When The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills first started airing, the show was an instant success, offering an unbelievable and intimate look into the lives of some of Beverly Hills' most memorable women in all their glam and glory. The show's early seasons were loaded with unforgettable, sometimes scandalous moments as viewers watched the housewives struggle with anything from spousal suicide to the cast's proximity to the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial. However, everything good inevitably comes to an end, and recent seasons of RHOBH have been largely lackluster, leading fans to wonder what exactly is the cause of the show's apparent decline in quality as of late.
Many would agree that RHOBH's problems largely stem from the current cast of the show. While OG housewife Kyle Richards remains, all of the housewives from the show's early seasons have either disappeared entirely from the show or have been reduced to the measly "friend of" status à la former housewife Camille Grammer. What's more, the show's current cast members aren't quite as forthcoming with their problems and drama as past housewives like Taylor Armstrong and Kim Richards were, resulting in a relatively sanitized Housewives franchise with little to no authentic messiness. The more interesting controversies and storylines surrounding the current crop of housewives, such as Erika Jayne's ongoing legal troubles, are not so much as discussed on the show. Not only that, but no one seems to be willing to play the villain anymore, meaning the show is missing one of the core elements that typically makes Housewives shows so endlessly entertaining.
Additionally, many RHOBH fans are not scared to point fingers at current housewife Lisa Rinna for helping to run the show into the ground. They argue that Rinna manipulates the show in an overt and inauthentic way, picking and choosing fairly inconsequential drama to blow out of proportion and drag out into season-long storylines. They note that as much as Rinna likes to stir the pot with other people's problems, and she's never forthcoming with her own issues, which further strip's the show of the "real" and raw messiness that made its early seasons so appealing. Instead, Rinna's shenanigans make the show feel contrived and forced, operating on the whims and wants of one person and lacking in organic drama.
As far as solutions go, RHOBH viewers by and large agree that the show's cast needs to be revamped, with some going so far as to say that everyone—even Kyle Richards—needs to be replaced. This point seems to be backed up by the fact that the majority of the show's current housewives don't actually live in Beverly Hills, instead opting for zip codes in less opulent places like Malibu and Pasadena. Even when there isn't a storyline to cling onto, fans argue that the best housewives are entertaining enough on their own, a mark that the RHOBH housewives aren't hitting.
Whether or not Bravo will listen to fan's complaints remains to be seen. Given that the newest season will be adding at least one additional cast member in the form of new "friend of" Kathy Hilton, it's clear that there is going to be some amount of change coming to the show. Even if the show never manages to recapture its former greatness, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills will always be one of the most influential and widely loved Bravo series of all time.