This show is really at a weird inflection point. It’s still more watchable than the other RW franchises on Bravo, yet we definitely saw those cracks this season, as you mentioned, where the phoniness was so blatant that it took viewers out of the show.
Karen Huger is amazing, but I fear she’s going down the Nene path where she’s over these ladies and has become more bitter, withdrawn, and insular when she’s around them. In addition to the cheating stuff, it appears she has some serious drinking/substance abuse issues that the show kinda glosses over.
It’s peaked, and there’s really nowhere to go without making some changes. Seven seasons is a really long run for any TV show to go without much reinvention. But does the Potomac area really have a pipeline of potential cast members that the bigger metro areas like ATL or NYC have (not that those two haven’t had their own casting troubles)? The friends they’ve brought in to mix things up have been flops (if that was Jacqueline’s audition at the reunion, she failed miserably IMO—not quite as bad as Askale, but close).
I think Ashley would be up there on my chopping block. This was her laziest season yet. I fear they’ll try to keep her due to the Michael Darby lawsuit against Candiace (and because she’s young and pretty—let’s be real), but her story has come to a conclusion IMO. We thought this was going to be a great season for her, and it just… wasn’t. She can skedaddle.