DaytimeFan

I am delighted by this news. Victor's death and a return for Vivian is a natural story beat that had to be played. So glad Louise is back. I just hope she gets some great scenes with Lauren Koslow.

That you took the time to respond, with such excellent spelling and grammar, is all the affirmation I need. Thank you.

Indeed, I don't find NuRHONY all that compelling, but I'm hanging in there to give it a fair shot. The ratings are 60% of what the last season of original RHONY brought in and those numbers don't build a strong case for dumping current casts - like any soap it breaks the habit and the loyalty and the audiences don't come back or migrate. Married to Medicine is very fun to watch. Cannot wait for its return.

Watched Kim’s cameo. She looked great, still had her Samantha vibe, and got paid a fortune. SJP really struggled to convey any warmth. You can tell she hated that HBO mandated that cameo.

Absolutely - it’s been a dreadful season. They’re all to blame: cast, production, Bravo. Yeah, I just can’t with how bad this season has been. Much as I disliked the idea of rebooting RHONY, I see the logic to it, and it might be time to do so with ATL. The cast just doesn’t work and too many of them want to control their narrative to an extreme degree and all the storylines ring fake.

Thank you. I had never seen it before. When she cried and had to drink both her tea and water, as her chin is quivering, in order to steady herself...that was really sad and made me mad. Yes, it was intentional sabotage. He murdered the show. For no reason whatsoever. As Angela said in the 60 Minutes piece, Sunday was always going to be a family evening (as it still is to this very day).

That is the exact episode I watched yesterday! The ending is such you don’t know if Stevens is a killer or not. Neither does Jessica, and she tells him so. Is the 60 Minutes episode available anywhere?

I've been able to re-watch the first season as its airing on Canadian television. What strikes me is the different tone compared to the later seasons. The show feels quirkier, a little more violent/dangerous, and Jessica's characterization is a bit more eccentric New Englander than the sophisticated, but still very warm, woman she became.

Truly - a pioneer of prime time soap opera. JR, Sue Ellen, Valene, Abby, Karen, Bobby, Pamela - we know all these characters by first name because they were so iconically created.

Agreed. The word is that Jessel rented her apartment for the show, which is why she had no idea about Tribeca.

That made me laugh. It really was a week of very good episodes. It goes to show that the budget/sets/lighting are not the problem. Lazy writing and producing is the problem. When the cast is given the material, they run with it. Like so many have said, I appreciated that Victor's death didn't result in universal praise for him. He was a very grey character and there were plenty of shades to him that got discussed in each of the episodes. I especially liked that the writing for the Kate and Roman scenes did not involve Roman displaying even a hint of insecurity or jealousy. He even poked fun at the fact that Kate and Victor were really two peas in a pod when it came to their ruthlessness. It really is strange. There was a scene back when ED was playing Kristen where Maggie overheard Marlena and Victor talking about the tape being played at Brady's wedding...I think that was the most recent time where they shared a stage, even though they weren't in close physical proximity and did not share any lines. Whatever happened between them had to have happened around 2002/2003. I'm still convinced they blew up Tuscany restaurant just so Suzanne couldn't drop by Deidre's table...

It most definitely is a major return to form. Much as Tamra would take the credit for it, a lot of the success lies with Shannon, whose relationship naturally imploded, and Emily, who has somehow became this IDGAF queen. ATL Aside from Drew's marriage imploding, this show is awful and likely deserving of a hard reboot a la RHONY. Kenya is just heinous. The fake baby storyline really shows what a hypocrite she is. For years she's been saying Marc Daly is her living nightmare...yet she'd use his embryos and have another child biologically connected to him? She is so hollow and so fake. No wonder production didn't come running to her aid when she wiped out in front of the hotel. She seems just awful to deal with. NuRHONY I like Brynn, Jenna, Ubah, and Sai. Jessel and Erin are both very irritating, so the fact they're feuding with each other is a bust for me because I don't feel compelled to side with either of them.

B&B: After 2003 till 2012 was that era for me. The Marones were an attempt to move the show forward and although in the long term they were a total flop and Jack Wagner, in particular, became an albatross for the show, it had its moments. I always enjoyed Stephanie sticking it Jackie Marone whenever she could. However, I really feel that Darlene Conley and Susan Flannery took the show with them with their respective exits in 2007 and 2012. Y&R: The show was true to itself till 2005, the year Bill Bell died and the Bell family's management of the show ended and Sony's presence grew. In hindsight, the era from 2005 to 2010 was quite watchable, even though the show faltered. From 2010 to 2013, the quality deteriorated further, but there were still great scenes in isolation. But ever since Jeanne Cooper's death, it's become what it is today. DAYS: I still find the show watchable because it's a true melodrama. It's been larger than life since the 1980s and has this familiar, comfortable feel. It hasn't touched the quality of Y&R for decades. Just a totally different show and style. A lot comes down to the cast who make even the most preposterous stuff easy to watch.

I think this story could lead to Maggie or someone connected to her, discovering Bo. Then there will be closure as to Victor's fate. There's zero possibility they're recasting the character.

Doug can spin it however he wants, but I take everything he says with a huge grain of salt because he’s so bitter. The arrangement is no different than what Tracey Bregman, Beth Maitland, Eileen Davidson, and Jess Walton have all received.

That sums up my feelings. I watched all of the episodes but when last night’s came around I skipped it and didn’t care or miss it.

Obviously, we don't know what's gone on behind the scenes, but I hope that what actually took this week to get sorted was a settlement with AA. I think that's why it took so long to announce his exit and why he was allowed to publish a lengthy, personally slanted, statement, and why the statement from Corday was so short, bland, and inconsequential. If AA does sue, I think he'll have a terribly expensive uphill climb. The entire cast will testify against him, ex-cast members will testify against him, and there may be crew who would testify against him as well. On a balance of probabilities, which is the legal test in a civil lawsuit, I don't see how he'd succeed.

Jackie's memorial was held recently in Malibu. Michele Val Jean posted the programme cover:

Classic PR 101… Deliver news late Friday so that it dies over the weekend.

I'm still watching it, trying to give it a fair shake, but I find the women petty and dim. It reminds me of how I felt about RH of Dubai. On the opposite end of the spectrum I just finished Miami's latest season and reunion and that franchise is incredibly good.

Based on the tone of that post, I wonder if Ari is still with the show. A lot of past tense.

It may be a troublesome contract with AA that requires some negotiation for his exit or working out a contract with AA's replacement, or both. Either way, it's taking far too long. That the cast had to band together is really appalling. Thank you - I was going off of GettyImages - so if he was up and about in March 2023, then his health cannot be an excuse.

No. Baseless internet rumour.

We're definitely thinking of different people...but they're friends off set, despite their on set children having a tumultuous onscreen history. It's a fair comment re Corday. He has a long history of burying his head in the sand for a long time...but what seems strange about this is that a report was done, given to his production company, and he still didn't intervene. Even a single example of what AA is alleged to have done is cause for termination.

That is such an excellent scene. The story has been told so many times that the accurate one is a mystery, but either KKL didn't tell Flannery she was going to slap her, or it wasn't in the script, or the two planned it out so that they'd actually hit each other...but it was an electric acting choice. Two of my favourite slaps involve Donna Love on Another World. In both, Donna does the first slap and then is shocked and appalled when Jake and Vicky slap her back, at 3:00 and 6:10 respectively: