In recent months, Real Housewives viewers have been asking Andy Cohen and Bravo to fire Erika Jayne and Jen Shah for the “alleged” involvement in illegal activities.
Nevertheless, a Bravo reality TV star with a history of legal trouble is nothing new at this point. Teresa Giudice and her now-ex-husband served separate prison sentences for multiple counts of fraud. And ever since the legal issues became public fodder, Teresa’s legal issues have become the backbone of Real Housewives of New Jersey, aka The Teresa Giudice Show.
Years later, Andy Cohen is talking about why he kept Tre on the show, despite facing some backlash. In a recent interview with Vulture, Andy recalled, “ There were people who said, ‘You have to fire her.’”
The Real Housewives producer continued, “And it’s like, ‘Look, she’s going to jail. We’ve invested all this time.’” Teresa and her legal troubles became such a pivotal aspect of RHONJ that the show stopped filming for over a year, waiting for her to return from “camp.” However, they did film a three-episode special where she solely appeared via speaker phone conversations with her family. That’s something that pretty much no one else could ever pull off. So, of course they didn’t fire her. This show is not an ensemble cast, if we are being honest.
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“This was something that her friends were accusing her of for years, and she was running from it. I’d rather see her grow as a human being than kill her off,” Andy said.
And years later, Teresa’s legal drama is still driving most of the RHONJ storylines. Of course, she didn’t get fired. She is the show, like it or not. Is it the right thing? That’s up for debate, but there are plenty of vocal viewers on both sides of this debate.
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TELL US- DO YOU THINK TERESA SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED? WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ANDY’S RECENT REMARKS?
[Photo Credit: Heidi Gutman/Bravo]