When Real Housewives of Miami rebooted four years ago after a long pause, few expected it to come back stronger than ever, yet here we are, with more episodes of the rebooted show than the original. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer Anderson and NBCUniversal’s Kathleen French spill the tea on why Miami’s got that underdog reputation, the explosive season seven fight, and which Latin pop star should join the cast next.

Did they see this comeback coming? Kathleen French is confident: “Absolutely. We have done BravoCon since 2019, and anytime Real Housewives of Miami was mentioned, the audience would go nuts. There was such a fan fever for this show and it never died. The question I was asked all the time was, ‘When are you going to reboot Miami?’ We knew there was an appetite for the viewers to see this show again.”

Producer Anderson adds, “We did it. Now, there are more episodes of the reboot than there are of the original. Once we crossed that threshold, it was like, Wow, we are on the other side of that equation, which is pretty amazing, because rebooting is a hard thing to do.”

What makes Miami’s “friends of the housewives” so unique? Unlike other franchises that swap out friends each season, Miami’s trio—Marysol, Adriana, and Kiki—are “super friends” who appear regularly and have built a dedicated fan base. Anderson explains, “They do interviews, they go on every trip, they’re almost at every cast event… There’s a lot of talk of, like, ‘Give her her mojito! Give Marysol her mojito! Give Kiki her mojito!’ They’re doing so much, they should be full time.”

Why does Miami get labeled “underrated” despite the nonstop drama and glamour? Anderson believes it’s partly due to the passionate fanbase holding the show accountable: “I think that the fan engagement with this show in particular… they feel in a way responsible for bringing it back. The amount of engagement… [they] want to make sure everything is being done for it.”

He embraces the underdog label: “There is something about being the underdog that gives you a chance to exceed those expectations, which I feel like this season does.”

What about the marketing? Why wasn’t a Miami housewife on Watch What Happens Live during the premiere? Kathleen French clarifies, “It wasn’t a strategy, it was a reality. Watch What Happens Live was on hiatus during the premiere week… When the show came back for episode two, Alexia and Marysol were on together. So we’re always promoting the show. They all get equal love.”

Then there’s the intense physical altercation between Julia and Guerdy in season seven — how was that handled? French stresses, “We have a strong code of respect in the workplace here… Julia said openly and honestly that there isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t regret having made that choice. She has apologized to Guerdy, she’s apologized to the production company.”

Anderson adds, “As soon as something like that happens, we gotta step in, because we don’t support any kind of physical altercations on the show. These are dynamic, intelligent, very witty women that can use their words in arguments. We stop it immediately.”

Did it surprise you that most of the cast was more upset about Guerdy sharing text messages with Julia than the actual drink throw? French says, “I think they were a little more stunned in the moment when the drink throwing happened… but there was a little bit of a shock reaction at Marysol’s wedding party when the texts were revealed.”

Anderson reveals, “There were people on the cast who were not thrilled about the water throwing, and they expressed that to Julia, but not everything always makes it onto air… There was definitely a feeling that they didn’t love the water throwing, but everyone was all in the same place at the same time with the text thing.”