The Real Housewives franchise, has been the cornerstone of Bravo for nearly 15 years. According the Wikapeda, It was inspired by scripted soap operas, Desperate Housewives and Peyton Place, and would document the lives of upper-class women who “lead glamorous lives.
Dallas, Atlanta, Orange County, Potomac, New York, Beverly Hills, New Jersey and Salt Lake City. Britian’s “The Real Housewives of Cheshire and Australia’s Real Housewives of Melbourne are very popular. When Bravo announced Salt Lake City, some of us did a double take, Salt Lake?
With a couple of exceptions, ratings for the Housewives has been slipping for a few years now. After years of segregation, the housewives are starting to add women of color to their casts. A Latina and Asian women to Dallas, a black woman to Beverly Hills and New York.
In a city that is nearly 73 % white, Salt Lake has a black cast member and Pacific Islander.
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Finally,Housewives of Color
https://sacratomatovillepost.com/2021/02/18/diverse-housewives-its-about-time/
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Early on Bravo started leaving crumbs about Salt City, to bloggers and Housewives fans. Salt Lake, is the mothership of the Mormon church. Most of the Cast members are or were Mormon. Jen Shaw is Tongan and Hawaiian. Her husband is a Black Football coach. Shaw converted from Mormonism to Islam after learning about the mistreatment of black people in the Mormon religion. Whitney Rose is a descendant of “Morman Royalty” but she left the church after she fell in love with her boss, Justin, and they had an affair. Justin and Rose tied the knot after she found out she was pregnant and they both left their respective spouses. They are not welcome within the Church. Lisa Barlow is New York-born but has been living in Utah for over 20 years. She describes herself as a “Mormon 2.0” and is married to her husband John they have two children. They own a company that sells several brands of tequila. Heather Gay was a devout Mormon and was married to “Mormon royalty” for 11 years. Her husband divorced her serveral years ago. While his is in good standing with the church, she as a divorced women is not. Heather says she’s a “good Mormon gone bad.”She has a beauty treatment center. Meredith Marks ,is a celebrity jewelry designer. Marks is Jewish and has been married to her husband, Seth, for over 25 years they have two adult children,
The story for a lot of us, is Mary Cosby, who is just a friend of the show. We were told Cosby inherited her family’s Penacostal empire when she married her late grandmother’s(Dr Rosemary Redmon Cosby)second husband, Robert Cosby Sr. She was 22 years old when her grandmother died and she was forced to tie the knot with Robert, who was 42 years old.
If you need a moment to read this again, I understand. I had to read it several times.
Mary Crosby’s life could be a reality show or Lifetime movie. It involves secrets, accusations of fraud and murder. Fueds over her grandmothers estate went on for years.
Mary’s grandmother, Dr Rosemary Redmon Cosby,grew up in Indiana where she was deeply religious. She had four children by the time she was 29 years old in 1960, though it’s not clear who their father was. That same year, she believed God was telling her to go to Salt Lake City, which she did, taking buses, hitchhiking, and sometimes walking to get there. Once she arrived in her new hometown, she started a church in her living room. At 42-years-old she met Pentecostal Bishop Robert C. Cosby, who was 20 years younger and married him. Together, they founded Faith Temple Pentecostal Church, an endeavor that grew over the years to include sites in Utah and Indiana.
Rosemary Cosby died from a heart attack in January 1997 and left behind a multimillion-dollar fortune. After her passing a bitter family feud started and her daughter, Rosalind Cazares, alleged that her stepdad, Bishop Cosby, murdered his wife. The late church leader’s body was exhumed in Florida during the dispute.
Florida law required an autopsy, which Cosby’s husband has fought. Cazares and her stepdad, Bishop Robert Cosby, who remains pastor of Faith Temple, engaged in a legal battle — punctuated by allegations of financial mismanagement and documents doctoring – over Mama Cosby’s multimillion-dollar estate.
On the show, Mary looks profoundly unhappy. Her home is filled with rooms of designer clothing. She doesn’t seem like a first lady of a church, she’s not warm or compassionate. Her son is the source of her love and joy.
On Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happen’s Live” she said, she believed God called on her to star on the The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
Was it your Grandmother wishes or was it Maybelline?
During last weeks, part two of the SLC reunion ,we learned her there are cracks in her story.
Intially, she told us there was a will and that her late grandmother told her it was necessary for her to marry her stepgrandfather, saying in one episode: “I did marry him. I didn’t want to … That’s weird to me. But [my grandmother] really did want me to, so I obeyed her. I trusted every word.”
Last week, she said there were no receipts. Well, my grandmother told me for herself that she wanted me to take her place,” she explained, adding that the couple prayed for two years on their decision to get married. “So basically, Robert Sr. was 20 years younger than my grandmother,” she added. “My grandmother felt like she robbed his youth and so she said, ‘If something ever happens, I want you to marry one of my girls because I know they’ll be loyal to you and treat you good like you treated me.’” We also learned that the couple sleep in separate rooms and haven’t had sexin two years.
Mary’s life in Utah, is best summed up in a single sentence. That’s the women who married her grandfather”
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is a revelation and possibly a new start from the franchise. Its part New York, part Beverly Hills, with a dash of Atlanta. These women work, own businesses. Some live in a world we’ve never seen. Living in the shadows of the Mormon church. Some of these women have been shunned and damaged by the only community they’ve known. Then you add race into the mix and you have something different. No one will confuse Housewives with Masterpiece Theater, but you can learn something about human behavior.
SLC has been renewed for another year. Its overnight ratings are low ,about 700,000 viewers or .02 percent of the population. However, 2 million viewers watch it on their DVR’s The renewal comes amid strong ratings for the series, which ranked as a top five new unscripted series on cable in 2020 among P18-49. The season 1 premiere has drawn 3.2 million total viewers across all platforms to date and marked Bravo’s biggest series launch in nearly five years among P25-54 and P18-49.
SLC began strong, and sagged in the middle of the Season. Intianlly, I thought a three part reunion was unecessary for a show in its first season. However, the ladies brought it, the second week was better than the first and this week the final show of the season, we get to hear from Mary’s Crosby’s husband Bishop Robert C. Cosby, cant wait!
CityFella
Part Three of the SLC Reunion is Wednesday 7pm Eastern, 10pmPacific on Bravo
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