The women of Real Housewives of Atlanta are busy filming season 4, which so far has included a baby shower for Kim Zolciak. Meanwhile, the show's two biggest stars -- arch enemies NeNe Leakes and Zolciak -- are in talks to headline their own spin-off series on Bravo, sources tell The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Leakes' series would follow her as she moves to L.A. and tries to break into Hollywood; Zolciak's series would chronicle her life with NFL player Kroy Biermann and their new baby.
Of course, the network doesn't want them both to leave the mother show; they are the two most prominent personalities of the group, after all.
But keeping them both in the original show may be even more problematic. "The two no longer trust each other, much less like each other," writes The Atlanta Journal Constitution's radio and TV blogger Rodney Ho. "This dynamic must be creating challenges for Bravo producers shooting season four, since they want to maximize interaction among the six cast members while Kim and NeNe probably want to spend as little time face to face as possible."
Odds are that Leakes would be the one to make the break for good. Like Bethenny Frankel of The Real Housewives of New York, Leakes has parlayed her Houswives notoriety into other Hollywood gigs -- such as her current, high-profile stint on The Celebrity Apprentice -- and exploited the media exposure at every turn. That includes a big-time feud with Star Jones, which spilled over beyond the reality series when Leakes made the talk show rounds, complaining about Jones.
No doubt, some may say that The Real Housewives franchise has reached a saturation point, and there's no need for another spin-off. But producers can simply point out that The Real Housewives of Atlanta is the most popular one of all of them. Since it averages about 4 million viewers a week, largely on the draw of stars like Zolciak and Leakes, then maybe these women could carry their own shows. As far as TV execs are concerned, there's only one way to find out.
Credit: iVillage (Jennifer Graham Kizer)
