RHOA: Nene Leakes thinks she, Lisa Vanderpump, were crucial to their franchises

RHOA star Nene Leakes retweeted a tweet earlier today indicating that these five original housewives were crucial to the success of the franchises.

The internet is abuzz with chatter about Nene Leakes’ tweet. What do you think about it?  Was Nene crucial to the success of RHOA?

Was Vicki Gunvalson crucial to RHOC, and Bethenny Frankel a necessity to RHONY?  Teresa Guidice was definitely crucial for RHONJ, but was Lisa Vanderpump the most important casting for RHOBH?  To be clear, this is not Nene’s original thought, she just retweeted it and said, “BE VERY CLEAR.”

They have a point

The twitter user has a good point though – these women were crucial to the success of their respective franchises.  Andy has said before on his Radio Andy podcast that he didn’t think The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills needed to exist because they had The Real Housewives of Orange County already – until he saw Lisa’s casting tape.

Somewhere, Kyle Richards is angrily texting Teddi.

The impact of the OG cast members

The early seasons of RHOC were definitely better because of Vicki.  Her “little family van” dialogue will go down in history.  RHONJ would be nothing without the Guidice / Gorga family drama.  I’d argue that Ramona Singer is a very important part of RHONY history (we are nothing without turtle time) – but Bethenny was right there with her, muffins in tow.

One thing is certain though, it was the chemistry, friendship, drama, and name-calling between the cast that really carried these franchises.

No one housewife can be responsible for the success of a show through the seasons.  Some housewives are just more dynamic and well-liked by viewers, which carries well through the seasons.

So what do you think, were these wives the most important castings for their respective franchises?  Who would you choose?

The Real Housewives of Atlanta is not currently airing, but will hopefully be back on Bravo soon!