Get ready, Utah. The first trailer for the upcoming “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" warns viewers that in this town, if you don’t have money, connections, beauty and power, “you haven’t got a prayer.”
With an approaching premiere date — Nov. 11 — Bravo released a 90-second trailer for the show. And surprise/not surprise, we get a glimpse of high drama and a lot of references to religion.
You didn’t think it was a coincidence that producers decided to film a season of this franchise in the city that’s the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, did you?
You can watch the trailer here.
“Perfection is attainable,” says cast member Heather Gay, who describes herself as “a purebred, pioneer Mormon.”
The trailer, which PEOPLE debuted on Wednesday, offers the first confirmation of who, exactly, is in the cast — although most of the cast list has been an open secret since November 2019.
Perhaps in response to criticism that the “Real Housewives” franchise has been far less than diverse, the Salt Lake City edition features a Black woman (Mary Cosby), a Polynesian woman (Jen Shah) and four white women.
And, according to the trailer, "These ladies are no angels.” The six women are:
• Gay, who co-owns cosmetic medical practice Beauty Lab & Laser in Murray.
• Cosby, who inherited her family’s “empire” of churches and restaurants — once she agreed to marry her late grandmother’s second husband.
• Shah, who owns a marketing agency called The Shah Squad. She’s married to former University of Utah football star Sharrieff Shah Sr., who is now the Utes' cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator.
• Lisa Barlow, who owns and operates Vida Tequila. She and her husband, John, both attended Brigham Young University.
• Meredith Marks, a jewelry designer whose clients include Rihanna and Tinsley Mortimer (“Real Housewives of New York”); she owns Meredith Marks Boutique in Park City.
• Whitney Rose, who owns the skincare products company Iris + Beau. She’s married to Justin Rose, the chief sales officer at LifeVantage, the jersey sponsor for Real Salt Lake.
Gay isn’t the only Latter-day Saint in the cast. In the trailer, Barlow says she’s “Jewish by heritage, Mormon by choice.”
But other cast members are not. Marks is Jewish; Cosby is Pentecostal.
And two cast members have left the LDS Church. “It is a very big deal that I’m no longer Mormon,” Rose says. And Shah says she was “raised Mormon … but I’m converting to Islam.”
Will the women fight? Is the pope Catholic? Is this “Real Housewives”? And the trailer gives us a glimpse of battles to come.
In other words, “RHOSLC” looks very much like it fits the pattern of the nine “Real Housewives” shows that preceded it.
Although the show has yet to air, it appears the drama has already begun. The same day the pilot debuted, a man named Brandon Pack filed a lawsuit against Lisa Barlow’s husband and Vida Tequila.
Pack says he loaned the tequila company $120,000 in October 2019, which was supposed to be paid back by April 2020. John Barlow didn’t make a payment until May, according to the complaint, and Vida Tequila still allegedly owes almost $104,772 plus interest. Requests for comment sent to Vida Tequila and Pack’s attorneys were not immediately returned.
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