• Bravo has officially renewed The Real Housewives of Rhode Island for a second season.
• Season 1 set the record for the biggest Bravo original series premiere ever on Peacock, pulling 2.7M viewers in its first seven days.
• The show is tracking to become Bravo’s second biggest series across all platforms, behind only RHOBH.
• Andy Cohen, who exec produces, says the cast’s low self-awareness is a big part of what makes the show work.
• No premiere date or confirmed cast for Season 2 has been announced yet.

The Real Housewives of Rhode Island is already getting a second season — and honestly, it’s hard to argue with the numbers. NBCUniversal announced Monday that Bravo’s newest franchise addition has been renewed, with Season 1 still actively airing Sunday nights on the network.

The show, which premiered April 2, follows seven women — Alicia Carmody, Rosie DiMare, Ashley Iaconetti, Liz McGraw, Rulla Nehme Pontarelli, Kelsey Swanson and Jo-Ellen Tiberi — as they navigate the highs, lows, and very-everyone-knows-everyone drama of Rhode Island’s tight social scene. It’s produced by Evolution Media, the same company behind The Real Housewives of Orange County and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

The debut episode pulled 2.7 million viewers across platforms in its first seven days, making it Bravo’s biggest multiplatform series premiere since 2024 and the most-watched Bravo original premiere in Peacock history. That’s not a small deal for an 11th spinoff of a franchise that launched back in 2006 with The Real Housewives of Orange County.

It’s only gotten stronger from there. Episode 4 saw an 11% audience bump on Peacock compared to the three-episode average — a sign that viewers aren’t just sampling and moving on. The show has also generated 60 million impressions and 33.5 million video views across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and X since it was first announced at BravoCon 2025. The internet is very much here for it.

The show is now on track to become Bravo’s second biggest series across all platforms, trailing only The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Why Rhode Island Works

Andy Cohen, who executive produces alongside Lucilla D’Agostino, Joseph Ferraro, Jen McClure-Metz, Barry Poznick, Bianca Barnes-Williams and James Brangert, has been vocal about what makes this particular setting click. Speaking at the Deadline Reality TV Summit, he put it simply: “Here’s the thing about Rhodies, you don’t f*ck with them.”

But beyond the attitude, Cohen says the geography itself is doing a lot of creative work. “I think one of the reasons Rhode Island is so incredible, is that the women’s self-awareness about being on the show is incredibly low. They are uniquely themselves and taking us along for the ride. That’s so important. There have been a lot of times where a housewife will join and all of a sudden you’re like, ‘Oh, man, she’s kind of studied this’. That’s what we try to avoid.”

He also pointed to the community’s scale as a natural engine for drama. “It’s the perfect setting, creatively and from a story point of view,” he said. “It’s aspirational and beautiful, which is a big part of these shows.”

The cast agrees. Iaconetti — who fans will recognize from her years on The Bachelor and its spinoffs — told the Boston Globe that Rhode Island’s size is exactly what makes it work as a franchise location. “I think Rhode Island works for the show because everything [is] just a one degree of separation from everyone, so everybody knows each other,” she said. “[In Boston], not everybody knows each other, not everybody even cares to know each other. In Rhode Island, everybody cares to know about everything.”

DiMare, who grew up near the state’s border, described the place with the kind of affection that makes good TV. “It’s literally unlike anywhere else you’ll ever be in your whole life,” she told the Globe. “I grew up 15 minutes away from the border, and even sometimes I feel like I’m on a different planet.”

A Big Week for Bravo Renewals

RHORI‘s pickup is part of a much larger renewal wave from Bravo, which is set to air over 500 hours of original programming this year. Also getting the green light: Summer House for Season 11, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City for Season 7, Below Deck Down Under for Season 5, Wife Swap: The Real Housewives Edition and The Valley: Persian Style for Season 2, Southern Charm for Season 12, Married to Medicine for Season 13, and Top Chef for Season 24.

They join a slate that already includes renewals for Below Deck, The Real Housewives of Potomac, The Real Housewives of New York City, The Real Housewives of New Jersey, and Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.

Rachel Smith, EVP of Unscripted Content at Bravo and Peacock, summed up the network’s philosophy at the Reality TV Summit: “What we’ve managed to do is create a universe and a community where people feel seen, and it’s part of their identity. Our job is to just keep feeding that and keep those franchises alive and fresh.”

Bravo hasn’t announced when Season 2 of RHORI will premiere, or which cast members will return. For now, Season 1 continues Sundays on Bravo — and if the ratings keep climbing, the conversation about who’s back and who’s out is going to get very Rhode Island very fast.

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