She’s back! Nearly two years after Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles went on pause, Tracy Tutor is returning to Bravo for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 16. If you know you know — this has been a long time coming. Fans have been asking for this for years.
While we’re excited to see this longtime fancast finally becoming a reality, we can’t help but admit that we’re also a little worried for our girl Tracy. She’s fabulous, dramatic, and everything that a Housewife should be.
But does she have what it takes to fix all that is broken on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills? Probably not.
Tracy Tutor faces an uphill battle joining The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
After watching Tracy on MDLLA for years, we know she has the chops to jump into this. Unfortunately for her, she’s walking into a seriously uphill battle with RHOBH Season 16. She already has a baked-in feud with Dorit Kemsley…
In this town, new cast members have a track record of getting chewed up and spit out before they can truly find their footing. Some blame it on Kyle Richards and her unspoken power over the friend group. Others blame it on short-sighted decisions from behind-the-scenes producers. Either way, this isn’t a show where new cast members are set up for success.
Look at Amanda Frances. She joined the show in Season 15 and gave some of the season’s only compelling moments. However, she announced her departure after just one season. She’s the sixth one-and-done Housewife of Beverly Hills.
That same season, Bravo added Rachel Zoe, who somehow made what is already a slow-paced show feel even slower. She delivered some Bravo nostalgia, but did she do anything that was actually noteworthy or interesting? In the words of Luann de Lesseps, “Not really.”
On RHOBH, new cast members are either too bold that they disrupt the pecking order and wind up getting pushed out. Or, they’re so boring that we wish they would get the axe. Whichever way you chop it, holding a diamond is a complicated task on a show that is already on life support.
And that brings us to Tracy. On paper, she has everything we could want in a new Housewife. That’s all going to go to waste if Beverly Hills can’t give her an environment to succeed.
RHOBH has an authenticity problem Tracy Tutor can’t fix alone
The issue plaguing Beverly Hills isn’t that it can’t find good cast members. They’re in Los Angeles — Alex Baskin could literally throw a rock and hit someone who would be a good fit for this show. The problem is that RHOBH is no longer a show about these women’s lives. It’s a show about women making a show.
Everyone on RHOBH seems so hyperaware of the fact that there are millions of people watching at home. When they finally do spill tea, they pat themselves on the back as if it’s not the bare minimum of their job.
For example, getting Kyle to talk about her marital problems was like pulling teeth last year, and it still doesn’t feel like we’re getting the full story of what’s going on in her life. That kind of guardedness has no place on reality television, but it’s become the norm on RHOBH.
This franchise is also plagued by what feels like a lack of genuine friendship in the group. The best Bravo shows are the ones where the cast members have legitimate connections that exist off camera. Do we really think that Erika Jayne and Sutton Stracke are meeting up for lunch when the cameras aren’t rolling? Has anyone from the cast participated in Bozoma Saint John’s recent bachelorette activities?
In Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 14, Garcelle Beauvais found out the hard way that genuine friendships are hard to come by in the 90210. Her exit arrived after a dramatic season and a reunion that seemingly exposed just how one-dimensional her friendship with Sutton had become. What may have felt like a genuine friendship to Garcelle ultimately clashed with the way things work on this franchise.
Therein lies the problem. When you have a show that rests on a weak foundation, throwing in a great newbie can’t fix it. Tracy can’t single-handedly change the culture RHOBH has created over the years.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills needs more than one new face
To be clear, we are rooting for Tracy. We already know she’ll bring it. But RHOBH fans don’t want to see another brave woman thrown into Kyle’s lion’s den. This show needs a few brave women who are willing to pick up the torch that has been sitting on the ground, untouched for years.
Bravo hasn’t announced the full cast for RHOBH Season 16. So far, we only know that Amanda is out and Tracy is in. But if they really want to make RHOBH appointment television instead of something you have on in the background while you clean your house, they’re going to need bolder casting decisions beyond just adding Tracy.
They need women who are willing to make Beverly Hills fun again. They need to make it rich again, and of course, real again. Unfortunately, that might also mean saying goodbye to some of the women who are no longer living up to the job description.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is streaming on Peacock.
TELL US – ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING TRACY ON RHOBH? WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU MAKE TO THE CAST AHEAD OF SEASON 16?
