Entertainment

Everything You Need To Know About Kenya's TV Show

by Jodi Walker

There's a lot happening on The Real Housewives of Atlanta right now; husbands are going to jail, trips to the Philippines are being planned, women are going to group therapy... everyone is going to some sort of therapy. It's all simultaneously entertaining and terrible as only RHOA can be, but my favorite storyline happening in the show's eighth season is a smaller one — one you can't expect to see every episode but know you're in for a treat when it pops up: Kenya Moore is making a television show, and from everything I've seen, it is looking exactly like the entertaining train wreck you might hope a Kenya Moore television show would be.

I'm not saying Kenya isn't a fine television producer: She doesn't even know if she can successfully produce a television show. But from everything they've showed on the season so far, from Kenya writing the pilot at her kitchen table while swinging around a dildo, to Cynthia's Jamaican accent, to the first table read that involved a Ray Rice joke met with complete silence, it's really reading train wreck. Kenya has been talking about Life Twirls On in some form since this season premiered. She was the one who introduced Roger Bobb (who then brought about non-entity, Demetria) early in the season by asking him if he would help her produce a scripted show loosely based on her life. He kind of said "yes," and then definitely said "no" later; Kenya has kept pretty vague about exactly what's going on with Life Twirls On's production since the Roger Bobb rejection, so here's all the Life Twirls On intel I've been able to surmise...

The Network

As reported exclusively by LALATE in February, Life Twirls On has been picked up by Bravo for a five-episode order, likely premiering after the RHOA reunion. The show centers on Kenya as the main character, her two sisters, and their relationships after Kenya's character's rather unfortunate attempt to get married in the pilot (wedding set pictured above, posted by co-star, D. Woods).

The Production Crew

Following Roger Bobb's polite decline to co-produce Life Twirls On, Kenya decided that in addition to writing, directing, and starring in the series, she would also produce the show herself with her company Moore Vision Media. From the show, that appears to mostly entail Kenya and her best pal Brandon DeShazer bustling around in a very stressed out manner.

The Cast

While it's surprising that Bravo actually picked the show up, and pure entertainment to watch Kenya in business-mode on RHOA, the most interesting Life Twirls On intel is the behind-the-scenes action with the cast. We saw the audition process on the show that revealed that Life Twirls on will star Cynthia Bailey with a Jamaican accent (set our DVRs, folks!) and D. Woods as one of Kenya's sisters; what we didn't see on RHOA was that Janet Hubert of Fresh Prince of Bel Air Aunt Viv fame was also cast for the pilot. During filming, Hubert was also asked to sign a waiver to be filmed for RHOA, which she declined. According to Hubert's webseries, Blacktress, Kenya then refused to pay her for her work on Life Twirls On because she would agree to be shown on RHOA, so she's threatening action through the Screen Actor's Guild.

Kenya might have her own scripted TV show, but it looks like her work on reality television has earned her a number of powerful enemies this year, including another "Viv": Vivica A. Fox from their time together on Celebrity Apprentice. On her Facebook, Hubert added, “I was in Kenya’s corner, I simply don’t understand someone who can turn on you like this... Last time I worked with someone this evil was on Fresh Prince." And now I have 1,000 more questions...