Reality Recap: Chanel, Sunset, Shannon

It was so strange seeing John Janssen in the audience on Watch What Happens Live last night, and even more strange to see him participating in the show, stuttering to answer how Shannon Beador disparaged him. He made all these claims that she turned his life into a public spectacle, and yet here he was, being a public spectacle on his own accord, and looking terrible while doing it. 

Over in Dubai, Lesa Milan revealed to Melissa Gorga that she pays her kids $1,000 per episode they appear in (which makes me wonder how much she makes per episode). In Miami, rumour has it that Dr. Nicole Martin will not be returning to Real Housewives of Miami and fans are devastated. 

In The Valley, Jax Taylor has officially moved out of the home he shared with Brittany Cartwright. How kind of him, considering it was Brittany that went and lived in an Airbnb when she left the house with their son Cruz during their separation. I wrote about their divorce here. 

And over in Potomac, the trailer for the new season dropped, where in addition to loads of drama, we see a meetup between Dr. Wendy Osefo and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Do you see why the fall season is a spectacular time to be a reality TV fan?

Chanel loses ratings during Real Housewives of Dubai reunion

I have so much to say about the first part of the Real Housewives of Dubai reunion. First, Caroline Brooks has a nasty mouth. In her defence, her cursing likely stood out more because I watched the uncensored version on Hayu. I recall being extra jarred by Dolores Catania calling Margaret Josephs a lying see you next Tuesday on Real Housewives of New Jersey when I watched that uncensored episode, too, which I wrote about here. I’m no stranger to some sailor lingo but hot damn, the constant cursing really increases the hostility.

Next, the seating arrangement. It was so fascinating to see the divide between the group represented physically, with Taleen Marie, Caroline Stanbury, and Chanel Ayan on one side of Andy, and Lesa Milan, Caroline Brooks and Sara Al-Madani on the other. Who would have ever thought?

Most importantly, though, Chanel’s reunion performance was poor. Truly. She came across as immature and unable to take accountability or manage her emotions. We saw a lot of this throughout the season, but we really saw it peak during the reunion. She couldn’t even handle being called a “victim” by Lesa without turning the story to her experience with female genital mutilation story. To be clear, it’s awful that that happened to her. I imagine it informs so many aspects of her life, and I wrote more about that here.

But Chanel’s constant lying and deflection makes it very difficult to make significant headway in resolving issues, which, as I’ve mentioned before, are the main point of reunions. She couldn’t even admit to being on Ozempic, prompting Lesa to provide receipts. Then, she screamed, like, literally, vehemently denying Lesa’s claims that she was on it. Why even bring it up, then? Chanel has got some of the greatest looks in Real Housewives history, but what she’s got in looks, she lacks in character.

Questions still circulating after latest season of Selling Sunset

I know I typically stick to Bravo shows, but this season of Selling Sunset was chaotic. And with it premiering the same weekend as Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which I wrote about here, I’ve only just got around to watching it. First, we have a Canadian cast member, Alanna Gold. And though she found herself in hot water over misleading claims she owned Pioneertown, I like her. She works hard, she’s not afraid to get dirty, and perhaps most importantly, she gets along with everyone.

It's a lot more than I can say for Bre Tiesi, who, since starting at the Oppenheim Group last season has always found herself in some sort of spat – namely with Chelsea Lazkani. I completely understand Bre not wanting her family to be the subject of speculation and unfavourable remarks made by Chelsea. But I also understand Chelsea’s feelings about men like Nick Cannon who go around impregnating multiple women, sometimes concurrently, and being unable to be present in the home of each child they parent. 

It didn’t help that as they were filming last season, it was announced that yet another woman was pregnant with Nick’s baby, which appeared to come as a shock to Bre. So perhaps that’s what inspired her conversation with Amanda, where it was revealed that Chelsea’s husband, Jeff Lazkani, had been seen at a hotel kissing another woman. On multiple occasions.

First – why are you having a public affair if your partner is on a TV show? Have you learned nothing? Second, did Bre set this all up? I certainly thought so at first, because production was in place. Average viewers aren’t always aware of the amount of preparation that goes into filming a scene. There are field producers that need to scout a location to film at, permission needs to be granted, waivers need to be signed, lighting, cameras and microphones all need to be set up. So it didn’t look like it was just a happenstance or one-off conversation at all.

But when Bre was nailed to the cross by women like Emma, who sided with Chelsea, some aspects of which I understood, it illustrated the cast’s selective tolerance toward situations like these. A recent interview clip has been making the rounds and Bre says the group knew she had this information before the season started filming. And if that’s the case, they’re all guilty as hell. As Bre said, she was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. Maybe that’s why she’s trying to get Amanda into the Oppenheim Group, so she can have a real alliance. 

Shannon ‘storms’ away from Alexis Bellino

Throughout this season of Real Housewives of Orange County, fans have dragged Alexis Bellino for not only returning to the show, despite it very much being Shannon’s territory, but for going out of her way to make Shannon uncomfortable, doing a number on her mental health.

So as Alexis continues to face pressure from the group to, gee, I don’t know, not be such a raging bitch, it seems as if she’s finally starting to give in to that, expressing interest in finally having a conversation with Shannon. When Shannon gets wind of this, though, she shuts it down. 

There’s a few things to consider here. First, this is after the mention of the camera footage of Shannon on the night of her DUI. This is after John launched his $75,000 lawsuit against Shannon (while out gallivanting in the Ferragamo’s she bought him!) and after Shannon initially tried to be cordial, pulling her aside during the season premiere and addressing the elephant in the room. Now, though, Alexis expects Shannon to kowtow?

It was so poetic watching Shannon go around and hug everyone before she left, before approaching Alexis, who looked expectant as ever to receive a hug, as well. Delulu. And when Shannon, instead, backed up a bit, looked her right in the eye and said she wasn’t interested in having the conversation Alexis wanted, before sauntering away, I couldn’t have been prouder of her.

Shannon read right through Alexis’ attempt to get clout by coming in hot on the show and gunning for her. And only when she realize her plan was backfiring did she decide to start being nicer to Shannon. Imagine how differently this all would have played out for her if she had just been decent from the beginning? But now you’ve got an angry mob of viewers and Shannon stans that have called you out on your bullsh-t. And Shannon called you on it, too, on national TV. Michelle Obama once said, “When they go low, we go high.” But sometimes, when they go low, what you need to do is go to hell.