RHONY Legacy edition is officially dead after talks between the cast and production stalled for too long. Bravo’s RHONY Legacy show was the network’s means of reintroducing the veterans of the franchise, but talks reached a deadlock. Inside sources report that, subsequently, Bravo decided to end the show. Get the full details below.
RHONY Legacy Edition Is Officially Dead
Page Six reported earlier this week that talks between fan favorites of the classic show and the production team stalled. However, new information indicates that the talks have officially collapsed and that Bravo has rescinded its offers to the cast members.
Sources disclosed that the network officially rescinded the offers by email around 6 p.m. on Monday, January 30. The RHONY Legacy edition is now totally dead.
Sources also say that the network has no plans to put the show, revamped as the Legacy edition last year, on air. However, insiders also revealed that the show could be revived in the future.
The network once pulled The Real Housewives of Miami off the air in 2013 and brought it back eight years later. A mostly new cast also accompanied the show’s return on NBC streaming service Peacock.
In the meantime, Bravo will continue with the completely revamped The Real Housewives of New York City. The rebranded version will star a new, ethnically diverse set of women. Former J. Crew honcho Jenna Lyons, Sai De Silva, and Ubah Hassan are some of the cast members.
Some of the original cast members considered for Bravo’s RHONY Legacy version included Luann de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan, and Jill Zarin. It also included Kelly Bensimon, and Dorinda Medley, for what would technically have been season one of Legacy.
Meanwhile, Ramona Singer and Tinsley Mortimer already declined the offer before contract negotiations began. Sources close to the cast felt they got lowball offers from Bravo. In addition, the network wasn’t willing to guarantee that they would appear in enough episodes per season.
However, production sources said the talent seriously overestimated how much money they were worth. A source added that they wanted to “make what the cast of Friends made in their heyday.”
New RHONY Was Introduced To Allow For Racial Diversity
RHONY is the second longest-running iteration of Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise. It debuted after it’s Orange County, California counterpart in 2008 and aired continuously with a gradually evolving cast for 13 seasons.
The Real Housewives of New York City began with Luann, Ramona, Jill, Frankel, and Alex McCord. The show ended in 2021 with Luann, Ramona, Sonja, Leah McSweeney, and Eboni K. Williams.
The cast on the last season didn’t get along at all, and it was so bad that Bravo didn’t film a “reunion episode.” Meanwhile, some fans of the franchise claim that the addition of Eboni and Leah ruined the cast’s friendship.
Afterward, the network decided to scrap the entire cast and start fresh. Shortly after, Bravo announced plans to split the RHONY into two shows, relaunching “regular” RHONY with an all-new cast and launching the “Legacy” edition featuring veteran cast members.
In the interim, Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan have been taping their own show. The duo was inspired by the Paris Hilton reality show The Simple Life, which aired in the early 2000s.
Seeing as the RHONY Legacy edition is dead, the intended cast will have to find other ways to engage their fans on air. However, some fans of the franchise also feel that the show has run its course and should not be revived.
