I’ve had a lot of conversations with SOURCE this week about all kinds of different things. I’m going to try to put them in some sort of order, but I am brain dead today. My brain literally feels kind of heavy in my head. My eyes don’t want to open, and I’m having trouble following comments and emails today. I don’t have any anxiety or depression today. I’m just not feeling very alert. So apologies if this post makes even less sense than normal. I’m sucking down co-colas and taking my B vitamins to try and get myself together.
RHOA Negotiations
Let’s Start with RHOA. Filming is set to begin by the end of this month. But the casting decisions are still not complete. This isn’t uncommon for RHOA. The decisions are being made in batches. Kandi, Porsha and Kenya were the first three they negotiated with. It seems the suits feelings, or at least some of the suits feeling about Kenya have changed. Some are now saying, “Kenya is the smartest housewife ever. She knows how to read the room, what to say to make good TV and is definitely the Bravo brand. She’s smart with her money and good with business. She’s awesome in that regard. Yes, she lies and manufactures a lot but apparently the viewers love it.”
So Kenya will be getting a nice raise this season. When she was let go she was making $50K per episode and was only offered $25K per episode to return. She is now behind Porsha on the totem pole due to her missing a year. Kandi got a very nice raise this season. They worked out the salaries on these three first so they would know how much is left for the payroll of everyone else. All three got raises.
Filling Out The Rest of the RHOA Cast
Next, Nene and Marlo renegotiated their contracts and got raises. As, I have told you previously, Marlo makes more than some of the other housewives even though she technically doesn’t have a peach. In oth news, Nene’s long time agent, Dana Sims, is moving to CAA, And Nene is expected to move with her. We’ve talked about CAA before. The have a ton of clout when it comes to roles and appearances on talk shows and such. It’s sort of a cultlike “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours. Nene will probably getting work outside of Bravo again. CAA also reps Truly Original the production company that produces RHOA. So now they get a kicker for having a CAA client on their payroll and a bigger incentive to give her another renegotiation in the future.
Production Begins This Month In Georgia & Texas
As for the remainder of casting, as of yesterday, Bravo was still deliberating on the fates of Tanya, Cynthia and Eva. Drew Sidora interviewed earlier this year and is in the running for a role too. But she recently had an Achilles surgery so that may keep her off the show. Bravo, the state government and the insurance companies have cleared for shooting to begin this month in the states of Georgia and Texas. RHOA, Married to Medicine and RHOD will all be filming by the end of the month. Texas opened too soon though and their Covid Cases are spiking, so RHOD may be pushed back.
Also, they are still looking for a new show runner for RHOA and at least one candidate asked if Nene was coming back. The applicant seemed afraid to work with her, according to SOURCE. Nene’s rage at Andy Cohen and retweets of people saying he needs to be fired is ridiculous. She is very jealous of Kandi and was irate that Andy called Kandi for advice on how to navigate the current racial climate. Neither Nene nor Andy Cohen are going anyway.
Vanderpump Rules
According to SOURCE, the four people who were fired are the only four getting fired. SOURCE says that Jax is not going to be fired. The impression I got is that they don’t think they have a show without Jax. I find that ridiculous, but hell, maybe Jax is right and it really is his show. The cast for the next season has not been finalized so there is a slight possibility he may not get picked up. But SOURCE says that would be highly unlikely. SOURCE also feels like the whole show needs to go. Also, there is a lot of dirt on LVP and Ken out there but I don’t want to get into all of that. It involves finances, or lack thereof, allegedly. Also, since the firings, James Kennedy’s highly racist tweets have resurfaced. But so far there is no plan to fire him. At least not yet.
Also, Summer House is “gearing up to be the next Vanderpump Rules” and this might result in longer seasons and a bigger cast for that show.
Southern Charm
Speaking of shows who need to go, Bravo has hired outside counsel to investigate the reason for Cameran Eubanks leaving the show. Bravo was very unhappy about her departure. Especially since it also led to Naomi and Chelsea leaving as well. We have discussed the producer, Aaron Rothman here many times. Most recently, I told you that production started on this season at the end of 2019. But once Haymaker submitted the first completed episode, Bravo said it was garbage and insisted on them recasting the new people and starting over. In addition, Aaron Rothman was told he had to stay in Charleston for the duration of filming.
So when they started up filming again just before the pandemic shutdown, Haymaker was already on thin ice. If all of the witnesses are truthful in their interviews, that will probably be the end of Haymaker and Aaron Rothman, according to SOURCE. Apparently, there are some ethical concerns on behalf of Bravo. And they must be pretty serious because Bravo has a very low bar for ethical concerns. However, SOURCE expects that the witness will probably cover for Aaron. I asked about Kathryn Dennis’ fate and it seems no decision has been made yet about #MonkeyGate because at this point the entire show is up in the air. But it is currently being investigated.
Other Random Tidbits
Sidenote: Today the production offices are allowed to open up for RHONY and RHOBH this will get the episodes caught up. Previously they were working on post production remotely and the hard drives had to be picked up from the housewives homes and it was all a big clusterfuck. I know there are all sorts of nefarious speculations on the Internet about the shows taking a hiatus, but that is really all it is.
Over at RHOOC, Kelly Dodd’s twitter line has gone under some scrutiny for racism and Bravo is investigating. It appears the tweet was deleted prior to the investigation though. Hell, I thought she would be fired for racism before she every got to film. I literally called her out as a racist before she every shot her first frame. But now, Bravo is pretending to have ethics…so she is in the same TO BE DETERMINED pile with Kathryn Dennis.
Thanks for all the updates. I’m going to be sad waiting on RHOD! Does SOURCE have any information on Potomac (sorry if you mentioned it somewhere in other posts)…
I’m not a big Potmac fan so I never ask SOURCE about it but I can I suppose..
I hope they cancel Vanderpump. It seems there is too many issues with most of that cast…
Be interesting to see how they would expand summer house especially with everything going on right now.
I am in south Texas and we have had a spike in positive cases. One of the big things is the testing increased like crazy. It went from like 5000 tests to 25000 in two weeks in my area. Also in my area we have an increase in hospital stays related to COVID. Culture here is all about family so a lot of people put elderly/high risk people in their family at risk when they were told they were allowed to leave their house. Dallas is also an area that didn’t want to open but governor forced their hand so I wouldn’t be surprised if RHOD has to wait.
Kelly Dodd has probably the worst tweets and social media posts out of anyone on Bravo. If, and if, Bravo is cleaning house of people, then she should be going too.
Sorry, I meant she is one of the worst in regards to her social media comments. Maybe not the worst, but one of the worst.
Hi fellow South Texan!!!
We are paying for those memorial day BBQ’s I think. I also think we will see another spike from protests. It’s a vital movement, but viruses don’t care about that sadly.
Agreed. People are still wearing masks here but there is still a spike. We have a lot of high risk people too down here.
So basically nothing really has changed with Bravo, it’s still the misogyny and racist network. So they keep Nene, Jax and Lala (SMDH). As for Nene, I have never seen someone who is that jealous of someone (except for Dorinda). Kandi was right, Kandi is in Nene’s head. Why they think they need Jax is baffling. How about doing a damn focus group and ask the audience their opinion. He brings nothing to the show except for rage and narcissism. They need to clean house.
I mean if you take away Jax then you take away a lot of the drama. The whole season was really around him, with the wedding and then him just rage texting and losing it on everyone.
Also if you think about past seasons he was in the center of a lot of drama either because he directly did something or he gossiped and passed on information like who was cheating.
You are absolutely correct …Stassi shroeder had to go . She was the disease and letting her go was the cure. The rest of the diseases followed and now bravo needs to put some minorities in there with talent and humbleness. Not too worry, they will succeed, because the VpRules idea is genius and the new cast will soon have the fans forgetting the gone diseases. The rest of the reality shows must follow suit.
What Stassi and Kristen did to Faith was horrific and they should have apologized privately and publicly a long time ago. However, I feel that if they are being dropped, many others on Bravo need to go.
-Jax, while sometimes just because he’s a idiot, has said racially offensive and homophobic things
-Brittany has totally been exposesed for not really caring about the pastor situation
-Nene has wished rape on people, threatened assault, chocked, and the list goes on
-Lala Kent has made jokes about being to good for god to give her COVID
-LVP, who “stans” the LGBTQ community, didn’t care about Billie Lee’s feelings and make. “joke” Erika Jane might be tucking
I am glad Bravo is now being forced for issues that have been going on for YEARS on the network to be addressed. But is their desperate attempt to rebrand and get away from the strange concept of having a audience of mostly women and gay men and has a gay man as the face of the network make all their programing degrading to both groups. Time will tell if the likes of Nene, LVP, etc will get the ask. I can’t imagine that unless either of them REALLY Nene and LVP won’t get the special treatment tase had for years.
Before our world got to the state it is, we have been saying the show needs to be recast as other than Dana none of really vibed with the new kids. The OGs spent an entire season talking about how they are no longer friends and most of them in interviews make it clear the main relationships are done. Unless there is a close knit group, preferability a diverse one at SUR or TomTom who have REAL relationships, better PR teams to clean up social media before before they cast someone, Pump rules is more DUNZO then the Witches of Weho.
Lets see if Kristen and Stassi will be able to hold on fancy new LA pads…
Bravo would not fire Nene if she shot down people in Times Square. It’s just not going to happen. There is a three story building for production in the NYC financial district. There is over 100 MILLION dollars worth of computer equipment in there (that may include the cost of the building) that the CEO refers to as THE HOUSE THAT NENE BUILT. They are making tons of money off of her. They don’t care she is POS.
The other night I posted a post that basically said Nene Farted today. Nothing else. No explanation for why I posted. And it was the number one trending topic for two or three days. It got HUGE numbers. I should probably go post a Nene burped today for the weekend. 🙂 I’m not kidding. What I think are well thought out posts on topics important to my readers sometimes get low views. But anything Nene? I get so many views it scares me. I actually shut down comments on one because it seemed like they were all bots and I am not sure if that is safe for the site. I get why Bravo keeps her. Only the fans can put a stop to her. If no one watches… things could change. Now let me think up a good Nene post. 🙂 I’ll ask my SOURCE for something good.
I have never gotten the obsession with Nene. I have never really liked her or thought she was entertaining. I thought she always took time away from HW I was interested in like Kandi.
Same here
I quit watching because of Nene. A lot of people obviously like her and I must be in the minority but she is too unpleasant for my taste.
I did too, and since we know she’s not going anywhere, I will never watch again.
Me too. NeNe is not the same NeNe I tuned in to watch. Every year I say maybe this year they drop her. So I can start watching again. She’s really mean and demanding. She wants to be number one and Kandi burrus and the others are just as deserving. Nene isn’t interesting anymore. She’s scary mean. I loved her in the beginning. Everything about her hàs changed about her even her looks. Wish the old Nene was back!
@sp you are not in the minority, it’s actually the polar opposite. The network doesn’t care that people do not like her and want her off the show.
And Donald Trump is President, so there we go. Scary is right.
Why when we get discussion going somebody got to bring President Trump in.
This is not political. Lord please take the wheel. The more he’s attacked the better he wins. He’s a good president. Leave him alone. Guaranteed the attackers will have karma bite the in the bums.
Wow. I’m pretty sure the Lord is against racism. Trump has not one single attribute that aligns with any truly religious people. You probably should have kept that comment to yourself.
What am I missing here? How is anyone making tons of money off of NeNe? It’s not like she had all the spin-offs like Kandi. Or did they make money from her Glee and New Normal episodes?
The viewership of RHOA is very high. More views means more expensive adds. Bravo makes a TON off of RHOA and the suits give all the credit to Nene.
@Real Houseboy of Weho, I totally agree with that. I don’t think it’s right to only fire them. That completely defeats the purpose and clearly shows that they just want to placate the people and are not at all sincere in what they are doing over at Bravo. I see some lawsuits coming their way.
It’s called half ass.
Everyone wants to see diversity on vpr what about alittle diversity on married to medicine Atlanta there is anther one to I can’t think of the name cause I don’t watch it.
Kelly Dodd and Kathryn Dennis should have been fired first, instead Bravo goes back and fires people from things that happened years ago that they already knew about. I still think it was a good move, but why are they debating about people who are currently showing their asses? Makes no sense. They dragged RHOBH forever, I’m sure they have time re-shoot RHOOC and what’s left of Southern Charm.
Bravo is paying for their hypocritical actions of the past 10 years. I bet they are sweating their pants trying to cover their asses. I dont like racist homophobic language but these firing do not look consistent. Well, they better keep these new standards I mean zero tolerance or we will scream. You let Jax push one mean tweet and its over
Jax posted a disgusting tweet just a couple of days ago. Someone asked him to pick one of a bunch of ‘80s movies, saying he could only watch one ever again, or some such nonsense, and the moron actually said that it was like “Sophie’s Choice”! I don’t follow Jax, but I was scoping out all of the VPR pages, curious if they were saying anything about the firings. I was so horrified when I saw that comment that I had to say something! I said that he couldn’t possibly be comparing picking a stupid movie to having to choose which one of your kids you had to hand over to the Nazis to be slaughtered in a crematorium, and that he really ought to educate himself and go visit the LA Holocaust Museum. I was fairly polite, though I think I might have also told him it was time to grow up. He of course blocked me. He’s grotesque. A 40+ year old man who has no insight isn’t funny. I’ve been rewatching the early seasons of VPR on Hulu and I’m actually shocked that I never realized jus how awful Stassi really was. She should have been fired when she hit Kristen in the face. Her sense of entitlement, superiority, and willingness to genuinely hurt people (and make sure that everyone else went along with her and hurt them too) is appalling. I don’t think that’s changed at all. I hope this shit show of meanness is cancelled. I’d maybe watch a spinoff of TomTom, but I doubt it.
SOURCE who is my friend seems to think there is no Pump Rules without Jax and no RHOA without Nene. So,,, don’t expect better behavior.
Won’t be surprised if he cheats on Brittany next season and they divorce.. some drama like it, at least. Maybe nothing as final as divorce bc he’ll wanna secure his job.
That makes sense. It will be interesting to see where VPR goes moving forward, the newbies they brought in weren’t exactly a roaring success.
I couldn’t find anything about James Kennedy tweets. What’s up with him now?
Me either when I looked!
Hi Tamara, i cant find James Kennedys racist tweets. Can you tel me were i can find them? I love this site, comeback here everyday. Hope you are wel. Xo
To be honest, I have no memory of this. It’s been an extremely exhausting day. Oh and I think the tweets were elsewhere.. It’s late and I am drinking but IIRC they were sent to me or posted somewhere. I don’t think this was a big exclusive for me
I think I’m officially over RHOA. I just don’t enjoy most of the cast members anymore for various reasons. Too boring, too manipulative, too insecure…ugh, yeah… I’m done.
SUMMER HOUSE five or four nights a week would be great for me.
Sadly, I used to live for RHNY, no longer.
RHNJ please no more.
VDPR is a if nothing else is on show.
RHOA there is going to be so much acting, I don’t know…..,.
Yes, I use to laugh my butt off watching Nene and Kim zolzack argue and nd then make up etc. That was a real reality show. Now it’s too much plastic surgery and scripted stuff. Enough already.
There has to be other people out there with talent. This can’t be it. Bravo needs to have auditions in every town. And get some realness and laughter in our lives again.
Any word on Family Karma?
Come on, Ray! You know Bravo doesn’t let us have nice things.
Damn damn
So I have no hope for Mexican Dynasties?
None at all.
At least it looks like we will have BB this summer. I’m not sure that’s the greatest idea, but I’ll still watch.
I forgot to say that maybe NeNe will feel a little less forced now that she’s admitted the open marriage thing.
TT- what do you mean when you wrote that NY & BH production no longer needs to pick up hard drives from the housewives’ houses?
Because post production on those two shows was shutdown, those housewives, from what I understand, were essentially doing their own talking heads from home. And producers would drive around an pick them all up. It sounded like a giant mess. I didn’t really get all the technical stuff that discussed. Just that now they can finish out post production. This reminds me, I need to ask about RHOSLC. That should be ready to go.
“Kenya is the smartest housewife ever. She knows how to read the room, what to say to make good TV and is definitely the Bravo brand. She’s smart with her money and good with business. She’s awesome in that regard.
This came from Kenya’s mouth. I wonder who the source was ?.