TV preview
“Married to Medicine,” 9 p.m. Sundays, Bravo
Atlanta is home to more “Real Housewives”-style shows than any other city.
The first five were Bravo’s seminal “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” VH1’s breakout hit “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta,” TV One’s “R&B Divas,” TLC’s “The Sisterhood” and Style Network’s “Big Rich Atlanta.”
Bravo is now unveiling “Married to Medicine,” which features four doctors’ wives and two female doctors from metro Atlanta. It debuts at 9 p.m. Sunday after the fifth season finale of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”
The women may be different. They may run in different circles. But the idea is more or less the same: a study of female relationships. Arguments anchor the episodes, the pettier, the merrier. Jealousy, backbiting and lies dot the landscape. A physical altercation never hurts.
Jonesboro resident Mariah Huq, who is married to a Bangladeshi-born emergency room physician and has two children, pitched “Married to Medicine” to networks for more than three years until Bravo bit. She recruited the other five women, including the doctor who delivered her first baby.
Another is her best friend, who recently married a doctor and is being introduced into the medical world.
“For me, this is a dream come true,” Huq said in a recent interview. “This is what I was born to do. I knew I was going to be on TV.” She hopes to parlay the exposure into a brand empire. She already owns a children’s bedding and pajama line. She hopes to emulate Bethenny Frankel, formerly of “The Real Housewives of New York,” who sold her Skinnygirl line of cocktails for a hefty eight-figure sum in 2011.
Huq, a former medical sales rep, on the first episode calls herself “the queen bee … the heart of the entire social circle.”
The obvious question is: How much more of these types of shows can viewers take? How much space is left in the DVR?
Mara Davis, a local media maven and longtime radio DJ obsessed with Bravo shows, is willing to give “Married to Medicine” a try. “I can’t wait,” she says. “I’m fired up. Everybody wants to see people that are crazier than you. We love to see the lives of the rich and famous even if they’re not necessarily rich and famous.”
Lisa Wu Hartwell, an actress who was a cast member of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” in 2009 and 2010, has seen the promos for “Married to Medicine” but knows nothing else. “There’s still a market for it,” she says, “but personally speaking, it’s oversaturated.”
TLC recently attempted to copy Bravo’s success with “The Sisterhood,” focused around five Atlanta area preachers’ wives. It bombed in the ratings — though in that case, it may have simply been on the wrong network.
In comparison, “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” in its fifth season, is garnering its best ratings to date. Viewers credit the antics of actress/producer Kenya Moore, who migrated from Los Angeles to generate mayhem. The show has averaged more than 3 million viewers a week, more than the other five “Real Housewives” shows still in production, including the original version out of Orange County, Calif.
“Kenya makes fabulous TV,” Davis says. “It’s probably fake, but it doesn’t matter to me!”
VH1, in the meantime, struck gold last summer with “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta,” bringing in more viewers than “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” thanks to the memorable, over-the-top love triangle with Stevie J, Joseline and Erica.
