Bravo's The Real Housewives of....

[DRW50]

A part of me wonders if many at Bravo just did not see her views as anything wrong (or even secretly agreed with them). Another part of me wonders if it is because they knew many would start calling for the firings of other Housewives (I've seen calls over Ramona, Luann, Rinna, etc. today). I think the main issue is just many, Andy Cohen chief among them, are very out of touch with their viewer base, and assuming these are silly social media back and forths that everyone will move on from the next time someone drunk tweets. At least someone acknowledged the reality, but it's something that is just going to keep happening unless they want to make more serious changes and try to figure out how to drain some of the toxicity and bigotry from the core of the shows. It's not 2010 or 2011 anymore, and never will be again.

Edited January 25, 2022 by DRW50

[Gray Bunny]

I'm glad Bravo finally did the right thing. With Jennie at least. 

Meanwhile, I echo the sentiments here that RHOSLC went from zero to 180 in the toxicity department in record speed.  Not only is their reunion already outdated thanks to Mary and Jennie, but Season 3 is going to be a clusterf*ck of alliances. I can barely keep up with who likes who and who doesn't already. 

Side Note: When Meredith is EXTREMELY upset, it's almost alarming, like there's something wrong with her. Even Ramona Singer doesn't short-circuit like that at her very worst. 

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Gray Bunny

[Antoyne]

I don’t think Bravo actually cared about her posts. Why would you put a gag order in place of your employees initially making statements if you were so against Jennie’s post. I don’t think they thought fans would hammer this hard so they put out this weak statement.

 

Lord Meredith engaged is downright manic. After the first night and then everyone waking up to her going ballistic, I was exhausted. But I also understand her anger. The cast ultimately didn’t care about her issues with Jen about Brooks, they then accused her of faking her dad’s memorial service and accused of her somehow getting Jen arrested on a case the FBI has been putting together for years.

I don’t even think this cast likes each other. It’s all frail alliances.

[Antoyne]

So I’ve been watching Real Housewives of Melbourne season 1 and wow did Gina have the other ladies pressed. And really it was Lydia’s fault.

Jackie is so damn annoying.

I didn’t realize Janet was so anti Gina. She turned on her for no reason.

I don’t like Andrea. 
 

Lydia is Lydia.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Antoyne

[Chris B]

I don’t think Bravo was going to fire her. Hell, they didn’t announce it until after the ratings came out and they lost 200,000 viewers in one week! They knew about this posts because these posts were current during casting and filming. I fully believe if fans didn’t put the pressure on them they would’ve used Jennie for a storyline. The fans and  cast members like Meredith and Jen likely put their foot down and they had no choice. 

[Taoboi]

 

 

[Taoboi]

And on another note...I find it interesting that all this Jeannie stuff has grown down (I was even at work earlier and she was the MAIN story when you bring up the browser) as Ex Soap Opera Star over in BH is dealing with another controversy picture she's in involving blackface. 

[Cat]

Agreed about Bravo getting caught out by fan reaction. Andy was practically sleepy when he 'addressed' this on WWHL on Sunday (taped last Wednesday)! He and Bravo had no clue this would explode like it did, and he and Lisa paid some corporate lip service to "doing better" and thought that would be it.

Even as the issue built up over the weekend, Andy was all "It will get addressed on WWHL" as his sole response. Monday on his radio show he finally caught a clue and said "The posts were disgusting. OK?" like "Are you happy now?"

The ratings for SLC came in below par and that was confirmation that Bravo needed to make a definitive statement. As Lea Black said in a recent interview, production (as she experienced it) cares about the product, but Bravo only cares about the transactional. And ratings = money. (My speculation: Bravo thought the scandal would actually boost Sunday's ratings).

Most of the cast (except maybe Lisa Barlow) understood the seriousness and their statements as of Thursday onward reflect that. As @DaytimeFan said, Heather and Meredith's statements made it clear they would refuse to work with Jennie, so Bravo would have to make a choice: back up the racist, or back up the OGs.

 

I haven't watched Sunday's episode yet (feel a little exhausted by all things SLC recently!), but I understand some of Meredith's anger, especially re: attacks against her son on Twitter, as stirred up by Jen Shah. Also, the accusation that Meredith and Mary got Jen arrested is ridiculous and pure deflection by Bad Weather away from Jen's actual (prosecuted) crimes -- these have been barely mentioned on the show. This must make Meredith livid. She is calm and cautious and rational until everything builds up and then there is a volcanic explosion. 

 

OMG I love that you have been watching Melbourne S1. Queen Giner (one of my top tier HWs across any franchise) really got the women in a tizzy! 

Shine-Shine-Shine was OK first season, but I felt her bitterness S2 onwards that she wasn't the breakout star like Gina.

Janet plays the game and flip-flops based on her own assessment of what would be good for Janet. At the end of the day, I can't fault her for it.

Andrea was SO AWFUL but for that reason she was entertaining. Those scenes telling exhausted 'working mums' that they were lazy and had to organise themselves better were cringetastically entertaining, and production must have been thrilled. You cannot buy that kind of blind condescension.

Lydia is a big dumb villain. She thought she was playing Gina and the women so well -- it was hilarious how proud she was of her own 'smarts.' She basically tried to do what Janet was doing, and it flopped hard, but her deluded view of her own powers of bitchiness is what kept her on the show. She is also a big gossip, and sloppy in her own private life -- production likely knew all this would bite her in the ass in S2/S3.

I like that Melbourne doesn't take itself too seriously when all is said and done. Giner's "You're an insignificant arse-hair" to Andrea still resonates. 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Cat

[Taoboi]

@Cat I agree re: watching SLC this week. I do hear it's a great episode, but all of this exploding online. Yep. It's a little too much for me to want to sit and watch at the moment.

 

[Antoyne]

It's been such a breezy watch, I thoroughly enjoy the show. I'm still shocked Bravo never thought to air it in primetime after one of the stateside shows. These ladies deserve to be seen. I am so not looking forward to Pettifluer joining the show. I've seen most of one of her seasons when Bravo would randomly air the show during the day.

I also just got to the point where Gina flips the script on Janet and reveals she called Lydia brainless to get back at her for telling the ladies about Gina venting in the bathroom about them.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Antoyne

[j swift]

Today we learned that VPR Stassi, who amused listeners of her podcast with stories about threatening to call the police on a minority co-worker, is coming out with a book about coping with cancel culture.  RHONY Ramona, who had to be given additional HR training on respecting diversity, is then given opportunities to film spinoffs by Bravo.  And, a RHOM star whose son was arrested for homophobic attacks goes on WWHL last night without any questions about his behavior.  It makes me wonder if the Bravo audience has a different definition of racism? 

I also read the account of RHOSLC Jenny's Instagram explanation on Page Six.  It goes without saying that Jenny asserts that she is not racist.  She takes full responsibility, although she acknowledges that she employed a social media team.  Her defense was that her responses were based on fears that members of a minority class were going to damage her belongings or threaten her way of life.  Now, maybe she doesn't use racial epitaphs in public spaces (which is the very least that a civilized person should do), but she does condone violence against members of a racial minority and she supports the belief that minority citizens should not have equal access to law enforcement if they disagree with her opinions.

It all left me wondering why a Salt Lake City housewife would need a social media team before they became a public figure? But if someone can sell private individuals that they need social media managers, I guess I have to respect their hustle.  Because, if someone is too dumb to know that race should not determine a person's civil rights, than I guess they can be conned into anything.

 

Edited January 27, 2022 by j swift

[Cat]

Guys, Jennie kidnapped Kanye and won't release him until she's back on the show. 

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Edited January 27, 2022 by Cat

[DRW50]

never mind - that was probably someone's joke

Edited January 27, 2022 by DRW50

[Cat]

Oh, this guy exudes 'Black Friend For Hire.' I'm assuming he thought this would raise his podcast's profile.

Wonder if he was flown to Utah for this mess or already lives there. Well, not really wondering. Wondering implies that I care about this person's backstory!

Her smirk in this screenshot. 

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It's fine -- you weren't co-opting it as your own, you were pointing out that someone on the thread said it. Some of these Tweets are gold. And some of them say he looks like Kanye too but honestly that was my first thought before I even read the comments.

Edited January 27, 2022 by Cat

[Cat]

I couldn't stand Pettifleur either, and found S2 a slower watch as a result (also it had a LOT of Jackie and her business ventures). However, there was one amazing scene where Pettifleur hosted a Winter Wonderland party in her apartment and executed some kind of interpretive dance routine which has to be seen to be believed! The HWs watching were like 

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Other than that -- S3 (even though it featured Pettifleur) is better than S2. "I'm in the best shape of my life! Who begs to differ?"