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MTV is giving us a gay answer to the ‘Real Housewives’… and the … – Queerty

Kim Martel
Image Credit: Leigh Keily Courtesy of MTV

Bravo’s ever-expanding The Real Housewives Of universe has long been a favorite of queer audiences, so perhaps it was an inevitability that we’d one day get a gay spin on its tried-and-true “reality” dramatics.

Well, that day is here with the announcement of MTV’s The Real Friends Of WeHo—centering on the intermingling lives and careers of six successful gays in the eponymous LA neighborhood—and the internet is… conflicted!

Per the logline, the show aims to be an “an unfiltered and honest look at a select group of friends living, loving, and pursuing their passions in the West Hollywood community.”

The alleged “group of friends” in question consists of “some of Hollywood’s most influential and successful LGBTQ+ celebrities, personalities, and entrepreneurs,” which herein means the following:

Celebrity stylist Brad Goreski (who’s really been killing it as a judge on Canada’s Drag Race of late), singer-choreographer Todrick Hall (who’s been beset with a fair amount of controversies as of late), recently out actor Curtis Hamilton (of The Kings Of Napa and Insecure fame), skincare mogul Dorión Renaud (CEO of Buttah), entertainment news host Jaymes Vaughn (notably, husband to Mean Girls‘ Jonathan Bennett), and influencer Joey Zauzig (who Good Morning America named “the internet’s best friend” last year).

Related: Jonathan Bennett and Jaymes Vaughan just made history with this magazine cover

The first-look trailer keeps things very brief—only giving real screen time to half the cast—but it does tease some of the drama to come. There’s Goreski, musing over how to balance being a public figure with being a good example for the LGBTQ+ community. Vaughn mentions his famous beau, but we strangely don’t see him in the clip, or even hear a mention of his name.

And then there’s Hall, who seems keen on addressing the scandals that have surrounded him the past few years. The headlines flashed on-screen in the clip are hilariously vague, but we have to assume that means the blowback to his Celebrity Big Brother run and “the case of the missing rent” will both play into the season, among other controversies.

You can watch the preview clip for yourself below:

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In a very sly move, MTV will debut The Real Friends Of WeHo on January 20, with new episodes every Friday—in a prime time slot, right after RuPaul’s Drag Race.

So, will the legions of Drag Race fans who followed the show to its new network stay tuned in to watch these gay men run amok in West Hollywood? After a brief temperature check on Twitter, our assessment is… TBD.

Reactions to the upcoming reality series are all over the place today. Here’s just a small sampling of what folks are saying about The Real Friends Of WeHo:

Related: Todrick Hall blasts haters ahead of new TV show: “You work hard, but I work harder”