
There were reality TV stars before The Real Housewives, but when the franchise kicked off on Bravo back on March 21, 2006, with its inaugural Orange County edition, it created a new genre of reality star: wealthy, wine-tossing women enjoying lavish lifestyles and stirring up soapy drama in major cities across America and beyond — the show has since branched out of the US and into countries from Australia to the United Arab Emirates.