The Real Housewives We Love to Hate

We used data to approximate the exact combination of love and hate that attracts fans of Bravo’s Real Housewives to the franchise’s biggest stars.

Photo: Bravo

What is it that attracts so many people to Bravo’s franchise of Real Housewives reality shows? Do we follow these larger-than-life personalities because we love and relate to them? Do we watch it because we hate them and want to see them throw wine on each other? Or is it some bizarre combination of both love and hate that keeps us glued to our televisions while wealthy socialites argue with each other at their vacation houses?

Ranker data says that this last explanation might be the most accurate one. To celebrate the arrival of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, we took a look at two popular Ranker lists that measure opposite emotions about the stars of this Bravo smash hit: The Best Real Housewives of All Time and The Absolute Worst Real Housewives. What we found is that a surprisingly high number of stars from these 14 series, from Atlanta to Auckland, are high on both lists. That means that they’re simultaneously loved and loathed by a high percentage of our voters.

Photo: Ranker

This scatterplot explains where some of the most prominent stars of the Real Housewives series stand on both lists (or, at least, where they stood until recently. Voters are changing these rankings all the time). At the top left are stars who are high on the list of Best Housewives and low on the list of Worst Housewives — in other words, they’re viewed positively. On the bottom right are those who are low on the Best Housewives list and high on the Worst Housewives list, meaning they’re viewed negatively. 

But where it gets more complicated are the other two quadrants. At the top right are Real Housewives who are low on both lists, which makes them neither loved, nor hated by fans of the shows. At the bottom left are women who were ranked highly on both lists, meaning they are seen as both the best and the worst people on the show. Funnily enough, this category features 11 women in it — more people in it than any of the other three quadrants.

The star who best fits this “Love to Hate” category is Lisa Rinna, the former Melrose Place star who is featured on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. As the #8 Best Housewife and #13 Worst Housewife, she’s only one of two stars who are part of the Top 20 of both lists, along with Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Terese Giudice. There are also plenty of well-known Real Housewives who are just hated enough to be part of the “Love to Hate” category, including Bethenny Frankel and Jill Zarin of Real Housewives of New York and Nene Leakes of Real Housewives of Atlanta.

On the other side of the coin, some of the women in the top-left quadrant are very close to that horizontal border. LuAnn de Lesseps, or “Countess LuAnn,” is #30 on the list of Worst Housewives, just five spots away from the more hated half of the list. Lisa Vanderpump is also not so far away at #31, despite being #1 on the list of Best Housewives.

Less fortunate are the people who are rated negatively on both lists. Aviva Drescher is the best example of this category, ranked #3 on the list of Worst Housewives and #65 on the Best Housewives list, which features 70 women. Drescher’s company in this quadrant includes Kenya Moore, Carlton Gebbia, and Kelly Killoren Bensimon. But the people who are probably worst off on this chart are Sheree Whitfield and Lydia Schiavello: the two housewives who are low on both lists. Flying under the radar in day-to-day life is one thing, but in the world of reality TV, it’s exactly what you don’t want. 

How will the cast of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City fit into this chart? We’ll find out as fans watch the first season premiere on Bravo this month, then make their voices heard on Ranker.com.

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These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.

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