Old Shoes and New Shows: A RHONY-verse Recap

By Emma Chance | TV | June 28, 2023 |

By Emma Chance | TV | June 28, 2023 |

The former cast members of The Real Housewives of New York took to Instagram last week to post teasers of their reunion season of Ultimate Girls Trip at Saline Beach on St. Barts island, the very same beach from season 5 of RHONY, where Luann de Lesseps hooked up with that pirate and told everyone to “be cool.”

The pirate may or may not appear on Girls Trip, but rest assured, Luann is “looking for a new pirate.”

“I need a new pirate,” she said.

“You never know. This time, we’re gonna have the parrot come in,” said Sonja Morgan.

Sonja and Luann have been on a press tour for their other new show, Welcome to Crappie Lake, which is posed to be like The Simple Life for a new (old) generation, following the pair around small-town Illinois and letting chaos ensue. In the meantime, though, they had some advice for the new cast of the RHONY revamp.

Luann advised the newcomers, “Be true to yourself because the camera doesn’t lie,” and “I never prepare. I would say to these girls, ‘You can’t really prepare.’”

“I wish them a lot of luck,” she concluded, “because we’re hard people to follow.”

Sonja issued a warning about hubris, saying the viewers don’t like it when cast members get “too heady” and think they’re “the show.” She advised they develop a “baseline of trust” with each other and cultivate a “team spirit.”

(The careful reader will notice how much easier it was to quote whole sentences from Luann while Sonja is quoted in broken phrases. This is because, as Bravo viewers know well, Sonja speaks a dialect of English specific to her.)

The ladies said they felt that same team spirit on their trip to St. Barts.

“Well, you know what they say about an old shoe,” Sonja said to describe the bond between the former housewives. “It feels comfortable.”

“We all know each other so well, you know?” Luann agreed. “We’ve been working for years on RHONY, and I feel like this is gonna be a great show for us to reconnect, because we haven’t been together as a group in a while.”

“Though we really do swim in similar circles,” Sonja added. “It’s not like we’re not friends.”

Sure, Sonja. Whatever you say.

The premiere date of season 5 of Girls Trip is to be determined, but Crappie Lake arrives on July 9th and RHONY on July 16th, both on Bravo.