HOST: The Real Housewives reality TV franchise has officially taken over the world. It’s the ultimate in American reality TV: brash, loud and full of drama. It began in Orange County — and now spans from Atlanta to London to Dubai and Budapest. Glamorous women flaunt their wealth, preaching sisterhood one minute and backstabbing the next. So what happens when The Real Housewives come to Africa? How did it all come about?
PORTIA HLUBI: there was a group of friends who actually used to imitate the American version. And they had um Instagram stories called the Housewives of Bedford View, which is a small, small town in Johannesburg that has really rich people living in it. And when they did those skits, they became quite popular. Because they really put on sunglasses on a Friday and pretended to be somewhere in Miami. And it just was funny at the time.
HOST: That’s Portia Hlubi, the producer of The Real Housewives of Joburgh, Durban and Lagos.
PORTIA: So three girls who were doing these skits, pretending to be rich every Friday, decided, hey, we want to do this show for real. How do we get it licensed in the country? At first, everybody thought, no, come on, it’s not possible. ”
They really found a good cast and they pushed.
HOST: And from those small beginnings – just three women mucking around on Instagram – an African reality TV empire was born.
Johannesburg gave birth to Durban and then Durban gave birth to Cape Town and Cape Town gave birth to Lagos.
And now, The Real Housewives have made it all the way to Nairobi.
EUGENE MBUGUA: My name is Eugene Mbugua from Nairobi, Kenya. I’m an entrepreneur in the entertainment space. I run a company called DNR Studios, and we produce television shows mostly on the unscripted format site. And one of our biggest hits is NBC Universal’s Real Houses of Nairobi.
HOST: Reality TV is as bingeworthy in Africa as it is in America.
EUGENE: So like many cultures around the world, we do follow American pop culture. And there’s no denying the appeal that reality television has on its audiences. It’s the ease of consumption, it’s light watching, it does a number on your own psychology, you feel a bit better about yourself when you watch other people’s chaos. There’s also a degree of voyeurism. It seems like you’re being let into people’s living rooms and bedrooms.
HOST: But adapting an American hit for African audiences isn’t as simple as copying the format.
PORTIA: That what I find fascinating about the franchise internationally right from an audience point of view is that the audience is more accepting if they watch other behaviours from other countries. We can forgive that, it’s the Americans right, and then once you kind of imitate a similar behaviour it’s now weird because you don’t do that here. Is it okay in South Africa to throw a glass of champagne because it is okay in America? So, you know, you had to work around those things.
HOST: The Real Housewives may have universal appeal — but the rules of glamour, behaviour, and even conflict, aren’t quite the same everywhere.
PORTIA: And also, how much do you show? Because we come from modest backgrounds and you’re not supposed to show off and you’re supposed to be humble and a wife doesn’t behave this way so those those nuances are kind of interesting because the format is glitzy it is glamorous so i think how do we adapt it to suit the African audience but we also don’t want to lose the dna because the trick about a format or a franchise is it can’t be too different”
HOST: And getting that format just right is training a generation of new Africa producers.
EUGENE: You’re working with a format that’s been tried and tested elsewhere, so everything is well documented and written down. They’ve got the formula of success down to how you’re supposed to light each scene and what you’re supposed to do with cast members when. It’s a whole college education on its own on how to make good television.
HOST: But what really makes good television is the cast, and the women themselves.
PORTIA: If we look at the Real Housewives of Johannesburg season one, there was a beautiful cast member called Madame um and Mercy. They came as a duo, actually, mother and daughter. Very rich, dressed very well, very glamorous. And her story was quite interesting. um After, you know, divorcing and sort of her life falling apart, she took over like a lot of construction work as a female from where she comes from. And we were shocked with her going to work, driving a tractor in the mud, you know, building in the bricks and understanding how construction actually works and seeing her get her hands dirty. And I think that was one of the aha moments where the country went, OK, women like this really do exist.
EUGENE: Yeah, I think the the the true mark of any good story is the authenticity of how the story is told and plus how well you select the characters. And so we went about trying to select characters um a cast that purely represented Nairobi. And you know, of course, ah Real Housewives is an opulent show. So you’re really profiling ah those who are a bit higher in society. So we’ve got a very ah big, opulent Indian community in Kenya. We were colonized by the British as as as a country. And so a lot of them are, are a lot of the settler families are still here. So any story about Nairobi high society would would be a miss if you don’t have um a member of that community. And then also trying to get a mix of women who are entrepreneurs, vis-a-vis those who are, um ah so just so to speak, married wealthy.
The Real Housewives franchise might be global — but in Africa, it has to sound, look, and feel local.
PORTIA: One other important thing is language. Um, we had to adapt the language into our own, but not full on 100% time of the show, but just that local language. So you can just hear it here and there, especially to define where the franchise is. Music k ah became a very big part of the franchise in Nigeria. when Lagos started, which I was very privileged to be a part of. So that music, that Nigerian sound was very important. So it’s whether you are watching with your eyes closed, you have to know where you are.
HOST: That means finding ways to weave in the culture, music, and quirks of each city.
PORTIA: I think one or the also the adaptation was tricky is the visuals. So for example, because it’s a glamorous show, so if you look at a city like Lagos, Lagos is beautiful, but it’s it’s glamorous inside. so you have to adapt it our beauty is maybe in markets it’s in fabrics it’s in fashion so you kind of use those nuances to bring up glam, whereas in another country, glam is just walking on the streets and people taking a jog with their dogs. That’s not necessarily beauty shots for us, because then we don’t have that in in in African countries.”
HOST If there’s one thing the Real Housewives franchise is known for — it’s drama.
But in Africa, drama in real life is more muted. The same argument that would explode in Beverly Hills might play out differently in Lagos or Durban.
PORTIA: With South Africa and Nigeria, for example, one of the the big nuances is that Nigerian ladies argue or conflict very differently. It’s very subtle. So you kind of have to work hard in the edit to bring it up because they are they they they they argue calmly, but it’s an argument. And they’re quite loud, but it doesn’t mean that the loudness is a fight. For example, it’s not, it’s a conversation. Whereas in South Africa, the arguments are a bit louder and more aggressive.
HOST: And in Kenya, it’s something else entirely.
EUGENE: So interestingly, Kenyan ah culture isn’t very confrontational. So a lot of a lot of the conflict here is expressed in passive-aggressive ways. We are not the type to sort of come out and and and and and and flip a table. and And, you know, we’ve we’ve seen this effect with with a lot of that because we’ve done other formats, especially from South Africa. And, you know, did this South Africans are bit different in culture. They are a bit more expressive. They say things as they are. But Nairobi, we are a bit more nuanced. There was one crazy scene where cast member ah brought a life-size casket to to a lunch. So that was quite something.
HOST: Then, of course, there are the challenges that come with working across countries — and personalities.
PORTIA: It was the way they do things. So the ladies in Nigeria are quite superstars in that they don’t really like being told what to do. So for them, if call time is 10, you have to adapt that they could show up at three o’clock. But best believe they’ll show up with everything done from their hair to their faces. Whereas South Africa, they’ll show up on time, but then you need to work harder to to make them feel like superstars.
HOST: And every audience has its own expectations too..
EUGENE: What was interesting is when when it was announced, that there’d be a franchise of Real Houses in Nairobi, the Kenyan audiences were not having it. They thought it was probably going to be a shoddy job that embarrasses the city. And so already we started off with a lot of scepticism from from the audience. But then we we had really a real lot of support from from the structure that comes with what that format is. and And eventually we made the show and it premiered here and broke all of streaming records. And if I’m not mistaken, I believe it’s currently being packaged for exporting to some Western countries actually.
HOST: Beyond the glitz, The Real Housewives is changing what television looks like — and who it’s for. For many audiences, it’s the first time women are completely at the centre of the action.
EUGENE: Yeah, it’s quite a bit of a departure in terms of value systems, so theses there’s a bit of of of audiences that are a bit off put by how strong and and then um outgoing these women tend to be. The Real Housewives is an all-female ensemble. The male characters tend to be cast B or cast C. And this is usually the husbands, boyfriends, and other men in their lives. So of course, it’s not not very usual on television to have that. um and then there’s also the element of majority of the viewers tend to be uh to be female uh but then what i find interesting is very often you will find that a lot of the men i know personally uh will end up watching the show by extension because of their wives or partners. And so you find these men who are following the show secretly, but don’t want to talk about it, but they know all the cast members. ah But yeah, it’s usually it’s usually quite a bit of a shock to see these strong personalities on there, who are very fierce, who are very outspoken. And you know the show almost, so to speak, it almost decentres men from the conversation. and And it becomes very heavily a female conversation, which is you know just’ not usual for for most media anywhere, really.
HOST: Different countries, different personalities — but the same powerful connection. Because beneath all the glam, The Real Housewives speaks to something universal: how people relate, compete, and connect — no matter who or where they are.
PORTIA: So I think formats are quite universal because look, as people, we all have universal problems. We’re all looking for love. we You know, you have a parent who’s struggling to raise a child. We all want to experience different things just in different ways.We all have a little bit of something in common. just doesn’t matter where we are.”
HOST: And for Portia, the goal isn’t just adapting global hits — it’s creating the next ones.
PORTIA: I think for us, the dream is to really be the pan-African storytelling studio, and to produce formats that may be of South African nature or birth, but can really travel but our stories can travel worldwide that’s that’s the dream is to really keep proving that African reality is is not niche there’s no such thing stories do travel.
HOST: What started as an American TV format has become a shared way of telling stories. African producers aren’t just copying the idea — they’re adding their own twist. When Africans and Americans work together, and when creativity crosses borders, everyone benefits.
