What's Going on with RHONY?

Canceled! Not canceled! No matter the case, I’m not giving up on RHONY.

Much in the same way New York City was the fifth character on Sex and the City, Page Six has always been a side character on The Real Housewives of New York City — although in the latter case, more of a looming spectre.

“Bravo flagship ‘RHONY’ going off the air,” read the headline heard round the world, the gossip rag reported on Friday. Then, with great speed: “This is a cute story except it’s not cancelled,” Andy Cohen responded. But when Bravo released a massive press release just days earlier, one that included the announcement of four new series as well as a slew of renewals, two shows were notably omitted from the list: The Real Housewives of New York and The Real Housewives of New Jersey. While that does not a cancellation make for either, it certainly has caused one to wonder what it all means. Because while neither may be explicitly kapoot, neither have been formally renewed (as of this writing), which means the shows appear to be in a bit of a limbo.

This isn’t wholly unexpected for the latter series. “We’re looking at what we’re doing with Jersey,” Cohen said back in November after the cast appeared to be at an impasse, unable to all gather in a room to film the show’s signature reunion. “We are taking our time. We are in no rush,” he further stated, alluding to a potential casting shake-up akin to Real Housewives of New York Season 5 (when the show axed four of its castmembers, including two OG’s) or even something more in line with Season 14 of the series (when an entirely new crop of women was brought in). But RHONJ and RHONY are birds of different feathers. Sure, they’re both long-running, beloved franchises, but for many, myself among them, RHONY is its own beast, one of the great television comedies of modern times.

On TikTok, Bethenny called the rebutted news both “poetic” and “bittersweet,” calling the series an “alchemy of disaster.” That’s true, yes, but that hardly conveys the beauty of the disaster. The show, the second in the Housewives franchise (though originally commissioned as a stand-alone series), had its premiere in March 2008, introducing the world to a group of friends brought together by Jill Zarin (a socialite and wife of Zarin Fabrics owner, Bobby Zarin) that included Luann de Lesseps (then married to French Count Alexandre de Lesseps), Ramona Singer (a wholesale clothing distributor) and Bethenny Frankel (a private chef). Added to the group for no ostensible reasoning was Alex McCord, a stay at home mom.

“I’m proud of being sexy. I mean, come on, let’s face it: Everything you see out there is very sexually oriented. And you know what? I’m very proud that I had a child and that at the age I am I still have what it takes in my opinion.” That was Ramona Singer in the opening moments of the pilot episode, seen dancing at a club. Have “what it takes” to do what, exactly? We never will know. (Notably, during the reunion, Singer would walk off when the subject turned to her fellow castmember Alex McCord’s nude photos surfacing because she found the conversation inappropriate.) All of this underlines the contradiction implicit to the alchemy. These women went to great lengths to showcase the best parts of their lives, or in many instances, fabricated things entirely, but weren’t exactly primed to the ways reality TV centers (and in some instances exploits) the worst parts.

But what really made the show work was the ensemble and their ability to go toe-to-toe, fight-to-the-death in one minute and be clinking wine glasses and giggling within inches of each other’s faces just a moment later. They really were the template for the blonde trio on Season 3 of The White Lotus. And like any great ensemble, they all fulfilled a role. Even when castmembers exited, new ones were brought in that helped shake up previous alliances and expand the tight-knit world of the show, always pushing up against (but never breaking) the glass case that enshrined this show as one of the greats.

But let’s not discount the role that Page Six (along with New York Magazine, Gawker and the litany of blogs that were out there) played in making this show not just a television series, but a pop culture phenomenon. The exploits of these women off the show became fodder that would often find its way onto the show and created a weird meta matrix that catapulted the show to phenomenon status. I truly don’t believe we’d have all the other Real Housewives franchises if it weren’t for New York establishing the premises’s ability to be reimagined in other cities (though I know Vicki Gunvalson would argue otherwise).

I love The Real Housewives of New York. It’s up there for me with Buffy and Sex and the City as one of television’s best. And in comparison to other Housewives shows (or even other reality shows at large) it was able to sustain itself and traverse the complex landscape of reality as it went from the great unknown to the great oversaturated. Imitators would spring up everywhere, but nobody was able to find this kind of lightning or this kind of bottle on any other show.

Some will say it ended when Bethenny left in Season 11. Others will say it was the introduction of Leah McSweeny in Season 12. And then there are those who cite the disastrous Season 13, a rudderless, slog of a season that found the show at a dark inflection point, one it didn’t quite know how to navigate. The reunion was canceled. The show went dark for nearly two years. Then, in a surprise to all, the show was soft-rebooted with an entirely new cast.

The Season 14 cast.

The result was a bit And Just Like That…-esque, but I was happy to see the show continue on, confident that given time, it could recapture its glory days. In fact, I’ve always been hopeful that the show could fold its old face and its new face into a revamped version of the show that found a balance between the glory days and its effort to try something new.

What’s really going on with RHONY seems to be a big question mark at present that likely is being figured out internally. I know how much this particular franchise means to Andy Cohen and I know there’s a vested interest in figuring this one out. It’s clear that the rebooted version of the show is not delivering at the level of its predecessor — and how could it? — but that doesn’t mean the show can’t be tinkered with. Season 5 of the series was rather wobbly as new additions Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson and Aviva Drescher found their footing. They were given time to grow into their roles, and by Season 7, Radzi and Thomson became staples. I’d like to believe that RHONY has more gas in the tank. I’d like to believe the star power of Dorinda Medley on The Traitors and Luann de Lesseps' consistently viral cabaret tour are all indications that there’s more story left to tell.

All this to say, much like Carrie Bradshaw after her short detour to Paris, I’m not ready to give up New York just yet.