Reality TV hitmaker Bravo is following in the footsteps of “Yellowstone” and throwing its cowboy hat into the rancher ring with the launch of a series that will center around the lives of a group of Texas wives “as they raise families, run ranches and farms, and manage sparkling social calendars.”
The series, which has been given the working title “Secrets, Lies, Texas Wives,” will be set in the town of Boerne, which is located 30 miles north of San Antonio and has a population of just 20,000 people.
Interestingly, Bravo’s announcement of the show comes just days before the latest “Yellowstone” spinoff, “Dutton Ranch”—which is also based in Texas—is set to premiere, with the series touted as following the characters of Rip Wheeler and Beth Dutton as they “gamble everything on a new life in Texas” after leaving Montana.
While Bravo has not pointed to showrunner Taylor Sheridan‘s “Yellowstone” franchise as the inspiration for its new reality series, the TV writer and producer has long been credited with sparking a surge of interest in the rancher lifestyle—as well as prompting a significant uptick in interest from homebuyers seeking out their own expansive properties in rural areas like Montana and Texas.
Still, the network’s description of “Secrets, Lives, Texas Wives” reads almost like a plot synopsis for one of Sheridan’s shows, stating: “In the heart of Texas Hill Country is the picture‑perfect town of Boerne where wealth, beauty, faith, and family reign supreme.
“Centered on a tight-knit circle of glamorous women, this series follows their lives as they raise families, run ranches and farms, and manage sparkling social calendars in a town rooted in rodeos and tradition.
“Behind the polished smiles and Sunday sermons, however, there are intimate relationships and forbidden romances that test loyalties and marriages, jeopardizing the town’s pristine image and proving that perfection is far more complicated than anyone could imagine.”
No details have yet been revealed about who will feature in the show—nor has a premiere date been announced.
According to local outlet My San Antonio, the news about the show has proven somewhat divisive among Boerne locals, some of whom expressed frustration at the idea of Hollywood descending upon their rural haven.
Comments posted to a local Facebook message board revealed some of the varying opinions about the show, with one person stating: “None of us moved to Boerne for Hollywood to descend upon us. They have Austin—can’t we just keep it that way?”
“This garbage has no business in this town,” another person wrote. “Typical Coasties, see something beautiful and immediately ruin it. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”
“Go away honestly. Boerne isn’t about that. We don’t want Hollywood trash here,” a third person chimed in.
Others noted that the network’s description of the show doesn’t portray what ranch life in Texas is really about, with one writing: “Absolutely not a good depiction of what Texas entails! Come to my house where we still milk dairy cows, have breakfast from the eggs from our coop every morning, and butcher Quail for snacks!”
The announcement of the series comes after Bravo pulled the plug on another Texas-based series, “The Real Housewives of Dallas,” over poor ratings.
It has been struggling to land a Western-inspired hit since 2019, when it debuted another Texas-based series, “Texicanas,” which followed a more metropolitan group of stars who were based in San Antonio.
In contrast, Boerne is a more rural community that has a long legacy of ranch properties, although in recent years, several of its largest ranches and farms have been transformed into master-planned communities.
There are more than two dozen ranches and land parcels listed in and around Boerne, with prices ranging from $759,000 for a 12.5-acre plot to $13.3 million for an impressive spread that totals close to 400 acres.
Several of the properties look almost identical to those featured in the upcoming “Dutton Ranch,” which was shot in multiple locations across Texas, including Ferris, Fort Worth, Dallas, Weatherford, Boyd, Cleburne, and Mineral Wells.
Interestingly, while the bulk of filming took place in North Texas, the show is actually set in the southern part of the Lone Star State, according to its description, which notes that the show will follow Rip, played by Cole Hauser, and Beth, played by Kelly Reilly, as they relocate from Montana to a 7,000-acre property in the state.
It marks the second of Sheridan’s shows to be set primarily in Texas, following in the footsteps of “Landman,” which stars Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, a landman for a major oil company in West Texas.
While he focused his first major Western hit in Montana, Sheridan has a very close connection to the Lone Star State, where he owns two enormous ranches, both of which have been used as filming locations for his shows in the past.
Per The Wall Street Journal, he charged the network $50,000 a week to use his properties as a set for the show, while the training camp reportedly cost Paramount an additional $214,979.
Sheridan has stakes in two ranches in the Texas area, one of which, the iconic Four Sixes Ranch, he bought as part of an investment group for an eye-watering $320 million in 2022. Back in 2013, he purchased Bosque Ranch for $264 million as a base for his family when they relocated to Texas from Los Angeles.
Together with his wife, actress-model Nicole Muirbrook, and their son, he splits his time between two Texas ranches. The 600-acre Bosque Ranch, located in Weatherford, is his home base and where he’s mainly headquartered, he’s said.
“The main headquarters where we live is more of a horse ranch, because I’m pretty deep into the horse deal. And then the ranch out by Jacksboro is more where we run the cattle,” he previously told Cowboys and Indians.
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