The Housewives of New York will return with a new cast, but a new series will include the iconic former stars

The Real Housewives of New York City are being rebooted — and recasted — ahead of season 14. In an interview with Variety, longtime RHONY executive producer Andy Cohen revealed Bravo's plans to "revitalize" the iconic franchise. And that includes a lot of new faces and new Big Apple adventures.

According to the interview, Cohen and Bravo plan to recast the mothership series with an entirely new group of friends — meaning when the show returns, it won't be with the women we last saw in 2021. "I think this represents a tremendous opportunity for a rebirth of the show," Cohen told Variety. "What we're looking for is everything that makes a great Housewife: fun, opinionated, successful, aspirational women who represent a side of New York that we want to see more of."

And to satiate longtime fans who might not be ready to let go of the original faces of the show, which premiered March 4, 2008, the solution is simple: a second RHONY series that will feature ex-cast members from the franchise, currently referred to unofficially as RHONY: Throwback or RHONY: Legacy. While there's no confirmation about which cast members might return for this series, Cohen hinted that he had an idea of who he would want, which could include season 13 cast members like Sonja Morgan, Eboni K. Williams, and Luann de Lesseps, and beloved cast members like Bethenny Frankel.

As of now, the original series will air on Bravo as Cohen theorizes that the throwback series could find its home elsewhere, given that Peacock now exists as an option. (The streamer was recently home to the The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip.)

RHONY's return marks a second chance of sorts for the Bravo series, which aired its season 13 finale on Aug. 31, 2021 after a COVID-induced plague of low ratings — which also contributed to scrapping a planned reunion, a first for the series.

"One of the things that makes these shows such a success is that they're about real people with real connections, and their interactions," said Cohen. "The thing we always come back to is that our greatest successes — and certainly one of the things that resonated with RHONY in the past — is featuring women who had relationships before joining the show, and we're going to focus on that going forward."

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