The spinoff show of the American reality TV series “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” started airing on the Bravo network on October 11 and based on its viewership, critics believe that fan excitement on the upcoming Season 7 has lost steam apparently because of the long wait.
Production and airing of Season 7 of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” were already delayed by over a year following the incarceration of its lead star Teresa Giudice at the Danbury Correctional for bank fraud-related charges.
She is to complete her sentence on December 23 and production of Season 7 of the popular reality show will start a few days before. It is expected that its storyline will focus on Teresa Giudice’s post-prison life as well as the ordeal that she has been through and her family during those 15 months.
In order to somehow quench fan thirst and the supposed excitement on Season 7 of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” producers have decided to show on Bravo a three-part special titled “The Real Housewives of New Jersey: Teresa Checks In” that started airing last week.
Unfortunately, the first episode of the spinoff series drew only 1.231 million viewers, which is far lesser than any of the episode of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” during its past six seasons, notes Mstars News.
Season 7 in jeopardy?
As a result of the poor ratings of the spinoff series, there are now speculations alluding that Bravo is seriously contemplating of renegotiating the show for its Season 7.
Teresa Giudice is to make special appearances on the spinoff series via jailhouse phone calls with her husband Joe and her four daughters.
They also had a viewing party in prison during the premiere of the three-part special where Teresa was joined by other inmates as they both laughed and cried watching Joe, her kids, and parents making do without her.
A source said that Teresa was so proud of Gia for being so mature and stepping up and she was also impressed with Joe’s involvement with the girls.
There were even reports that Season 7 of the reality show might actually be in jeopardy and so is the contract of Teresa, who has yet to sign on the dotted lines for the upcoming season.
Fans of the show actually watched last year as Giudice battled with the courts, trying her very best to avoid facing time in prison. But eventually, everyone saw that she lost her legal battle and thus started serving her time.
However, avid fans of the mother show believe that there is a logical explanation to the not-so-good ratings of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey: Teresa Checks In.” They said that the show actually went up against a highly-anticipated episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” where Kourtney Kardashian broke up with her long-time lover Scott Disick.
Given that the two shows have a similar fan base, the ratings got split in the process. While 1.231 million watched “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” a total of 1.702 million viewers tuned in to the Kardashians reality show on E! channel.
The good news for the spinoff series of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” is that the four-part “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” TV special already ended on October 11 which means that its second episode on October 18 will see the show with no competition on the time slot.
Strip search
Having been in prison, Teresa Giudice revealed recently that she was forced to undergo a strip search after jail guards became suspicious of her that she might be hiding some contraband in her body.
She actually made the revelations on Twitter back in May. Jail guards at the Danbury Correctional were alarmed about how Teresa was able to make the post on social media about the incident when she has very limited and restricted access to e-mail or the internet, in general, notes the Latin Post.
It turns out later that it was Teresa’s teenage daughter Gia who made the post on behalf of her mother. But the incident really alarmed jail officials, thinking that Teresa may have broken the rules in order to gain her own internet access.