"Real Housewives of Atlanta" returns after 18-month hiatus
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The "Real Housewives of Atlanta," everyone's favorite guilty pleasure and hot mess to watch, will premiere a new season next month featuring familiar faces and new cast members.
Why it matters: Don't act like y'all don't watch — or aren't at least curious about — the show that's become an Atlanta cultural phenomenon.
Driving the news: The 16th season of the show opens at 8pm on March 9, and a trailer featuring snippets from the new episodes dropped Thursday.
Zoom in: Porsha Williams, who in 2021 announced her departure, returns as a full-time cast member.
- Her ongoing divorce from Simon Guobadia will be documented throughout the season.
- In a teaser posted on Bravo's Instagram page, Williams said she hasn't dealt with the emotional aspect of the divorce and that she's realizing that "a lot of different things turned out to be untruths."
Yes, and: Longtime fans are closely watching to see how Phaedra Parks' highly anticipated return will affect the group's dynamics.
- Parks, a lawyer and a licensed mortician who first joined Real Housewives in Season 3, left the show amid a rift with fellow cast member Kandi Burruss.
- According to People magazine, Parks admitted to spreading rumors that Burruss and her husband, Todd Tucker, planned to drug Williams and a mutual friend so they could "take advantage of them sexually."
- Burruss, who denied the rumors alongside Tucker, said last year that she would not be returning for the upcoming season.
- Cynthia Bailey, who also left the show in 2021, is back for the latest season as a "friend."
Catch up quick: Kenya Moore will not be returning for season 16. She was booted from the show last year after sharing sexually explicit photos of new cast member Brittany Eady, according to the AJC.
- However, the trailer for the new season shows Moore in some of the episodes, and touches on the controversy and the subsequent fallout.
The big picture: The previous season had the lowest ratings in the show's history, so Bravo delayed the start of the 16th season and added new faces to the cast, according to the AJC.
The fine print: Other cast members include Eady, Drew Sidora, Shamea Morton Mwangi, Kelli Ferrell and Angela Oakley.
What we're watching: We're just here for the tea and the drama.