Somewhere, probably vacationing (per usual), I'm sure that Jill Zarin had a huge kool-aid smile on her face upon reading this news:
‘The Real Housewives of New York” are up a creek without a Cohen.
Ratings for the first two episodes of the Bravo reality series are down considerably over last year, and, worse , a source tells us the franchise’s onetime champion, Bravo exec Andy Cohen, is so busy with his burgeoning career that he’s distanced himself from the show.
Nielsen numbers for the first two episodes of “RHONY” tell a worrisome tale. Compared to the ratings average for last season, the average ratings of the June 4 and 11 episodes of NYC’s “Real Housewives” were down 21% in total viewers — from almost 2 million to 1.6 million.
Based on the same comparison, the season so far is down 22% among viewers 25-54, the key demographic on which advertisers base their commercial buys.
Although only the third episode of “RHONY” aired last night, the ratings will have to pick up soon — and significantly. The show is on track to be the lowest-rated since the 2009 season.
“The new girls don’t seem to be working, and Bravo is concerned,” says one show insider, referring to cast additions Aviva Drescher, Carole Radziwill and Heather Thomson.
Well, almost everyone at Bravo is concerned.
One “RHONY” insider says Cohen, the cable network’s exec vice president of original programming and development, “doesn’t care if the ratings for this season tank” and has “backed away from the show.”
The source adds: “This is the first season he’s not editing. He’s busy with other projects and doesn’t have time to go over hours of film.”
Cohen has recently been touring major cities to promote his memoir, “Most Talkative: Stories From Behind the Front Lines of Pop Culture.”
He also has his Bravo talk show, “Watch What Happens Live,” which sources say has become the focus of Cohen’s career aspirations.
That still leaves Bravo with the dilemma of boosting “RHONY’s” ratings, and one source who has worked on the show (but not the current season) suggests it’s time for the cable net to orchestrate the return of drama-generating housewives of yore.
“The best thing they could do is bring back Jill and Alex and pretend this season never happened,” says the source, referring to Jill Zarin and Alex McCord , who were cut from the cast last fall.
Zarin told us, “I’m happy that these new women are enjoying their fame; I’ve reached out and offered [Bravo] any support they need.”
Zarin is working on her own projects, but says she’s puzzled producers felt the need to shake up the cast last season.
“You don’t change what works,” she says.
A Bravo spokesperson says: “We're very happy with the performance of the first two episodes especially given its new time slot and the current competitive period with over 200 original shows launched in June alone. We love both existing and new cast members.”
RELATED: Is Jill Zarin Asking Fans to Boycott RHONY Until She’s Hired Back?
The original Orange county started out as a nice little fluff show with just enough catiness to make it interesting, but now, the whole franchise has digressed into all out mortal hand-to-hand combat. Take almost any argument or comment switch out the names and it can be from any of the installments. Gets pretty stale after awhile.
ReplyDeleteAndy Cohen needs to get over himself. He works much better behind the scenes than in front of the camera preening, sucking up to non-entities and hamming it up
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Anonymous, I had been noticing this for the past couple of seasons. Just switch names and they are all the exact same just different people and locations but storylines the same. BORING BORING BORING. I think housewives franchises have run their course. It's time for something NEW.
ReplyDeleteThe Housewives franchise is following the typical product life cycle scenerio. Development, Introduction, Growth, Maturity, Decline. Quite obvious that it's at the tail end of the Maturity phase if not already in the Decline phase. Smart move would be to milk it a few more seasons and get some more syndication deals. They've already done this to some extent. Just waiting for the preverbial fat lady to sing on this saga.
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