencies
