Samsung said it has added new channels featuring reality franchises Real Housewives, Keeping Up Wth the Kardashians and Bravo TV Vault to its Samsung TV Plus free streaming platform.

Samsung said that reality shows are popular with viewers, particularly as they catch up on series in anticipation of their fall premieres, and that it wants to be a go-to destination for this type of unscripted programming.

“This is an expansion of Samsung TV Plus' long-running partnership with NBC to bring on more of the exciting shows and programming we know our viewers love,” Samsung TV Plus senior director of business development and content acquisitions Takashi Nakano said.

Samsung pointed to a recent study by Gitnux that showed that about 79% of U.S. adult TV viewers watch reality shows. About 60% of primetime TV is now reality programming.

Samsung TV Plus is available free on Samsung Smart TVs, Galaxy devices and on the web.

NBCUniversal cable networks Bravo, Oxygen, Syfy, USA Network, and E! will roll out a slew of new shows and returning franchises ranging from E!'s Snoop Dogg-produced unscripted series to Bravo's renewal of several The Real Housewives franchise shows at NBCUniversal's upfront presentation next Monday (May 13).

E! will team up with Snoop Dogg on a new series featuring his daughter, Cori Broadus. The as-yet-untitled project will feature Broadus and her fiancé Wayne Deuce as they navigate life, love, and their upcoming nuptials, according to the network. Shows returning to the network include House of Villains, E! News and Live from E!

On Bravo, the network will launch Making It in Manhattan, which follows several tight-knit New York City-based friends navigating the trials and triumphs of young adulthood, as well as On Safari, which explores the spectacular world of safari experiences in the heart of the South African bush, according to the network. 

Returning to Bravo are long-running shows Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen along with the renewal of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Beverly Hills, Orange County, Miami, New York City, Potomac and Salt Lake City. Other shows returning include Below Deck, Summer House, Top Chef, Southern Charm and Southern Hospitality.

USA Network this summer will debut new competition series The Anonymous, while Syfy will launch in 2025 a new scripted series Revival, based on the zombie-themed comic book series of the same name. Syfy will also bring back shows Reginald the Vampire, The Ark and SurrealEstate.

Also Read: NBC Affiliates To Get Cut-Ins During Olympic Coverage To Promote Local News

Oxygen will develop several new true-crime series, including Dateline: The Smoking Gun, Philly Homicide, A Plan to Kill, The Girl on the Milk Carton, Deadly Waters with Captain Lee, and Sins of the South. Shows returning in 2024 include Accident, Suicide or Murder, Snapped, Snapped: Behind Bars, Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins, and Real Murders of Atlanta.  

“From Bravoholics to Oxygen’s true-crime junkies and E!’s pop culture mavens to USA’s sports and WWE fans, our cable networks are home to some of the most loyal and passionate audiences across all of entertainment,” NBCUniversal Entertainment chairman Frances Berwick said. “The strength of our individual brands combined with our continued investment in distinctive original content continues to drive deep connection and engagement with viewers.” 

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills returns on Bravo May 19. It is season 11, and Kyle Richards, Lisa Rinna, Erika Girardi, Dorit Kemsley and Garcelle Beauvais are in the cast. “Southern socialite” Sutton Stracke appears in the season as well, and Crystal Kung Minkoff and Kathy Hilton are new to the series. 

“The women are ecstatic to expand their social bubbles after months of isolation at home,” said Bravo. “This elation is short lived, however, when Erika Girardi shocks the group with news that she is filing for divorce from her husband of 21 years and is suddenly entangled in a web of legal proceedings. Needing the support of her friends now more than ever, Erika instead finds herself fielding questions from the women who are at odds about whether they can stick up for her.”

Also Read: Bravo Puts Out ‘Real Housewives’ Wines

Among other dramas, Richards struggles with pending empty-nest status, Rinna looks for quiet time with her daughters, Kemsley designs a line of fashion-forward wedding dresses and Beauvais focuses on her teenage twins and her grandson. 

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is produced by Evolution Media for Bravo. Douglas Ross, Alex Baskin, Bill Fritz, John Carr, and Tina Gazzerro Clapp are the executive producers, along with Andy Cohen.

Season 13 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta starts Dec. 6 on Bravo. Cynthia Bailey, Kandi Burruss, Porsha Williams and Kenya Moore return, and are joined by Drew Sidora, who Bravo calls “a triple threat”--actor, singer, housewife. 

Marlo Hampton and Tanya Sam return as friends of the cast, along with new friend LaToya Ali.

Bailey is figuring out how to throw her wedding amidst COVID obstacles. Moore’s “fairytale romance” is on the rocks, so she remodels her house. Burruss’s restaurant empire is booming and Williams lends her voice to the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Sidora, for her part, is “ready to make some waves and spice things up,” said Bravo. 

The Real Housewives of Atlanta is produced by Truly Original with Steven Weinstock, Glenda Hersh, Lauren Eskelin, Lorraine Haughton-Lawson, Luke Neslage, Joye Chin, Glenda Cox, Julie “Bob” Lombardi and Anthony Sylvester the executive producers. Andy Cohen exec produces too. 

Bravo has released a group of wines tied to its Real Housewives franchise, and newest installment The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, which premieres Nov. 11. The Real Housewives Wines, a partnership with Nocking Point Wines of Washington State, is available for purchase starting Oct. 21. The lineup includes The Real HouseWhite, The Real HouseRed and The Real HouseRosé. 

“We are excited to partner with Nocking Point for this special limited edition collaboration that will allow Bravo superfans to immerse themselves in the Bravo universe, engaging with us both on-screen and off,” said Maria Laino DeLuca, senior VP, consumer and social marketing, Bravo and Universal Kids. “This pairing celebrates the series and offers an escape in a year when we may not be able to engage with each other face-to-face.”

Based in Walla Walla, Washington, Nocking Point frequently partners with sports teams and TV properties, including the Cleveland Cavaliers, All Elite Wrestling and former NFL star Tedy Bruschi. The Nocking Point website says, “We are the official wine of sports.”

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City debuts on Bravo Nov. 11. A new series, it “delves into the undiscovered world of Salt Lake City within an exclusive social circle made up of six successful women who’ve created their own paradise filled with luxury homes, shopping sprees and multi-million-dollar businesses,” said Bravo. 

The Housewives are Lisa Barlow, Mary Cosby, Heather Gay, Meredith Marks, Whitney Rose and Jen Shah. The women “navigate a society fueled by religion, beauty, wealth and perfection,” according to Bravo. They represent the Mormon, Islamic, Jewish and Pentecostal faiths. 

The Real Housewives franchise has featured women from Beverly Hills, New York and Potomac, among other locales. 

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is produced by Shed Media (part of Warner Bros. Unscripted & Alternative Television), InventTV and MikeTV. Lisa Shannon, Dan Peirson, Sergio Alfaro, Michaline Babich, Luke Neslage, Lori Gordon and Adam Karpel are the executive producers. Andy Cohen exec produces as well. 

The made-for-TV couple from this season’s edition of The Bachelor — Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell — will be getting the hottest and most buzzworthy wedding gift that television can give: a spinoff series.

Their new series Ben and Lauren: Happily Ever After — premiering this fall on Freeform, sister cable network to The Bachelor’s home of ABC — will join a multitude of spinoffs from successful reality series franchises across the cable dial. In many cases, these off shoots perform as well or better than their parent shows in the ratings.

More than one-third of cable’s top 30 reality shows for the period of June 1, 2015, to May 31, 2016, were reality franchises and their respective extension shows, according to Nielsen. Such extensions, which can potentially cannibalize viewers from their parent series, were once considered a risky play for networks. Now, they are sought-after content with built-in brand recognition and an audience base that can be lured in without a great deal of marketing effort.

“Spinoffs are so big these days because it’s so hard to launch new series today … there’s so much content to choose from and it’s so hard to reach people with new ideas and a new series,” Shari Levine, executive vice president of production for Bravo, said. “When you are doing a spinoff you’re delivering a show to a ready-made viewer that’s somewhat susceptible. You don’t have to explain the concept to them. Half of the marketing is done for you.”

Related:'Deadliest Catch’ Hooks a Spinoff [subscription required]

For some cable franchises just one or two spinoff shows aren’t enough to satisfy the appetite of loyal viewers. Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise — which follows the lives of affluent housewives from various parts of the country — has branded a whopping nine separate series over the past decade.

GETTING HARDER TO ‘KEEP UP’

E! later this year will launch its limited reality series Rob & Chyna, focusing on the lives of celebrity couple Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna, another spinoff from the long-running series Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

VH1’s Love & Hip Hop, which chronicles the lives and relationships of hip hop and R&B musicians, has spawned three spinoff series: Love & Hip Hop: New York, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta and Love & Hip Hop Hollywood.

And the Atlanta version has spun off two series of its own, K Michelle: My Life and Stevie J & Joseline: Go Hollywood. And despite all the iterations from the original franchise, it seems viewers are singing the praises of virtually all of these series. Current seasons of Love & Hip Hop, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta and Love & Hip Hop Hollywood all finished among the top 15 most-watched reality series over the past year, according to Nielsen. The sixth season of parent franchise Love & Hip Hop averaged 3.3 million viewers (on a live-plus-7-day basis), topped only by the fourth season of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, which drew 3.6 million viewers.

Brand recognition is paramount when trying to break through in crowded television marketplace, E! and Esquire Network president Adam Stotsky said. Once a brand is established with viewers, he said, the ability to extend it over a multitude of programs gives networks a leg up on the competition.

E!’s Kardashians empire remains strong and fertile, according to Stotsky. Flagship Keeping Up With the Kardashians is still among the most-watched shows on cable, averaging 2.9 million viewers over the past year, besting all of its franchise extensions, which include I Am Cait, Kim and Khloe Take the Hamptons and Dash Dolls, as well as new series Revenge Body With Khloe Kardashian, to launch later this year.

“Given that competitive landscape and the marketing challenges faced in launching new franchises and brands from scratch, working off an existing base where viewers know who these characters are and the world they live in is like makes for an easier entry point for consumers, and alleviates some marketing pressure for the networks,” Stotsky said.

Still, a franchise extension isn’t a slam dunk. Producers must still find a viable new setting, location or character around which to build a spinoff series.

“You have to listen to your audience because they vote with their thumbs on the remote controls everyday,” Stotsky added. “It’s a balancing act — on the one hand, the opportunity to extend versus the risk of cannibalization and oversaturation, and that’s something we monitor.”

Discovery Channel decided to bring back contestants from its popular survival-themed series Naked and Afraid, challenging them to endure a much longer and tougher survival challenge in the buff via sophomore spinoff series Naked and Afraid XL, Denise Contis, executive vice president of development and production for Discovery, said. The result was another hit series for the network, with Naked and Afraid XL garnering 3.8 million viewers during its freshman run, beating out its predecessor’s 2.7 million viewers.

“The spinoff is authentically motivated by the contestants themselves, who are looking to push themselves even further,” Joe Boyle, executive producer of both series, said. “Instead of just that process of learning to work with one other human being, they’re learning to survive and work with a number of other human beings and the ramifications of that. It gives us a much larger playing field in terms of character development.”

EXTENSIONS OF ANOTHER KIND

Other networks are doing more unconventional franchise extensions. AMC, which this July will debut the Stephen David-produced Making of the Mob: Chicago — a spinoff of last year’s Making of the Mob: New York — also looked to basic cable’s top-rated scripted series, zombie thriller The Walking Dead, to beget Talking Dead, the reality genre’s most-watched series over the past year. The live recap talk show, hosted by Chris Hardwick, drew 6.3 million viewers during the period, according to Nielsen.

TV One is doing the complete opposite of AMC: It’s spinning off an episode of Unsung, its unscripted docuseries on popular R&B artists, into an original telefilm. An Unsung episode on the 1990s R&B singer Miki Howard served as the basis for Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story. Its June 12 debut drew more than 2 million viewers across multiple viewings, setting a network ratings record for an original film, said D’Angela Proctor, head of original programming and production for the African-American-targeted TV One.

As long as networks are serving viewers with unique content that fits within the confines of a particular franchise, there’s no such thing as too many spinoff s, Bravo’s Levine said. Along with the Housewives franchise, Bravo has already built multiple shows around such franchises as Million Dollar Listing, Married to Medicine and Below Deck.

“As long as it’s working, there isn’t a limit, but I don’t think you know until you actually do it,” she said.

If money equals power, then Bobby “Axe” Axelrod is the human equivalent of an exploding supernova.

The astonishingly wealthy main character of Showtime’s hit series Billions, portrayed by Damian Lewis, seems to represent everything that’s equally captivating and reprehensible about TV’s most über-rich characters.

Yes, he may have risen from humble beginnings, and, as his company’s sole 9/11 survivor, he does now send the children of his former colleagues to college. But he also uncompromisingly controls a hedge fund where not everything is on the up and up, except the profits.

That conduct has drawn the attention of an equally ambitious U.S. Attorney (played by Paul Giamatti) who smells something rotten in Axe’s business dealings. No wonder the billionaire has a 14-karat gold chip on his shoulder.

“When did it become a crime to succeed in this country?” Axe ironically asks a financial reporter in the series pilot. “America used to salute the guy in the limousine. They wanted to be the guy in the limousine — they still want to. But now they throw eggs at it.”

And that dichotomy suggests why Americans are increasingly tuning into the show, and others like it — from the network’s House of Lies, to ABC’s Madoff movie, to Fox’s Empire, the Real Housewives franchise on Bravo and more. It seems we cannot get enough of the rich being rich.

That may be because, despite all reports to the contrary, our financially frustrated country still hasn’t recovered in a post-2008-recession world. Even in the bare-knuckle power grab of politics, one party’s front-runner candidate is a megalomaniac billionaire who has seduced a large part of the voting nation, in part, because he was once best known for fi ring up ratings on The Apprentice.

Through complicated TV characters, viewers just can’t wait to watch wealth and power play out in an increasingly unreal world. We admire their success, celebrate their failure and then plunk down some dollars on Powerball tickets in the hopes of joining their ranks.

“Billions taps into our extreme awareness of the gap between the super rich and everyone else,” Showtime president of programming Gary Levine said. “The show not only shines a light on wealth, but taps into the zeal for balancing the scales.”

WHO SHOT TO THE TOP?

The popularity of shows that exploit this thirst for balance — primed by ugly economic uncertainty — has its roots in the late ’70s. Back then, hour-long waits to get half a tank of gas and anger over the Arab oil embargo somehow led Americans to embrace an oil baron named J.R. Ewing who made it clear at every opportunity that he couldn’t give a rat’s behind what you thought of him. That first incarnation of Dallas, in 1978, was a blissful soap, with all the conflicts and backstabbing you’d need to create a perennial favorite.

But there were no illusions that Larry Hagman’s soulless eyes in the part of Ewing earned the show its ratings victories, not to mention its premier landmark status in the canon of Greed Is Good TV. And when millions stuck around in 1980 to find out “Who Shot J.R.?” the lure of the character — underhanded and despicable and yet somehow charming — help split public opinion way in the favor of those who wanted him to survive vs. those who wanted him dead.

Dallas begat 1981’s Dynasty, and those two series helped nourish the thirst for the excesses of wealth until real prosperity in the 1980s seemed to kill the need. Granted, magazine show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous filled that void starting in 1984, but there was no real drama there, and no jealous sense of want, unless it was for simple champagne wishes and caviar dreams.

It wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that things got ugly again — the Enron business, a presidential scandal that stank like a bad cigar and then, soon enough, the brutal bursting of the dot-com bubble that deflated many portfolios of the average American. The bitterness that followed inspired more greed TV. Since unscripted was king, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire parlayed that enticing title into primetime prominence, and the deliciously cutthroat Survivor dominated pre-Facebook water cooler conversation.

After 9/11 reset the national consciousness, Americans witnessed the slow devolution of Washington; between that and the great recession we were given Scandal, The Good Wife and House of Cards. Plus, we gained not only real housewives, but desperate ones as well.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

Is there a character that better represents the vast expanse of unlimited power more than Francis Underwood on Netflix’s House of Cards? Perhaps he has some competition from the unlimited monetary resources that seem to work through the worlds of Showtime series Billions, House of Lies and Ray Donovan.

“I think viewers have a fascination with what is perceived that someone can get away with because of their power, their celebrity or their position,” Bill Carroll, senior vice president and director of content strategy for Katz Television Group, said.

There is arguably no arena where the obsession — and repulsion — of viewers watching power and position is more evident than in the current race for the White House. Recent statistics tab the inequality between rich and poor at a 30-year high, and the number of Americans on food stamps holds steady at over 46 million. How could one not, in that position, believe in a man whose name equals success etched in gold, while others fixate on what they see as a rampant thirst for power?

One must assume Donald Trump takes some cues from fellow TV character Underwood (Kevin Spacey), who sets the tone for his character’s ruthlessness in the first episode of House of Cards by calmly killing an injured dog — the “what will he think of next” shock is impossible to ignore. What better role model has the polls-leading businessman got than a politician who leads a positively unchecked public life?

Much like with The Donald, who is utterly unapologetic and has no filter, drama sometimes requires the rich to live entirely by their wits. On House of Lies, the father of Marty Kaan (Don Cheadle), who had made an honest living as a therapist, asks his son, “Since when is management consultant a real job?”

Kaan’s reply? “Since it pays seven figures a year,” justifying anything and everything he might choose to do to either secure moneyed clients or make the wealthy even wealthier. When he tricks an incredibly rich CEO into hiring his consultancy, he turns to the camera and brags that there’s no feeling better than, “The moment you have the guy who has the world by the balls by the balls.”

Breaking the fourth wall and addressing the folks at home seems to be another privilege enjoyed by the rich and powerful — it’s a conceit also enjoyed in Madoff and House of Cards — and on House of Lies, this is a magical turn. We can celebrate the triumph of a merciless financial consultant because he cheated someone even richer than himself. What viewer wouldn’t want to be him?

AXE GRINDS

Bobby Axelrod provides a similar guilty pleasure in an early episode of Billions when he manages to underpay for the rights to have a building that will now be named after him. To do so, Axe must buy off the old-moneyed descendants of the man for whom the building is currently named.

After an impassioned speech about one of those scions at the table making him feel small when Axe was a lowly and poor golf caddy as a kid, the new billionaire offers only a fraction of what he’d promised to the now-desperate and indebted family — who take the money with hardly a quibble.

The family looks almost cartoonishly humiliated, making this the perfect viewer fantasy. Who hasn’t ever dreamed of hitting it big, and then lashing out at the elite who once put you down? After all, when you come from humble roots, doing whatever you want is now your privilege.

“It humanized him as a character,” Levine said of Axelrod’s early-life struggles. “That is part of our fascination with wealth, particularly in this high-tech day and age, where people can achieve enormous wealth within one lifetime and don’t have built-in family dynasties.”

The appeal often boils down to how scrappy you’ve needed to be in order to achieve your American dream. Perhaps nobody lives that on TV better these days than Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) on Fox’s ratings giant Empire, who helps her husband build a record company from nothing, serves 17 years in jail on a drug rap and then returns, thirsty for what she’s got coming to her.

The at-any-cost eff ort to succeed gives everyone outside the most elevated tax bracket a modicum of hope that anything is possible — whether the riches are scripted or real. Shari Levine, executive vice president of current production at Bravo, sees that working as one of the great appeals of the network’s Real Housewives series.

“I think our housewives are ambitious women who have achieved for different reasons,” she said. “Kandi Burruss of Real Housewives of Atlanta is one of the hardest-working women I’ve ever seen. There are so many businesses she’s started and is still running. It embraces so many qualities that Americans admire.”

The Housewives franchise offers arguably the simplest and most satisfying appeal of shows where money is central — the fundamental truth that it doesn’t buy happiness … but it can’t hurt.

RICH PITCH

In the 10 years between the premieres of the Orange County and Dallas installments, Real Housewives has produced a total of nine U.S. series, 12 spinoff s (including Bethenny Ever After, Vanderpump Rules and Manzo’d With Children) and, fittingly enough, many tie-in appearances on Bravo corporate sibling NBC’s The Apprentice. Erika Jayne, the newest addition to the cast of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, is a top-selling dance music artist who lives with her lawyer husband in a Pasadena mansion on five acres. Her tagline, which she states at the beginning of each episode, is, “I’m an enigma wrapped in a riddle — and cash.”

“That’s a very Housewife-ian statement,” Shari Levine admitted. “Erika comes across very much herself and owns who she is. She speaks from a place of deep honesty.”

And that’s needed on a show where the complaints, even seen through the filter of first-world issues, strike viewers as familiar — conflicts with marriage and kids, money, jealousy, infidelity, you name it. “They’re real people with real issues,” Levine added.

“They’re people suffering slings and arrows of just living and you see this happening. It’s a real series, even if it seems unreal because of that affluence.”

Even Levine, who has been involved in every Real Housewives series, is not immune to just how unreal it is. In the end, whatever the lure that brings fans to the show, you can never argue with that single biggest guilty pleasure — the glory of all that money.

Of the lavish Montecito, Calif., home owned by Beverly Hills cast member and restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump, Levine said: “I should be immune to all this. I have watched so many episodes. But I am always stunned when I go into her home. It’s a luxurious life and a beautiful life.”

NBC Universal's Lifestyle Networks group said it has promoted David O’Connell to executive vice president, Production Management and Operations, Lifestyle Networks.

O’Connell will continue to report to EVP of Program Strategy Lifestyle Networks, and Production, Bravo Media Jerry Leo. Based in Los Angeles, O’Connell will add responsibility for E! Entertainment and Esquire Network to his current duties at Bravo and Oxygen Media. 

“David is an integral part of the production team with an exceptional understanding of the industry and practical operational experience,” Leo said in a statement. “His reliable leadership and proven track record add immeasurable value to the continued success of all four networks.” 

In his previous role with Bravo and Oxygen Media, O’Connell supervised all aspects related to the production of original series and specials ranging from Oxygen’s expansion of the popular franchise with Preachers of Detroit, to Sisterhood of Hip Hop and The Prancing Elites Project along with Bravo’s hit The Real Housewives franchise and the Emmy Award winning Top Chef.  Previously, senior vice president, Production and Operations for Bravo Media, O’Connell joined the network as a supervising producer in 2004.  He has worked on several series including the Emmy Nominated Flipping Out and Million Dollar Listing franchise, Shahs of Sunset, Southern Charm, Vanderpump Rules, Watch What Happens Live, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, and others. 

Prior to joining Bravo, O'Connell served as head of production at World of Wonder Productions where he managed series and specials including HBO's Monica in Black & White, A&E's The History of Hair and VH1’s 100 Greatest Dance Songs of Rock & Roll.  Additional credits include the GLAAD Media Awards, Drama Desk Awards, Empire State Pride Agenda Awards and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Gala as well as multiple theatrical productions for The Public Theatre/NY Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare in the Park.