What started as one standalone program, The Real Housewives of Orange County, in 2006 has since ballooned into a year-round television franchise for Bravo spanning across seven different active locations and numerous spin-offs as well.
But do these Housewives shows all attract the same audience across the board, or do they change from show to show?
We partnered with Inscape, the TV measurement company with glass-level data from a panel of more than 9 million smart TVs and devices to dive into viewership trends including audience crossover, viewer location and more on Bravo’s popular franchise.
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*Range for all data below: August 1, 2017 - July 31, 2018
The Real Housewives of Atlanta
The Real Housewives of Atlanta possesses the least amount of crossover with the other programs, topping out at just 50% of its viewers also watching both The Real Housewives of Orange County and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, respectively. Atlanta’s 31% crossover with The Real Housewives of Dallas was also the lowest figure between any two programs within the franchise.
Viewers for the show primarily reside in the areas in and around Atlanta, New Orleans, Charleston and the New York City/New Jersey area.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
While just 50% of The Real Housewives of Atlanta viewers also watched The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, it ends up that 64% of Beverly Hills viewers also tuned into Atlanta. But Beverly Hills viewers were far less likely to check out The Real Housewives of the Potomac and The Real Housewives of Dallas (each at 37% crossover) than the other shows — all 50% or above. Interestingly, though, overlap between Beverly Hills and The Real Housewives of Orange County was just 59% despite the relatively close geographic proximity.
Geographically, most of the show’s viewers came from the L.A./Orange County area, as well as New York City and New Jersey. Despite the 64% overlap with the Atlanta program, those crossover viewers largely came from the East and West Coast regions mentioned above.
The Real Housewives of Dallas
According to Inscape, The Real Housewives of Dallas audiences were least likely to watch The Real Housewives of Potomac, at just 39%. But the other programs presented the highest average crossover from any one show, with Dallas viewers tuning into the other programs at rates from 61% (Beverly Hills) all the way up to 81% (Orange County). The Dallas-to-OrangeCounty crossover is the highest of any two shows in the franchise.
Viewing households are centered around the North Texas area where Dallas is located, plus the L.A./Orange County area, and New York City.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey
Though still a sizeable crossover rate at 57%, The Real Housewives of New Jersey viewers were less likely to watch The Real Housewives of New York City (a group in the same region of the country) than they were other shows in the franchise. New Jersey’s 68% crossover to The Real Housewives of Orange County was the third-highest rate for any of the programs within the franchise. However, the New Jersey crossover with Potomac (34%) was among the lowest.
Even with the New Jersey/New York City split in terms of viewers, the region showed a higher number of TVs tuned to New Jersey than any other.
The Real Housewives of New York City
Continuing a trend seen for every other show in the franchise as well, The Real Housewives of New York City viewers crossed over to The Real Housewives of Potomac less than the rest, at just 39% — though The Real Housewives of Dallas wasn’t much higher at 40%. New York City viewers showed less interest in New Jersey (47%) than what was displayed the other way around (57%). The highest New York City overlap was with Orange County at 64%.
Like New Jersey, New York City viewers were largely from the surrounding area, with some from the L.A.-Orange County region as well.
The Real Housewives of Orange County
The Real Housewives of Orange County was similar to The Real Housewives of Atlanta, in that the show had less overall crossover than most of the franchise. Coincidentally, Orange County viewers were most likely to watch Atlanta, as well as New York City (each at 55%), with Beverly Hills (51%) the only other show to top 50%. The Real Housewives of Potomac had the least crossover by far, with just 33% of New Jersey audiences also watching that show.
Similar to many of the shows, viewers were concentrated to households in and around Orange County and L.A., plus some in New York City as well.
The Real Housewives of Potomac
Even if viewers of the franchises’ other shows weren’t necessarily watching The Real Housewives of Potomac, those viewers were watching the other shows. The 70% crossover between Potomac and Atlanta was the second-highest of any overlap in the franchise. Plus, 62% of Potomac viewers also watched New York City and Orange County, respectively.
Potomac viewers had the least in common with viewers of the other programs. Most of the households were centered around the Washington D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area (where the show takes place), along with New Orleans, Southeast Mississippi, Charleston, and of course, the New York City/New Jersey metro area.
