A day after the shocking news by Bravo, stating they were postponing the Real Housewives of New York City in favor of the Real Housewives of Miami two weeks before its premiere date, many are now wondering what the real reason is.
As we pointed out yesterday, Popeater reported back in December that Bravo higher ups were not happy with the way the 4th season was going after viewing the footage. Things were apparently so bad that Bravo asked Bethenny Frankel to return to the show for many appearances, something she wanted no part of.
Fast forward to today and the NY Post as well as the NYDailyNews are both reporting Bravo pulled the plug on the Feb. 15 premiere because they thought it was too boring.
According to the Post, the producers decided to cancel the original premiere because “it lacked the explosive catfight-filled drama expected of” other Bravo housewives series. In fact, Andy Cohen emailed the entire cast of the show early yesterday informing them of the news.
“We decided yesterday that our best bet was to give ourselves a little breathing room,” Andy wrote. “I would rather get the show right than rush it to air.” Andy also warned the cast not to tweet about it until Bravo made the official announcement.
Sources tell the Post that following good ratings for its drama-filled Beverly Hills counterpart, the producers simply felt the New York show didn’t have enough drama to satisfy viewers. “They wanted the ladies to fight like cats and dogs, but they got along,” said a source. “[But] they are now freaking out that they’ll get fired for being boring and replaced by more fiery women.”
The NYDailyNews also confirms the Post’s story adding the cast was informed of the change just hours before it became public news. Bravo also reportedly received negative feedback following the sneak peeks they aired this week during the RHOBH. The final reason for the change? Bravo “thinks ‘Miami’ is more like ‘Beverly Hills‘” and bets fans of the latter, which just ended its season, will “piggyback” onto “Miami.”
The cast of the show are however giving a different reason for the sudden cancellation. Both Simon van Kempen and Alex McCord tweeted yesterday that Bravo simply needed more time to finish the editing considering they were still filming just a week ago.
In an interview with Star magazine, Sonja Morgan gives the same reason. “I think they feel like they have such good stuff, they don’t want to waste it. They want to make sure it’s done properly. Personally, I’m relieved. It gives me more time to relax, especially considering Ramona [Singer] and I were shooting seven times a week. They’ll have Miami go out first and when they’re done, we’re up.”
Sonja added, “they need some more time to edit. We’ve filmed like crazy, more than ever, and we’re seven ladies so they have a lot of footage to go through.” Safe to assume they “filmed like crazy” because Bravo wasn’t happy with the footage they saw more than halfway through filming.
As for Bravo, Andy released this official statement – “No conspiracy here, folks. We have an embarrassment of riches with Miami and New York, and I assure you that ‘the Real Housewives of NYC’ will be well worth the wait.” The new season is now slated to air in April or May.
TELL US – WHICH STORY DO YOU BELIEVE REGARDING WHY THE SHOW WAS POSTPONED? WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE SNEAK PEEKS?
