In the decade since Shannon Storms Beador first joined The Real Housewives of Orange County, each year has brought on new challenges for Bravo’s most ill-fated Housewife. Was it wrong to assume season 18, filmed mere months after she drunk-drove her car into a house, would be any different? Fallout from the DUI arrest aside, the show also re-introduced Alexis Bellino, now engaged to Shannon’s ex, John Janssen, a move seemingly designed to push her over the edge. But while Shannon certainly had a tough run of episodes, filled with the inevitable tearful breakdowns and dramatic storm-outs, she emerged in her strongest-ever position on the series. Judging solely by viewer response, this may end up being that which has so famously eluded Shannon: her first good season.
For many of us, Shannon’s new fan-favorite status has been a pleasant surprise. For fellow Orange County Housewife Tamra Judge, it’s been a less-than-pleasant one. You could argue, as she likely will at the upcoming reunion, that her incessant attacks on Shannon and alliance with Alexis came from the heart, but her moves were always more calculated than that. Tamra thought she knew where the wind was blowing, only to find herself wildly off-course, and Heather Dubrow’s late-season beef with Shannon also fell flat. Heather was right, however, that Shannon was creating a narrative, something all long-standing Housewives have learned how to do. It just happened to be a very effective one.
Real Housewives, in all its iterations, is a show about conflict and resolution, but the women’s individual stories and the ever-shifting roles they play are just as important. After years of being on the defense — what Tamra might call “playing the victim” — Shannon hit her lowest point yet, and she spent this season climbing back up. This is the narrative she is working to perpetuate: As she says to Tamra during a sit-down, “I’m digging myself out of a hole, and I feel like you are one of the people just trying to push me back in there.” And that narrative is what fans latched onto. We don’t love a DUI arrest, but we do love a comeback story. We love a diva down, because that means a diva picking herself back up again. Shannon’s rock bottom has allowed her to redefine herself. “I feel like I’m drawing strength from myself,” she says in a confessional. “I know that I’m a survivor. I’m not a victim.”
Of course, crafting one’s narrative is easier said than done — just ask any number of Housewives whose apology tours were resoundingly rejected. Shannon can’t control audience response, but she has done her part to invite compassion, starting season 18 from a place of shame and contrition before asking for forgiveness. “I’m so sorry and humiliated that I disappointed you,” she says to her daughters in the season premiere. “What kind of example am I at 59?” Later in the episode, she tells her lawyer that she wants to “accept responsibility” for what she did, calling herself a “complete hypocrite.” There’s no question that Shannon is owning it in these scenes, and as former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Rinna knows, that’s essential Housewives behavior.
But there’s a lot about Shannon’s narrative that’s outside of her control, no matter how much Heather and Tamra are trying to cast her as a master manipulator. Here, it’s her castmates who have given her the biggest boost. One-time enemy Gina Kirschenheiter has become a fierce ally, graciously accepting Shannon’s apology for never letting her live down her own DUI. “I see Shannon being honest for the first time ever,” she says in a confessional, giving viewers permission to also accept and embrace Shannon’s new leaf.
On the other side of the spectrum is Tamra, who spent the entire season screaming at Shannon for being an alcoholic. Even if viewers agree with Tamra on some level — the editors making sure to include every instance of Shannon ordering a drink certainly feels pointed — they don’t like the way she’s expressing herself. (“Everyone hates me this season,” Tamra told People in August.) As Gina says in another confessional, “It’s not for Tamra to decide if Shannon is an alcoholic; it is not for Tamra to berate her and make her feel worse than she already feels.” Tamra’s relentless cruelty has only helped Shannon, as has John Janssen’s $75,000 lawsuit against her and Alexis’ constant jabs. Because Shannon began the season with her tail between her legs, these attacks feel like punching down and make the audience defensive on her behalf. When she calls Tamra’s behavior “a true example of kicking someone when they’re down,” we’re inclined to agree.
The onslaught of bad cards Shannon’s been dealt is another piece of the successful narrative puzzle. She may reject the label of “victim,” but there’s no denying she’s someone who has been repeatedly victimized by life circumstances. Her reactions to that over the years — which include more abrupt exits from scenes and emotional confrontations with production than any other Housewife — have cast her as fragile, vulnerable, a broken bird. It’s why Gina says in the first episode, “I can’t help [it], I always just feel bad for her.” It’s much easier for the audience to embrace the comeback narrative when it’s attached to someone who appears so desperately in need of a win.
And while the end of season 18 left Shannon dangerously close to backsliding — with Tamra exposing Shannon’s role in digging up dirt on Gina, and Shannon confusingly picking a fight with new Housewife Katie Ginella’s husband — there was an emphasis on progress. In the finale, both Gina and Jennifer Pedranti, more collateral damage in the Tamra vs. Shannon war, emphasize that despite Shannon’s faults, she is “working on herself.” That grace is a fitting conclusion to her season-long arc. After nine years of Shannon never having had a good season, there’s a welcome catharsis to watching her pick up the pieces and declare in the penultimate episode, “I know who I am, and I have taken such responsibility in the hardest year of my life.” We ultimately want to root for her, and ironically, her worst decision yet has created the perfect avenue to do so.
It would be easy enough to say that The Real Housewives of Potomac’s Karen Huger should follow Shannon’s lead. Like Shannon, Karen was involved in a car accident between seasons and was arrested and cited for allegedly driving under the influence. But in the first five episodes of season nine, Karen seems to be taking a very different approach: Where Shannon has acknowledged her rock bottom, Karen is calling herself “totally blessed” and offering a dismissive “accidents happen.” There are major mitigating factors here, most notably that Karen’s case is ongoing and it would be legally unwise for her to publicly accept any responsibility. Even if she could speak freely, however, it’s unlikely she would ever attempt the narrative that Shannon has used to her advantage. For one thing, Karen has never been a broken bird — she’s the Grande Dame, a moniker that she has proudly employed as a sign of her Queen Bee status since the show’s first season.
The roles the women on these shows spend years cultivating, whether intentionally or not, limit their narrative possibilities. That’s not to say there’s no room for course-correction — Karen’s frenemy Gizelle Bryant suddenly learning how to apologize this season is a good example — but that a sudden personality transplant reads as insincere. For Karen to have entered season nine of Potomac with humility and shame would be completely out of character. These dramatic about-faces can be disorienting for viewers, and given that Karen has endeared herself to audiences by playing up her regal persona, that’s not an act she wants to abandon. At the same time, being the Grande Dame has put her in a difficult position, one that she may find harder to navigate as the season progresses.
So far, Karen is not doing herself any favors, treating her alleged infraction as a loyalty test. “This is an opportunity for you guys to swing whichever way you want,” she tells her friends at her season premiere birthday lunch. “I want to see who the real soldiers for Karen Huger is, because I certainly don’t want any fake bitches around me.” She’s gone hard after friend-of Jacqueline Blake — a mismatched fight that makes Karen seem like the one punching down — because Jacqueline said that people shouldn’t judge until the case is resolved, and accused Karen of calling her while intoxicated. And she’s alienated potential allies after inviting the cast to double-book themselves by attending her nebulous awards ceremony when they’d already said they were going to an event honoring Gizelle’s late father. Karen has been accused by multiple castmates of deflection, with Gizelle noting, “I’m not even deflected. I still know, Karen, that you have a court case.”
Like Shannon, Karen is facing co-stars on the attack, but the Potomac brand of shade is par for the course and notably goes both ways. Ashley Darby giving Karen Uber gift cards and Gizelle naming a non-alcoholic cocktail the Grande Dame don’t provoke the same audience response as Tamra berating Shannon for the 19th time. On Potomac, these women are evenly matched. Karen even says, “I would be upset if Gizelle didn’t show messy. That’s what makes me like her.” She also has the “soldiers” she’s been looking for in new full-time Housewives Stacey Rusch and Keiarna Stewart. At worst, Karen is at a standstill with Mia Thornton, who continues to demand that the Grande Dame “just own it.” You don’t have to be a lawyer to understand why Karen owning anything is not something she’s in a position to do.
Perhaps Karen will be singing a different tune once her case has been adjudicated, but filming wrapped months ago and that still hasn’t happened, meaning the season ahead will likely remain a challenge for her. As frustrating as that may be for Karen, it does present an interesting question: Does it matter? As tempting as it is to compare the way Karen and Shannon are responding to their respective incidents, these are ultimately two very different Housewives on two very different shows. Karen doesn’t need a win the way that Shannon did — even if this ends up being her worst season, and it’s still too early to tell, that doesn’t feel like something she can’t weather.
And though crafting the right narrative is important for Housewife longevity, that doesn’t mean every Housewife should do the same song-and-dance. In Karen’s case, obstinacy and bravado have made her a star for nearly a decade, so she may well be right that being the Grande Dame is the story she needs to keep telling — whether or not she’s frustrating the audience with deflection. “People judging me is the least of my worries,” she says in a confessional, and she might be talking about viewers along with her castmates. “When have you ever known the Grande Dame to crumble? Never, and it ain’t gonna happen.”
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