TheCable

The Real Housewives of Lagos, RHOL, a reality TV show premiered on Showmax on Friday, April 8, 2022. As you may be familiar with the Real Housewives brand, the show usually follows the lives of selected women. For its main cast, there are six women on RHOL. This doesn’t include their friends, family, or other people they make come in contact with, in their day-to-day activities. And here are the women of the Real Housewives of Lagos: Laura Ikeji, Toyin Lawani-Adebayo, Iyabo Ojo, Chioma Ikokwu, Carolyna Hutchings, and Mariam Trimmer. You may recognise some of these names if you follow fashion and entertainment. The ones that stick out are Mariam Trimmer and Carolyna Hutchings. Not sure about Mariam Trimmer but Carolyna Hutchings used to be Caroline Ekanem, Nollywood actress who became Caroline Danjuma. According to the producers, these women all “have a few things in common they are very successful, business-minded, fashion-loving, and highly opinionated ladies.” So far, there have been two episodes and from the chatter on social media, viewers have had some time to know if Showmax has delivered on its promise. However, today’s not about reviewing the show. That’s going to come later. Today, I just needed to ask a question which you can see in the headline.

As for the above question, I wish I could take the credit, but the question was asked by my youngest child, Akudo. It was while I was watching the first episode of the Real Housewives of Lagos, and she caught some of it. That was what led to the question: Why isn’t Bobrisky on this show? She was quick with her answer as soon as I asked her why: Bobrisky is in full ‘real housewife drama mode’ in his/her ‘normal’ life on his social media handles. Long story short, Bobrisky is interesting. And from what I gather, my daughter isn’t the only one asking this question. Other people are asking the same thing. Before you ask why the man, real name Idris Olanrewaju Okuneye, qualifies to be on a show for housewives which means it’s for women, we could ask some questions about the show and of some of the women on the show too.

For one, RHOL and shows like it on The Real Housewives franchise are marketed as reality TV shows. Well, much of that “reality” is scripted, curated, and presented to viewers in a certain way. Then there’s of course the obvious, perhaps not so obvious fact that many of the women on the Real Housewives franchise are not housewives, to begin with, because they’re not married. Even the ones that are married are not your typical housewives. You’d think that in a show prefixed with the Real, everything would be real, yes?  Actually, this doesn’t detract from the entertainment value of the shows.

So, where does Bobrisky fit in? Perhaps, for the moment, it’ll be easier to cast Bobrisky as a friend to one of the cast members. He’s already close to Iyabo Ojo, for instance. Although he might prefer to be on the show on his own merit. The point is to create a super interesting show and all hands, in this case, all cast but be on deck.