Bravo has set the premiere date for Season 5 of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" for September 18, with the entire Season 4 cast returning — minus Monica Garcia, who was exposed in the season finale as an internet troll who had harassed the women before joining the cast. Lisa Barlow, Heather Gay, Angie Katsanevas, Meredith Marks and Whitney Rose are all back, and Mary Cosby will return to the show as a full-time cast member. (Cosby quit/was fired after crashing the show's Season 2 reunion, but then returned to the show as a cast "friend" in Season 4, during which she showed little enthusiasm for group activities.)
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Additionally, Bronwyn Newport will be a regular cast member, with Britani Bateman and Meili Workman joining the cast as friends. Newport, according to the announcement, "arrives in couture with her over-the-top fashions and a sense of humor as sharp as the diamonds she wears. Bronwyn, a longtime friend of Lisa Barlow, wows the ladies with her outrageous, fabulous and confrontational style." Workman, in Bravo's parlance, "has her hands full as a model with four young children and a husband at home. Meili, originally from California, was raised LDS and moved to Utah to be more involved in the church, but ultimately decided that faith wasn't for her."
As for Bateman, she's a "real estate developer, actress and acclaimed singer in an on-again, off-again relationship. Britani is introduced to the women through her friend Heather, but immediately clashes with a few of the ladies." When Bateman was reportedly in the mix for Season 5, blogs accused her of having some disturbing social media activity of her own. Which is perhaps why Gay's bio for this season reads, in part, "Heather introduces her friend Britani to the group, but when Britani repeatedly puts her foot in her mouth, Heather can no longer defend her."
It was Gay who took the lead in the Season 4 finale that aired earlier this year, unmasking her during a cast trip to Bermuda, producing the “Receipts! Proof! Timeline! Screenshots!” that launched the show into the pop culture stratosphere, while launching thousands of memes in the process.
