My relationship with Bravo and the Real Housewives franchise has evolved over the years. While I consider them some of the best reality shows on the air, for a long time I only watched New Jersey. But as years went by, I started dipping my toe into each of the cities and am now steeped in the culture and catch up with every single one. Honestly, I blame Casey Wilson and Danielle Schneider's podcast Bitch Sesh for convincing me to watch them all. I mean, I needed to be able to understand what they were joking about!
Season 5 of Ultimate Girls Trip just premiered on the network (and streaming with a Peacock subscription), and it's basically Bravo fans' Avengers. But I'll admit the first episode has my head spinning about timelines.
There are multiple Real Housewives cities airing at any point during the year. We're currently deep into Season 20 of Orange County, while the reunion of Atlanta just recently wrapped up. Ultimate Girl Trip's premiere was connected to both of those shows, although I've got to say it threw me for a loop.
I Couldn't Place When Ultimate Girls Trip Was Set Within The Universe
While we might never see the Ultimate Girls Trip in Morocco due to legal reasons, Roaring 20th looks like it's going to be a blast. The premiere gave us the return of Atlanta's Nene Leaks, who went over to main cast member Porsha Williams' house to help to pack. During that conversation, they talked about Porsha's new girlfriend, someone we only just found out she was officially dating during the recent Season 17 reunion. This was a fun connection since those two shows aired on the same night, but then we got into the real drama involving Orange County.
Ever since the new season of OC premiered, we've been hearing about a fight that happened between Shannon and Tamra while filming Ultimate Girls Trip. But as compelling as it is to watch these two longtime friends deal with conflict, Orange County didn't actually show us any of the footage. So fans have been watching the fallout of a scene without any actual context or information.
Well, we finally got to see it in the first episode of Ultimate Girl Trip Season 5. Once again, Tamra was talking badly about Shannon's past with drinking, with the latter getting worked up as a result. This is something we've seen plenty of over the last two seasons of Orange County, so the argument didn't pack all that much of a punch. And after wondering about what happened for a month and a half, I was a bit disappointed. I mean, couldn't they have given us at least a small clip during OC's first few eps?
To be clear, I still loved the first episode of Ultimate Girls Trip. The season truly feels like a love letter to the fans, with plenty of exciting cameos and throwback clips from each city's most iconic moments. I just had a bit of cognitive dissonance with moments from the premiere.
New episodes of Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th air Sundays on Bravo as part of the 2026 TV schedule. The next stop is going to be Beverly Hills, with OG Kyle Richards returning to RHUGT after appearing in Season 1.
