In the wild world of reality television, “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” have become titans in their field.
Us Weekly, in its latest issue released Wednesday, declared the Salt Lake City chapter of Bravo’s long-running reality franchise “Reality Stars of the Year.”
The magazine’s cover features the five original “Housewives” cast members still on the show: Lisa Barlow, Heather Gay, Meredith Marks, Mary Cosby and Whitney Rose.
Most of the cast members were photographed wearing swimsuits, in a pose modeled after a famous 2005 Vanity Fair cover featuring the cast of “Desperate Housewives.” (Cosby instead wore a dress for the photo shoot at Salt Lake City’s West Main Studio; she told the magazine she has a “moral compass” and didn’t want her “cheeks out.”)
(Chad Kirkland | Us Weekly) Five of the cast members of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" — from left: Lisa Barlow, Meredith Marks, Heather Gay, Mary Cosby and Whitney Rose — appear on the cover of Us Weekly, released Oct. 15, 2025. (Prop styling by Hillary Kirkland, photographed at West Main Studio in Salt Lake City, CGI background by Justin Metz.)
The writers for Us called the show “a heady mix of drama, religion and federal crime that is unmatched in both hilarity and heart.”
(“Federal crime” refers to original cast member Jen Shah, who left the show in 2022 after pleading guilty to fraud. She remains at a minimum-security prison in Texas, where her release is scheduled for next August.)
Andy Cohen, the executive producer of Bravo’s “Real Housewives” franchise, described the secret sauce that makes the Salt Lake City version special: “The snow, Mormonism and their unique history with each other make them their own universe,” Cohen told Us.
Reporters from Us interviewed the seven current Salt Lake City cast members – the five on the cover, plus Angie Katsanevas and Bronwyn Newport.
Here are five takeaways from those interviews.
Having a villain is vital
(Fred Hayes | Bravo) Lisa Barlow confronts Angie Katsanevas at a party, in an episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
An antagonist is an important part of any reality show, the cast members agreed.
“I personally think you need a villain,” Cosby said, “and I think you need a good one, like Lisa Barlow. … If you’re going to have one, they need to be a good, excellent villain.”
Barlow herself noted, “Oh, so I’m an excellent villain.” All the others answered “yes,” and Gay added, “The best of the best.” (Barlow, defending herself from lawsuits involving her businesses, has been at the heart of much of this season’s tension.)
Marks had a different conclusion. When asked who the show’s villain is, she simply replied, “We are all villains.”
Whitney Rose came close to quitting
(Joshua Applegate | Bravo) Britani Bateman, Whitney Rose and Meili Workman, from left, at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, in a scene from "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" in Season 5.
Season 3 was the hardest season for Rose, who had a big argument with Gay while in Arizona. “Heather and I were at odds and I didn’t have my girl, and Lisa stepped up and filled that role for me because I didn’t have Heather,” Rose said.
Rose added that she was ready to quit, and was preparing to send an email to Bravo before her husband, Justin Rose, told her he had been fired from his job. “So I couldn’t quit,” Rose said.
Who gets to be the center snowflake?
(Bravo) Mary Cosby, left, and Angie Katsanevas enjoy champagne at Angie's house, before a serious conversation about Mary's son, in a Season 5 episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Fans of the show pay attention to where each cast member appears on the show’s title card, as each in Salt Lake City’s franchise holds a symbolic crystal snowflake. This season and last, Katsanevas has been in the center.
“I feel like Meryl Streep [winning] her second Emmy,” Katsanevas joked, adding “I’d like to thank my supporting actresses.”
“Center snowflake,” Gay said, “gives you an indication of what the season is going to be about and who it’s going to be around. … It’s just whoever has the most personal story and the most conflict.”
Cosby added that when the cast members learn who’s in the center, “it’s like, ‘Oh, OK, she went through something.’”
How their families react to the show
(Bravo) Todd Bradley, left, and his wife, Bronwyn Newport, share a moment as they fly with the group to Palm Springs, on a Season 5 episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
The reactions the cast members’ families have to “The Real Housewives” vary widely.
Newport said her husband, Todd Bradley, and her daughter, Gwen, “are always very critical of my choice to be on reality TV. It’s so hard for Todd to watch me argue with the women and let it go.”
Katsanevas said her husband, Shawn Trujillo, reacted more calmly than she did to rumors that surfaced in Season 4 about him allegedly cheating on her with other men.
“I have to hand it to Shawn — it didn’t offend him,” she said. She credited the couple’s friendships in the LGBTQIA+ community over 30 years.
“It’s like the low-hanging fruit, and it’s the easiest target for a hairdresser,” she said. “He was more offended that people were questioning him for being unfaithful to his wife.”
Rose recalled a conversation she had with her daughter, Bobbie: “I asked her, ‘What do you say to kids at school when they ask you about your mom and dad painting each other on TV and getting physical?’ And she goes, ‘Yeah that’s my mom. Are you jealous?’”
The show has changed their lives
(Fred Hayes | Bravo) Meredith Marks and her husband, Seth, speak at Meredith's bat mitzvah in Park City, in a Season 5 episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Marks credited “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” with saving her marriage to her husband, Seth.
“We were in a horrible place when we first started,” Marks said. Watching the show, she said, “you see how other people perceive the things you do and say, and a lot of times, like, ‘Wait, I didn’t mean it that way,’ or, ‘I misspoke,’ and it can create a lot of problems. [The show] teaches you how to communicate better.”
Gay said the show allowed “possibilities that were never available to me before.”
“I never thought I’d have a big life, and being a ‘Housewife of Salt Lake City,’ in many ways, is a very big life,” she said. “You meet the celebrities you never thought you’d cross paths with. You have conversations you never [imagined], you travel. It just opens up an entire world.”