Is 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey' Getting a Whole New Cast?
Are Teresa Giudice’s Bravo days numbered? That’s what fans of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, a network staple for 15 years, are concerned about after hearing the recent news: In a franchise first, the Jersey ladies wouldn’t be getting together at the end of the currently airing Season 14 for a traditional reunion special.
According to a People insider, the canceled reunion news—which dropped after only four episodes of the season aired—is due to unresolved tension between cast members, especially sisters-in-law Melissa Gorga and Giudice. (Per reports, things were so fractious between the family-member co-stars that BravoCon had to routinely host separate panels for the two women.) "A reunion is meant to have resolution and it's clear in the season finale that there is no path forward in that type of setting," said the source. "So the network is figuring out a different concept to wrap up the season."
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But the move isn’t entirely unprecedented in The Real Housewives universe: In the fall of 2021, producers decided to scrap the Season 13 reunion of The Real Housewives of New York City not only due to low ratings that season but also Eboni K. Williams' allegations of racism against co-star Ramona Singer. At the time, sources told TMZ that the reunion was scrapped because the lengthy probe caused production delays, but the producers ended up taking it as an opportunity to give RHONY a full overhaul. The powers that be fired long-running stars like Ramona Singer, Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan, and fully replaced the cast with new personalities for Season 14, including Jenna Lyons, Brynn Whitfield and Ubah Hassan. Will the same happen to the likes of Dolores Catania, Margaret Josephs, Jennifer Aydin and the rest of the Garden State gals?
The Real Housewives’ executive producer and reunion host Andy Cohen called in during the Monday, June 3 edition of SiriusXM’s Reality Checked with Kiki Monique to discuss the rest of the RHONJ season as well as the future of the show. “We [producers] all had the same thought, which is the finale is kind of the finale and the reunion all in one. It’s in the great tradition of absolute shocking, dramatic Jersey finales and they have this final epic group encounter, which is like, it feels like the Last Supper and is just so Jersey,” he added. “And it’s shocking and it’s dramatic and it’s amazing TV. I’m telling you, when you see it, I think that you’ll feel complete. I really do.”
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As for those Jersey reboot rumors, Cohen was cagey: “We're going to cross next season as that comes. Right now, we're just kind of focusing on, 'Okay, well, if we're not doing a conventional reunion, what are we doing and what is something different that we could do?" He compared the current situation with RHONJ to the Season 16 overhaul of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. “I think that Atlanta was a really good example of, we came out of that last season and we knew, 'Okay, we want to do extensive casting and we want to just give this some time.’ And I will say we gave it time,” said Cohen. “A lot of people were saying, 'Well, where's Atlanta, what's happening? There haven't been any announcements.' Whatever. I'm so happy with what's going on down in Atlanta right now. Things take time and we want to take a minute to figure things out. You know, there's no point in rushing into something just to rush into something."
Looks like we’re going to have to be patient, then, and see what happens to our Jersey girls in the future!
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