“Right now, we’re just kind of focusing on, ‘Okay, well if we’re not doing a conventional reunion, what are we doing and what is something different that we could do?’” Cohen shared
Andy Cohen is addressing the future of The Real Housewives of New Jersey amid speculation the Bravo show could be rebooted.
When asked if there was “talk” of the reality series being rebooted in light of it not having a traditional reunion on SiriusXM’s Reality Checked with Kiki Monique, Cohen, 56, said, “Yeah. There was a lot of play with that one and I think the answer is, I was talking to a cast member about this today. We are gonna cross next season as that comes.”
“Right now, we’re just kind of focusing on, ‘Okay, well if we’re not doing a conventional reunion, what are we doing and what is something different that we could do?’” he explained. “And also, look, I think that you saw, I think Atlanta was a really good example of, we came out of that last season, and we knew, ‘Okay, we want to do extensive casting and we want to just give this some time,’ and I will say, we gave it time and a lot of people were saying, ‘Well, where’s Atlanta? What’s happening? There hasn’t been any announcements,’ whatever. I’m so happy with what’s going on down in Atlanta right now.”
The Real Housewives executive producer admitted that he is not in a rush to figure out the next chapter for RHONJ.
“Some things take time, and we want to take a minute to figure things out,” he shared. “You know, there’s no point in rushing into something just to rush into something.”
Cohen also addressed the decision for the show to not have a reunion after the news broke on June 1.
“I do want to give some context to the announcement over the weekend that there was gonna be no Jersey reunion, because I feel like there are a lot of theories about what this could mean,” he began. “I think that the main thing is, this will all make sense once you see the finale.”
The Real Housewives executive producer said that the season 14 finale will be an instant “classic” that “people will be talking about for a long time to come.” When all of the producers saw the final cut of the episode, they “all came to the decision separately” and realized that “the finale is kind of the finale and the reunion all in one.”
“It’s in the great tradition of absolute shocking, dramatic Jersey finales and they have this final epic group encounter, which is like, it feels like The Last Supper and is just so Jersey,” Cohen teased. “And it’s shocking and it’s dramatic and it’s amazing TV.”
On Saturday, June 1, a source explained why the network had decided against bringing the cast together for a final tell-all this season.
“A reunion is meant to have resolution and it’s clear in the season final that there is no path forward in that type of setting,” an insider said. “So the network is figuring out a different concept to wrap up the season.”
It’s been a fractured season for RHONJ that saw longstanding rifts only continue to drive costars Teresa Giudice, Melissa Gorga, Dolores Catania, Margaret Josephs, Jennifer Aydin, Danielle Cabral, Rachel Fuda, Jackie Goldschneider and Jenn Fessler further apart.
At the center of the conflict is the feud between longstanding Housewives and sisters-in-law Teresa and Melissa. All season long, the two reportedly did not interact until the explosive finale that was teased in the premiere episode.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
