A new Real Housewives season is always a bright spot in our 2023 TV schedule, and things got plenty fiery this week on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City when Lisa Barlow found herself in yet another hot mic snafu. Barlow has been a member of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast since the franchise's premiere back in November 2020. She might not be as infamous as Jen Shah, who after much confusion over how the reality TV personality attained her wealth, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy criminal charge in 2022 and is currently serving prison time. Yet Barlow has found herself in multiple microphone mix-ups over four seasons. And when it came to this latest one, fans had some brutally honest responses, even referring to her as a "garbage friend."
On Episode 12 of Season 4—which aired on Bravo on Tuesday, November 28 and is available to catch up on with a Peacock subscription—fans see Lisa Barlow attend her RHOSLC co-star, Meredith Marks', jewelry launch, along with fellow Salt Lake City Housewives Heather Gay and Whitney Rose. The latter was reeling from the recent death of her best friend, Shari, who had passed away after a long battle with cancer but still managed to show up to the event to support Marks (who's had her share of "dark times"). Whitney didn't feel support, however, from Lisa, who she alleged didn't offer up condolences for her loss, instead passing her to give a present to Heather.
When Whitney brought her hurt feelings to Lisa, Barlow initially bit back, telling her that she didn't have a "mental calculator of everything going on" with everyone around her and that it wasn't out of a "lack of concern" for her friend. She explained her reasoning more fully in a confessional:
When Whitney texted me that her friend Shari passed, I felt so horrible. I sent flowers for her this morning to let her know I'm thinking of her and that this has got to be such a hard time, but we're in public. I don't know how fragile she is and, for me, I plug through things. I want to be quiet about it. So, I did not want to say anything that could upset her because I don't know how Whitney handles grief.
A still-upset Whitney stormed out of the party, leaving Lisa raging, yanking her mic pack off and ranting to the Bravo producers:
Motherfucker, fuck this! You know what? You want to see about putting people first? Why don't you, like, keep your fucking mouth shut.
And when a crew member insisted that she put her audio equipment back on to continue filming, Barlow angrily refused, cursing out Whitney. The last we see of Lisa during Tuesday night's episode is she and her husband, John, bolting out of Meredith's event.
Ironically, Meredith was the last subject of one of Barlow's hot-mic raves: during the show's second season, Lisa was caught on microphone calling Marks a "whore" who had slept with "half of New York." However, as E! News reported, Barlow apologized for the moment off-camera during filming of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season 2 reunion.
Given that Tuesday's incident was not Barlow's first fumble while miked, Real Housewives fans had plenty to say over on social media. Many were proud that at least this time around, Lisa was "smart enough" to rip her mic pack off before really going in on her co-star:
Lisa Barlow was smart enough to rip that mic off this time around before she went into another rant about Whitney. She said “hell nah I’m not about to go through another season of apologizing because of a hot mic moment!” 🤭 #RHOSLCNovember 29, 2023
Another viewer quipped about Barlow's habit for audio malfunctions:
Seems like we were close to a another Lisa Barlow hot mic moment after Whitney called her out.#RHOSLC pic.twitter.com/woWx9pyCSqNovember 29, 2023
An additional user on X (formerly known as Twitter) joked about the reality star's propensity for ranting when she thinks no one is listening:
lisa barlow in her room when she forgot to turn her mic off https://t.co/na6OgsIkxqNovember 29, 2023
And, finally, one RHOSLC viewer proclaimed that, though Barlow's messy mic moments made for "great TV," the reality star was "a garbage friend" to Whitney.
She’s great tv but my god Lisa Barlow is such a garbage friend 😭 #RHOSLCNovember 29, 2023
Will the Lisa versus Whitney feud continue next week after this latest hot mic moment? We'll just have to wait and see. You can check out new episodes of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET over on Bravo.
