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Casting the Net

BH Producer Dave Rupel answers your questions about new cast members Dana Wilkey and Brandi Glanville.

I hope everyone enjoyed the latest episode. Most of the comments from last week asked about the new cast members, Brandi and Dana, so that's what I'm going to blog about this week.

How to Watch

Watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on Peacock and the Bravo App.

As a reminder, Evolution Media produces only RHOC and RHOBH. All the other Housewife series are produced by other production companies, which may handle things differently -- so I can't speak for them.

Viewer Guess12 loved last year and wanted to know why we felt the need to add anyone? Actually, there were several reasons. Camille was in the middle of a custody battle that was taking up a lot of her time, so she couldn’t commit to shooting full time. Also, Lisa was covering the royal wedding for HLN, which you saw in tonight's episode, so she wasn't as available as we would’ve liked. With some of the ladies busy with other activities it felt natural to introduce a few new faces.

Caliviewer wants to know what the difference is between being a full Housewife and a "friend of a housewife?" Good question! The full Housewives are the central personalities we are following throughout the show, so the biggest difference is that the "friends of housewives" we feature alongside our Housewives are not followed individually. Meaning, you'll never see a scene of Brandi with her friends, or of Dana and her fiancée, without any of the Housewives present. They also are not in the main titles, and don't have graphic title cards.

Finally, so why Brandi and Dana? Whenever you are adding to a cast, you want to show personalities that are different than what we already have. Brandi, having recently gone through a high profile divorce to an actor might seem like a repeat of Camille's story, but the two have handled things completely. Brandi jumped back into the dating world with a flourish, while Camille has been slower to trust again. Brandi is also very outspoken, which is an excellent characteristic to have if you are going to be on reality TV. We want people who are not shy about expressing their opinions. As for Dana, she also wasn't afraid to express herself, and she's bubbly and a lot of fun.

Kathy Marie wants to know if the ladies knew Brandi and Dana were cast members when they arrived at Kyle's party? Yes and no. They knew new cast members would be attending that night, but they didn't know who they were until they arrived. We wanted their reaction to be honest and genuine. So what you saw at Kyle's party was their very real reaction.

Now, on to other questions not related to the cast.

ATL Fan wants to know how long it takes to film a season? We started shooting in mid-March and officially wrapped in early July. However, there are still interviews and other shoots that occasionally happen, such as at the end of August, we shot the day of Pandora's wedding, which will appear in our final episode of the season.

So that's it for this week! Hope you enjoyed the episode, and keep your comments and questions coming in!

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