Rosanna Hicken was struggling with a question last September: How would the new season of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” match the spectacular ending of season 4?
“I was a little nervous coming into the season,” said Hicken, who hosts the “Salty Housewife” podcast from her Cottonwood Heights home, “because last season was peak reality TV, with the Monica of it all.”
Heather Gay’s now-famous takedown of former castmate Monica Garcia (“Receipts! Proof! Timeline! Screenshots!”) became a viral sensation, inspiring memes and T-shirts.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Podcaster Rosanna Hicken (aka Salty Housewife), who covers the just-completed season of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” is pictured in her in-home studio in Cottonwood Heights on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025.
Meanwhile, the hosts of “The Real HouseBears of Salt Lake City” podcast — married couple Cory Chitwood, aka “Papa the Bear,” and Hunter Harden — also wondered how season 5 would shake out.
With its finale scheduled to air Wednesday, Chitwood’s verdict is in: It ended up being “better, because this cast is perfect.”
The Salt Lake City cast members “genuinely care about each other,” Harden said. “You could tell that they’re all friends with each other on some kind of a level, and they’ve grown together.”
Hicken listed the subplots this season that resonated: Bronwyn Newport’s story of being an unmarried Brigham Young University student when she was pregnant with her daughter, Gwen, who’s now 18; Whitney Rose giving Lisa Barlow a necklace from her jewelry business, and Lisa leaving it in her room in Milwaukee; Meredith Marks’ bat mitzvah; and more.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Cory Chitwood, left, aka "Papa the Bear," and Hunter Harden, the hosts of "The Real HouseBears" podcast, in the Murray location of Beauty Lab + Laser, the business co-owned by "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" cast member Heather Gay, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025.
”You have the husbands almost getting into a fight,” Hicken said. “You have [Bronwyn trying on] a $4 million necklace. You have Lisa saying she won’t fly in coach.”
The Salt Lake City branch of the franchise, Chitwood said, “has risen to the top. The old ‘[Real Housewives of] New York’ died and Salt Lake City took the crown.”
In separate interviews, Hicken and the HouseBears provided their takes on each of the show’s seven Housewives cast members, along the two “friends” — Britani Bateman and Meili Workman — who were introduced this season.
Lisa Barlow
(Bravo) Lisa Barlow talks in Puerto Vallarta, in an episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Hicken • “I have been a Lisa Barlow stan forever. … However, it gets really hard when Lisa can’t take it the way some of the women can take it. … Lisa refusing to fly coach? You can’t even make that up. It’s perfect. We need that kind of character on the show, because it’s boring without it.”
Chitwood • “Lisa Barlow is a queen. … I like to watch Lisa and Whitney go after each other. … It was really sweet, we got to see Lisa be a mom this season. … I feel like we got to see a softer side of Lisa.”
Harden • “She is very consistent with who she is. You’re going to get Lisa Barlow, no matter what.”
Britani Bateman
(Bravo) Britani Bateman talks, and gets talked to, in a moment from "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Chitwood • “All of my favorite moments this season have revolved around Britani Bateman. Every announcement she makes is hysterical to me. When she stood up and said, ‘You guys, what about me?,’ that might be one of my favorite moments of the whole entire season.”
Harden • “Her announcements, and just her delusion about how she perceives herself, and how others perceive her as well. She was definitely the craziest part of this season. And I think you always have to have a crazy person on the show.”
Hicken • “She did the work to be full time. Girlfriend, with her announcements, was doing everything. She knows how to spin something to make it work in her favor. When she didn’t want to talk about recording, she announced that she had a physical relationship with Jared [Osmond]. … She brought entertainment. There’s a level of unawareness that makes her a great Housewife.”
Mary Cosby
(Natalie Cass | Bravo) Mary Cosby talks during an outdoor outing of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Hicken • “Mary is such a queen this season. … Last season, she didn’t want to do anything. She didn’t even want to get off the Sprinter van. … I literally was so confused when she was coming back. I’ve never been so happy to eat my words. She’s perfect this season. She’s open, she’s vulnerable. The stuff with Robert Jr,, [when he admitted he was misusing drugs], I literally cried. It’s the realest ‘Housewives’ has ever been. She’s perfect.”
Chitwood • “The scenes where she’s with Robert, or talking with Angie about Robert — it’s the most touching TV that has happened on reality TV.”
Harden • “She’s just cutting Britani down with everything she’s saying, and she’s saying exactly what everybody watching is saying.”
Heather Gay
(Bravo) Heather Gay, left, and Meredith Marks investigate whether there's a listening device planted in Meredith's room, in an episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Hicken • “Heather is the best Housewife to create chaos and drama. She knows perfectly how to spin something. Instead of her getting upset at a lot of things this season, I loved just watching her in the background, [looking] to see where everything went. She was really fun for me, like, the narrator of the season.”
Harden • “She was, like, the narrator of this whole season, because she does give really good monologues.”
Chitwood • “After last season, Heather’s future on this show was cemented in concrete. This season, she’s been more of a one-woman Greek chorus.”
Angie Katsanevas
(Bravo) Angie Katsanevas shows off her Greek roots at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, in the Oct. 2 episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Hicken • “In my eyes, Angie, 95% of the time, can do no wrong. I think she’s warm, I think she’s kind. I think you can see her kind of playing a character for a second when she gets angry, but then you can see the real Angie come out very quickly. When they were all yelling at Britani in the van [for recording the castmates’ conversation], as soon as [Britani] got out and started crying, [Angie] said, ‘Guys, I think we hurt her feelings.’ I think [Angie], at her core, is a good person.”
Chitwood • “Angie has had conflict with a good portion of the cast. … Angie for some reason didn’t quite work as a friend, but she fits in great as a full-time cast member. Again, these women know their jobs. … Angie also gave us screen time with her hot husband.”
Meredith Marks
(Bravo) Meredith Marks, left, and Lisa Barlow toast during Mary Cosby's "Breakfast at Tiffany's"-themed brunch, in an episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Chitwood • “First of all, I’m obsessed with Meredith Marks, because when you meet her in person, she is so beautiful, unlike any way they can capture her on television.”
Hicken • “I really enjoyed the bat mitzvah of it all. I can’t tell if Meredith is tired of being on the show. … I don’t know how much she wants to be a Housewife any more.”
Chitwood • “Meredith gives us a lot of great one-liners. Meredith gives us a lot of great reactions — like [when she shouted], ‘None of this is OK.’ … Meredith gave us those bangs at that ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ brunch. I love that Meredith, in both fashion and with her actions, is willing to take a risk.”
Bronwyn Newport
(Bravo) Bronwyn Newport talks over lunch with her husband, Todd Bradley, in an alpenglobe at Cafe Galleria in Midway, in an episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Harden • “I think she’s a great addition to the cast. I think she brings more youth to the cast as well, and also just that controversy of marrying an older man who’s richer and all that stuff brings its own little troubles that will be good for the show. I’ve been really interested in getting to know her as a person on the show, which has been really nice.”
Chitwood • “I find most interesting about her is that when you look at her, she’s bold and bright, but I feel like she’s really insecure deep down inside. She has a lot of abandonment issues from the situation of getting pregnant [while at BYU] and losing family members, getting kicked out of [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], and a lot of ‘Lisa, please validate how I’m feeling.’ … Her fashion has been very exciting. I will even support the hot dog costume.”
Hicken • “I was so excited for her to join the show, because … I want a really rich Housewife. I want to see the private jets. I want to see the bags. … I don’t know how I feel about Bronwyn. I feel like she’s good at spinning things. So I feel like I watch people say something, and then I hear how she says it back to someone, and I’m like, ‘Is that what they said?’ … I want to like her, because I do think she’s great for the show. She’s over the top — the clothes, the jewelry. I think she makes for a great Housewife. I just don’t know how much I can trust her.”
Whitney Rose
(Bravo) Whitney Rose talks with Meredith Marks at the State Road Tavern in Kamas, in an episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Hicken • “So beautiful. Not sure where her storyline was this season, so I think it made her stumble a lot. … Whitney is a great part of the Housewives, because she does know how to stir up drama, so she’s always great for that part of Housewives.”
Chitwood • “No one works harder than Whitney Rose. She is going to find a pot to stir if she has to fill it up herself.”
Meili Workman
(Fred Hayes | Bravo) Meili Workman, left (with Whitney Rose), is one of the new "friends" who appeared on season 5 of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Chitwood • “We completely forgot about Meili. … It was a running joke on our podcast. Every single week, we’re, like, ‘Did you know there’s some girl named Meili on the show?’ She brought nothing.”
Harden • “I honestly can’t say anything about Meili, because every time I saw her, I was, like, ‘Who’s that?’”
Hicken • “I feel sad for her. … She’s not a very dramatic person, so she didn’t really know how it’s going to work. … I think we got three soundbites from her. … It feels like at the beginning of the season, they knew this wasn’t going to be a thing.”
