It’s a milestone moment for Bravo: one of its flagship shows, “The Real Housewives New York City,” is going off the air, Page Six has learned — with no firm plans for its return.
The show, which premiered in 2008, has consistently been one of the most beloved, prestigious and buzzed-about in the reality giant’s schedule, and it has launched the careers of Bravo A-listers like Bethenny Frankel, Luann de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan, Jill Zarin and Kelly Bensimon.
Only the original “Housewives” show, “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” has been around longer.
Now Page Six is told that the network has decided to take “RHONY” off the air, with “hopes” to reconfigure it.
But it doesn’t seem as if there’s any great expectation that it’ll be back any time soon.
“We’re trying to figure that show out,” said an insider. “We want to figure it out. We think there’s still life in it.”
But they warned that other shows have sat on ice for years before being revived — such as “The Real Housewives of Miami,” which was canceled in 2013 and didn’t return until 2021.
An insider said that execs do expect “RHONY” to return at some point and in some form, but certainly not with all of its current cast.
In 2021, “Housewives” honcho Andy Cohen and other brass took to bold and unprecedented decision to “split” the show in two, airing a gut-renovated version of the “main” show as “The Real Housewives of New York City,” and a second show that was to be called “The Real Housewives of New York City: Legacy” and would feature the “original” cast including de Lesseps, Morgan, Bensimon and Zarin, among others.
It is now safe to say that plan did not work, since both halves have gone off their air within four years.
As Page Six reported at the time, the “Legacy” edition fell apart during contract negotiations. It eventually aired as a one-off special edition of the “Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip” series.
Then the “main” show, recast with J.Crew savant Jenna Lyons, Sai De Silva, Ubah Hassan, Erin Lichy, Jessel Taank and Brynn Whitfield, premiered in 2023.
It immediately faced a crisis after cast members allegedly used racial slurs on set (something an irony since part of the reason for the dissolution of the original series was a human resources complaint about the very same slur).
Since then, it has faced fluctuating ratings and cast members who refuse to shoot with each other because of on-set feuds that have spun out of control.
Another original “Housewives” franchise, “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” was paused in May 2023 over feuding co-stars Teresa Giudice and Melissa Gorga. The show eventually continued, but was ultimately put on ice as execs worked on a plan for a reboot.
Meanwhile, we’re told that attempts to overhaul the “New York” cast have stumbled because many Big Apple women don’t want to be involved.
“At this point they seen peoples marriages ruined, their kids lives ruined, their businesses ruined,” said an insider, “It’s just not a very desirable thing to sign up for.”
A Bravo spokesperson said: “Nothing is official. The show hasn’t been canceled.”
