They're back....

The Real Housewives franchise, one of growing importance to Bravo, will play an even greater role in the coming programming season, Bravo officials announced at the channel's annual up-front advertising-sales press breakfast this morning.

The Real Housewives of New York City, which has its seventh episode and season finale tonight, will return for a second season on Bravo, and the original Real Housewives of Orange County series will return for a fourth, Bravo Media general manager Frances Berwick said at the breakfast.

In addition, the franchise will expand to a third locale—not Dubai, as Portfolio.com speculated yesterday, but an as-yet-undisclosed city in New Jersey.

The mood at the breakfast was earnest, to use the word that Bravo Media and Oxygen Media president Lauren Zalaznick employed to describe herself to the reporters and Bravo officials assembled at Craft, the restaurant owned by Tom Colicchio, head judge of Bravo's popular series Top Chef.

Zalaznick kicked off the morning with a reference to the legal fight over Project Runway, a Bravo ratings winner and the subject of a lawsuit between NBC Universal, Bravo's parent company, and the Weinstein Company, the show's owner.

Since litigation is under way, Zalaznick said there wasn't much for her to say, and her comment on the show "starts and ends here." But then she cracked a joke at Weinstein's expense, saying "Harvey was going to come but may not make it," due to his busy schedule of dropping his kids off at school and washing his windows.

Things quickly returned to business with a brief sales presentation, highlighting Bravo's transformation during the past several years from an obscure arts broadcast channel to a powerhouse of original reality programming. Advertisers have responded: In 2007, the channel brought in 30 percent more revenue than the year before and snagged 110 new advertisers.

The first quarter of 2008 saw a 60 percent jump in revenue over the same period last year; a 38 percent increase in the 18- to 40-year-old age group; and a 30 percent jump in total viewers, making it Bravo's biggest quarter ever. The network hopes to reach 90 million homes this year.

Bravo sought to emphasize its popularity among "affluencers," a consumer hybrid of affluent and influencer, a young demographic of adults, ages 18 to 49, who are engaged and educated, according to the network.