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Bravo Wants to Have it Both Ways

 

 

Although they will never admit it, Bravo TV’s ratings are down, way down. While it’s fair to argue that many of the cable network’s long running shows had simply reached their expiration dates, many believe Bravo’s new disingenuous PC “wokeness” only exacerbated the problem. Let’s start with the Vanderpump Rules firings. Fans will recall that newbies Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni were both sent packing for ancient alleged “offensive” tweets. Not long after that, fan favorites Stassi Shroeder and Kristen Daute were also let go because they tipped off the police about a cast member who fit the description of a woman “wanted” by the police for drugging, raping, and robbing males at various L.A. night spots. The woman happened to be black, so the “race card” was played. The “Vanderpump Dump” carnage continued when Jax Taylor and wife Brittany Cartwright announced that they too had been let go. Although Bravo has not commented, it is widely known that the cancel mob had been pressuring Bravo to fire the couple because of their minister’s stance on gay marriage.  talk about a reach. VPR’s bitter resident trans person had been accusing Taylor, the entire cast, and Vanderpump herself of being transphobic as well.

 

 

While some fans called it “cancel culture,” others looked to the network to clean house and terminate other problematic cast members on its programming. Another high-priority target was RHOC’’s Kelly Dodd, who spent much of 2020 criticizing CA’s pandemic shutdowns, mask mandates, and then committed the cardinal sin of wearing a cap that read “Drunk HW’s Lives Matter”. When it was reported that Dodd was attending Trump boat rallies with her new husband, Fox News reporter Rick Leventhal (gasp!), the cancel mob kicked into high gear. As of this writing, Dodd’s future with Bravo is still in the air. Executive Producer and all around “face of Bravo” and buffoon, Andy Cohen, weighed in. “It’s troublesome to me. I disagree with her point of view about Covid, but there are a lot of people who share her opinion. And by the way, she is in Orange County, where her opinion is probably the prevailing opinion”. He continued, “The line between celebrating someone’s outspokenness and not liking someone’s outspokenness is really blurring these days. Bravo is meant to be escapism, and I don’t personally think that the people on Bravo should be on trial for their political and cultural views. That doesn’t seem that fun to me!”. Sounds nice, but as any Sirius (XM) “Radio Andy” listener knows, Andy Cohen loathes Conservatives.

 

 

The problem is Bravo’s “selective outrage”. Instead of continuing the not-so-pleasant firings across the boards of countless well deserving Bravolebrities who have demonstrated clear “questionable” behavior throughout the years, Bravo went on a hiring spree, integrating previously all-white casts.  On exception was the (what appeared to be justifiable) firing of RHOD bad girl LeeAnne Locken for repeatedly "referenced" new cast member Kary Brittingham's Mexican heritage by calling her albeit heavy accent, "chirpy" among other things.  At the time, few could argue that LeeAnne's attacks were indeed racially/culturally motivated, but as this season has clearly demonstrated, Kary Brittingham has very combative and passive/aggressive tendencies as well. 

 

Increasing cast diversity had long been a back-burner concern at the network; Cohen says Bravo had asked black women to join the cast of RHONY in the past, but it never worked out. Sure Andy. The earnest effort to desegregate had started only in 2019, when D-list actress Garcelle Beauvais joined RHOBH. While at first, she insisted that her race be a non-issue, it immediately become clear that her ethnicity would be her main (and perhaps only) focus on the show. Central casting then dropped another newbie into the laps of the RHOBH, Asian American cast member, Crystal Kung.  It would be wonderful if her ethinicity was not even mentioned, but we all know that's never going to happen. 

 

 

Speaking of Asian diversity, Dr. Tiffany Moon, RHOD’s first Asian American cast member, started filming the show, just coincidentally? after a social-media post surfaced of her white co-star Brandi Redmond mocking Asians. The first time Redmond and Moon meet, Redmond apologizes for the video, and Moon explains what it’s like to experience anti-Asian discrimination. Moon was ready to move on. “She’s not the brightest and thought it would be funny,” Moon tells me of Redmond’s video. “I wasn’t going to crucify her for it.”. Gee thanks Tiff, how charitable of you. Eventually, they moved past it, and although the viewers were slow to warm up to Moon, largely due to her annoying “Valley Girl” speaking voice, but it appears she has indeed won them over. I’m definitely one of them.

 

In all fairness, only do first-time cast members have to overcome the inherent audience skepticism of any rookie, they now have the additional burden of doling out teachable moments when an established cast member makes an alleged racist comment. The standard introductory period in most series entails senior stars testing the freshmen; yes LVP, Ramona, and Vicki, we’re talking about you. More inclusive casting means a coven of white women (RHOBH notwithstanding) will be confronting what is often a lone woman of color.

 

 

The mandated diversity continues as the next token minority Eboni K. Williams, makes her debut this season as the first black cast member of RHONY. “At first, the women were definitely walking on eggshells a bit,” New York Housewife Leah McSweeney says of Williams’s entrance. “Even New York City, where there’s so many different ethnicities, we are a segregated city. You saw Ramona birthday; there was not even a brunette person there. That doesn’t mean that Ramona doesn’t like black people. There’s just no black people in her circle of friends. When you see this season, it is the microcosm of what’s happening in our country. We were forced to have these conversations.”. Can’t wait (insert eye roll here).

 

Williams didn’t need to be forced. “I would say that my time at Fox News was a great primer for my experience on the show,” she says. “It’s a fool’s errand to go into these conversations thinking you’re going to change the other person. All you should really concern yourself with is delivering clear, authentic, fact-based, emotionally authentic communication. It’s really never me saying, ‘Oh, let me have this conversation with Ramona so I can get her to understand Black Lives Matter.’ That is not my fucking job. Bravo didn’t pay me for that. Nor is it even my assignment to get all of the people that watch this show to understand that. Like, I’m really not a teacher on this show.” Still, she says, “If people get indoctrinated  an education, that’s amazing.”. I can’t stand her already, and her downright racist comments seen in her talking heads in the RHONY trailer confirm why. I’m trying to imagine any white woman on Bravo saying “That’s some real black girl shit” ever making on the air.