Jaw-dropping reality shows to stream this July

Stream Beaulah: Queens van die Kaap, Married at First Sight Mzansi, The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: South Africa and more this month.

Married at First Sight Mzansi S1 | Stream episodes 1-4 right now, with new episodes on Sundays

Married at First Sight Mzansi features eight hopefuls who agree to participate in an extreme experiment by marrying a stranger. Special experts - including a spiritualist, a relationship coach, and a sociologist - use scientific matchmaking methods to determine each couple, who will not have met or had contact with each other until the wedding day.

The Mzansi Magic series then documents the relationships, including honeymoons and other relatable events of married life. 

After several weeks, each couple must decide whether to remain together or go their separate ways. This “sensational” show, as described by Glamour magazine, has been trending on X every week since its premiere.

Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show S1 | First on Showmax | Binge now

Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show is a hilariously dark reality series that follows the Emmy-winning comedian on his turbulent journey to find love, explore his sexuality, and uncover the truth.

This must-see HBO Original is currently ranked #4 on Metacritic's Best of 2024 and #11 on Rotten Tomatoes' list of the Best Shows of 2024.

Daily Beast calls it “a fascinating, affecting, and valuable experiment in how honest one can really be when you’re writing, directing, and filming your own life… There’s nothing else on TV like it.”

Beaulah: Queens van die Kaap S1 | Thursdays from 18 July

From The Mommy Club creators POP24, Beaulah: Queens van die Kaap is a new reality TV show about Cape Town’s drag queens, including multi-award winner Emogan Moore, Miss Sovereign Western Cape winner Ina Propriette, Miss Cape Town Pride winner Kat Gilardi, SA’s Got Talent runner up Manila von Teez, Miss Gay Western Cape winner Maxine Wild, and rival house mothers BB Vahlour and Madison Scarr. 

From Miss Sovereign to Miss Gay Grassy Park, and from Beefcakes to Zer021, the Showmax Original will take you onto the Cape Town drag scene’s biggest stages. 

Told in Gayle with subtitles, it’s an eye-opening and jaw-dropping introduction to a world of extreme transformations, unforgettable fashion, warring houses, opposing queen mothers, wig-gates, and sisterhood. 

Our Perfect Wedding S13 | Binge from Friday, 19 July

If there’s anything romcoms have taught us, it’s that planning the perfect wedding is never easy. Now imagine planning a wedding in real life! The chaos and confusion of late deliveries, the drama, and the over-meddling relatives – some whom you’ve never met in your entire life but who somehow have every authority to stop the wedding if their demands are not met. 

If this sounds like an exaggeration, then wait until you watch Mzansi Magic’s Our Perfect Wedding (OPW), a wedding reality show that takes us behind the scenes of what it takes to plan a perfect wedding. Each week, one engaged couple takes the journey to the altar. They check and tick off all the items on their wish list and declare at the end of the show that they had their perfect wedding.

The Curse S1 | Binge from Monday, 22 July

The Curse explores how an alleged curse disturbs the relationship of a newly married couple as they try to conceive a child while co-starring in their reality TV show. 

Oscar winner Emma Stone (Poor Things) stars alongside the show’s co-creators: Emmy nominee Nathan Fielder (The Rehearsal) and Critics Choice nominee Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems). 

The Curse has a 94% critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Best of the Year mentions everywhere from Rolling Stone to Wired. Entertainment Weekly hailed it as “the weirdest, most unforgettable show of 2023” while The Guardian, in a five-star review, praised it as “exquisitely cringe-worthy… like nothing else on TV… It is exhilaratingly tense, it ends magnificently and I found it impossible to look away.”

Keep an eye out for the likes of Oscar-nominated Somalian actor Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips, Eye in the Sky), Emmy nominee Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law), and Screen Actors Guild winner Constance Shulman (Yoga Jones in Orange Is the New Black).

The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip - South Africa S1 | Binge from Monday, 29 July

The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip - South Africa is the spinoff that fans have been waiting for, taking eight of South Africa’s most iconic Housewives on a luxury trip to Jamaica. 

The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip - South Africa dream cast includes Beverley Steyn (The Real Housewives of Cape Town S1); Christall Kay (The Real Housewives of Johannesburg S1-S2); LaConco (The Real Housewives of Durban S1-S2); Lethabo Lejoy Mathatho (The Real Housewives of Johannesburg S2-S3); Liz Prins (The Real Housewives of Gqeberha S1); Londie London (The Real Housewives of Durban S2); Melany Viljoen (The Real Housewives of Pretoria S1); and the longest-serving Housewife in Africa, Nonku Williams (The Real Housewives of Durban S1-S4). 

The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip has given us some of the most iconic moments in South African reality TV history, from the ladies forming unexpected friendships to LaConco opening up about her relationship with the former president of South Africa, to Nonku and Christall finding love on the island.

The Mommy Club: Sugar & Spice S1 | Thursdays from 8 August

Produced by POP24, The Mommy Club: Sugar & Spice is a reality show that follows affluent mothers within Durban's Indian community.

The first spinoff from the smash hit Showmax Original, The Mommy Club: Sugar & Spice features Abigail Nepaul (41), Asharia Parsad (27), Christina Devraj (26), Devina Knowles (43), Kim Jones (33), Lenore (45), Neetasha (36), and twins Losh and Resh Naidoo (45), whose daughter received a Porsche as her 18th birthday gift…

Everything on Showmax this July

Other highlights on Showmax this July include: 

• Kate Winslet in HBO series The Regime, one of BBC and Vogue’s best series of 2024 so far 
• 2024 blockbusters The Beekeeper, with Jason Statham, and Mean Girls, with Reneé Rap
• Mzansi Wethu’s most-watched show ever, Sibongile & The Dlaminis
• Anyone But You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell - the biggest romcom at the global box office since 2016
• 2024 Critics Choice Super nominee Blue Beetle 
• The critically acclaimed second season of Killing It, starring Craig Robinson (The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

See everything headed for Showmax here.