Real Housewives of Orange County dumps three in cast shakeup, brings back Heather Dubrow

Variety

Kelly Dodd, Braunwyn Windham-Burke and Elizabeth Lyn Vargas won't return for Season 16 of the Bravo reality show after the cable network declined to renew their contracts for Season 16, which is set to begin filming next month. "Controversial firebrand" Dodd is a five-season veteran of Real Housewives of O.C., Windham-Burke has been with the show for two seasons, while Vargas joined this past season. Shannon Storms Beador, Gina Kirschenheiter, and Emily Simpson will all be back next season. The return of Heather Dubrow, a cast member from Seasons 7 through 11, has been rumored. "As a member of the cast, Dubrow was known for her sharp wit, her confrontational style, her huge house and her bickery, bantery marriage to Terry Dubrow, a plastic surgeon," says Variety's Kate Aurthur, adding: "And it’s a good thing that Dubrow is coming in as Dodd is going out, because they sure didn’t get along. During one disastrous on-camera dinner in her final year on the show, Dubrow walked off, and refused to keep filming after Dodd loudly attacked various cast members (and called Beador the c-word). Viewers saw the behind-the-scenes footage of what happened at that season’s reunion." Dodd has been a source of controversy during the pandemic with her comment that COVID may be “God’s way of thinning the herd," which she later apologized. Dodd, who identifies as Mexican-American, also shouted “I’m Black!” during a heated discussion about Black Lives Matter at a Real Housewives reunion in January.