Does Real Housewives Of Atlanta Need A Cast Shake-Up? Here’s What Kandi Burruss Thinks

Real Housewives of Atlanta Kandi Burruss
(Image credit: Bravo)

Real Housewives of Atlanta is one of the longest-running spinoffs of the franchise at 12 years, and it's still going strong. And year after year, the ladies of the show continue to deliver the goods. In my opinion, they are at least one of the top three best Housewives – with New York and Potomac giving the Atlanta crew a run for their money. So does the iconic reality show need to do another cast shake-up for Season 14? Real Housewives of Atlanta vet Kandi Burruss has some thoughts.

Technically, this past season of Real Housewives of Atlanta already saw a shake-up in the line-up. NeNe Leakes left (again), along with former America’s Next Top Model winner Eva Marcille, but actress Drew Sidora took up the mantle as an official cast member. However, the subtler change seemed to be that there were more “friends of the housewives” than actual housewives. The idea of losing new blood isn’t a good idea to Kandi Burruss, who said as much to ET Online:

The way I look at it is, we just shook things up, and I feel like people were just starting to get to know some of the new people in this past season. So if anything, I feel like we only had five housewives this past year, I feel like if anything, add somebody.

Drew Sidora and LaToya Ali have definitely been holding their own in the Real Housewives of Atlanta’s thirteenth season. One could even argue that they’re creating and sustaining the drama more so than season veteran Cynthia Bailey. Ali has gotten into arguments with everyone from Sidora to Porsha Williams to Kenya Moore. Sidora has also been unafraid to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Moore.

It’s only been one season for Drew Sidora and these “friends” of the show, though, so it’s hard to say if their storylines are a one-off or workable in the long term. But fans definitely want to see more, so perhaps LaToya Ali or Marlo Hampton should be made official cast-mates in Season 14? Kandi Burruss echoed that sentiment again, saying:

I don’t feel like we need to switch it up again, because we just switched it up, we just added new people. I feel like there’s more to get to know about the new people, and I feel like we could possibly add one more just to have a bigger group.

The only member that shouldn’t leave or be replaced is Porsha Williams, who has been with the Real Housewives of Atlanta for most of the past nine years. There was some speculation a while back that Williams was going to quit the reality show after this season because of the accusations that she slept with Bolo the stripper at Cynthia Bailey’s bachelorette party. Hopefully, during the reunion, we’ll find out more info on that front and why Williams scrubbed the RHOA moniker from her social media.

Regardless of Kandi Burruss’ wishes though, times are a’changin’ at the Bravo network. The new spinoffs and their ladies’ dramas are taking over the headlines. Things are also in motion for a mega-crossover Housewives special and even a children of the Housewives special. So maybe Real Housewives of Atlanta is feeling the pressure to keep up.

Lauren Vanderveen
Movies and TV News Writer

Freelance writer. Favs: film history, reality TV, astronomy, French fries.