As a wise woman once said, don’t be tardy for the party. On April 15, Bravo opened the vault, so to speak, and has made many long-gone reality series like The Rachel Zoe Project and NYC Prep available to stream on Peacock. On a special episode of Still Watching, hosts Hillary Busis, Richard Lawson, and Chris Murphy dive back into the depths of Bravo and share their favorite vintage Bravo moments as they consider the past, present, and future of the reality TV juggernaut.
Lawson opted for a classic moment from Top Chef—season one, episode seven, to be specific—when chef Dave Martin turned to fellow contestant Tiffani Faison following the franchise’s first installment of Restaurant Wars to deliver the immortal line, “I’m not your bitch, bitch.” Noting Top Chef’s almost two decades on air, Lawson remarked at how much and how has little has changed on the network. “It’s funny to look back,” he said. “Top Chef, which is now so distinct from the Housewives, back in the day did have these pretty ugly moments that people really relished.”
Busis opted for a stand-out moment from another popular Bravo competition series, Project Runway: when Santino Rice did a pitch-perfect Tim Gunn impersonation, demanding to know “What happened to Andre?” She touched upon the star-making factor Bravo had, even back in the old days. “By season two, Tim Gunn has kind of become this personality in his own right,” Busis noted. “He was plucked from mainstream obscurity, and then [Bravo] turned this humble teacher into a giant star.”
Murphy opted for a classic Housewives moment, singling out Kim Zolciak’s first single “Tardy for the Party” from The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Name-checking other Bravo songstresses including Countess Luann, Candiace Dillard Bassett, and Erika Jayne, Murphy remarked on how Zolciak unwittingly created a subarchetype of the Housewife. “I do think we need to pay our respects and listen to it, and think about that phenomenon,” he said.
Have a favorite Bravo moment that wasn’t covered on the podcast? Send an email to Still Watching at stillwatchingpod@gmail.com, and stay on the lookout for new episodes as the podcast tackles the Real Housewives of the Regency era, Netflix’s Bridgerton, in the coming weeks.