In 2006, The Real Housewives franchise was founded as Bravo debuted a new show capitalizing on the craze of ABC’s scripted program, Desperate Housewives. The show was titled The Real Housewives of Orange County, and it portrayed itself as the opposite of how my mom interacted with my best friend’s mom, who lived next door to us when I was younger. The Real Housewives of Orange County became a massive hit, and you may not believe it, but it is currently in its ELEVENTH season. The show even got so big that several other Real Housewives spin-offs followed, each residing in places like Atlanta, New Jersey, Beverly Hills, and New York City. And in 2010, at the height of the Real Housewives craze, they decided to make its mark at the nation’s capital, Washington D.C., because…. God Bless the USA?
This was the fifth installment of the Real Housewives franchise, and it documented the personal and professional lives of five women residing in Washington, D.C. It had a lot of things going for it prior to the first episode airing. The Real Housewives was one of many reality show franchises that was ruling its own landscape, and the four installments that came before it have all established pretty massive success and publicity. The one problem is that THE WHITE HOUSE IS NO PLACE FOR REALITY TV! The Real Housewives of D.C. ended up learning that lesson firsthand, and it got canceled after one season, which didn’t even crack 2 million viewers. To this day, it is the only installment in the Real Housewives franchise to not get renewed for a second season, and it is only one of TWO Real Housewives shows to get taken off the air. This show’s cancellation effectively ended the Real Housewives‘ hopes of invading the area of our nation’s capital (for the next 6 years), and it’s easy to see why here.
Let’s report to the situation room and nuke these bad guys to kingdom come! This is The Real Housewives of D.C.!
Reality TV Guide 