Eva Longoria reveals her reservations about a ‘Desperate Housewives’ reboot

Eva Longoria is ready to return to Wisteria Lane — except for one small problem.

“I can’t sleep with any more people on that street. I have slept with every person on the street, as did Nicollette Sheridan,” Longoria joked on Monday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live.

The Desperate Housewives actress previously stated that she’d be “the first to sign up for a reboot,” so
host Andy Cohen asked who would need “the most convincing” to join her.

“Marc Cherry, our creator,” Longoria said. “He feels like we’ve exhausted the characters.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Cherry for comment.

Created by Cherry in 2004, Desperate Housewives ran for eight seasons on ABC, airing its series finale in 2012. Cherry’s reluctance to return to the suburban soap probably comes down to the show’s demanding production schedule, Longoria explained.

“Unlike Sex and the City, [which] was only like six episodes, eight episodes a year, we did 24 episodes a year for a decade,” she noted.

Though Sex and the City‘s episode-to-season average isn’t quite that low, running at a high of 18 for seasons 2, 3, and 4 and a low of eight in season 5, there are several differences that made Desperate Housewives, a broadcast network series, a more arduous experience than Sex and the City, which aired on the premium network HBO.

Not only did each season of Desperate Housewives air a minimum of 23 episodes (excepting the fourth season, which wrapped prematurely due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild strike), but the time between each season was significantly shorter. Where Sex and the City averaged seven to nine months between each season, Desperate Housewives premiered a new season each September and wrapped each May, leaving only three months between each season.

Cohen’s other guest for the evening, Sandra Bernhard, asked Longoria if her character, Gabrielle Solis, ever “[slept] with women?”

“No, I didn’t,” Longoria answered, then questioned her own certainty. “Wait, did I?”

All of Gaby’s significant lovers and partners were men, played by actors including Jesse Metcalfe, Ricardo Chavira, and John Slattery. But she did share a kiss with costar Teri Hatcher in a season 3 episode, even telling her, “Just so you know, if I was a lesbian, I’d totally do you.”

Longoria has previously discussed Cherry’s reticence to commit to a reboot of the beloved series. In 2023, she relayed that Cherry “feels like there’s no Why now? For the sake of a reboot, he wouldn’t do it. He feels like, ‘What do I have to say with these characters that we haven’t already fully mined?'”

Still, she admitted to holding out hope, saying, “I miss Gaby so much. I miss being Gaby Solis.”