Mention It All - A Housewives State of Emergency (RHOP)

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

Lots of people won at the Grammys this weekend, but Housewives fans lost big, with Kandi Burruss announcing her departure from RHOA after 14 seasons. On today’s episode, Dylan breaks down the current state of Housewives casting disrepair, from RHOA’s extended pause to RHONY’s confusing rumors (and whether the Countess even knows she’s coming back). Later, it’s a recap of RHOP, which is struggling for any sign of life in the back half of the season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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See Store Online for details. Betches Media presents. Ha ha, laugh, funny. Mention It All, a Bravo by Betches podcast. We don't say that, but now we said it. With me, Dylan Hafer. We're going to check me, boo. Hey, everyone.

Welcome back to the Mention at All podcast. I'm Dylan Hafer. It's Monday. We're still reeling from everything that happened at the Grammys last night. I feel a little bit mentally and spiritually and emotionally hungover. I swear I just sat down to start this recording and wait. a solid three minutes for there to not be sirens blasting right outside the window of my New York City apartment. But you know what? It's Monday and we're going to try and get these vibes going.

We have some news to cover from the Grammys last night. We're not going to talk about Taylor Swift, other than Julia from Real Housewives of Miami was wearing a dress that Taylor Swift wore in 2013. She looked great. Page 6 wrote about it, of course. But no, the real star of the Grammys that we have to talk about is Ms. Candy Burris. Candy Burris, who went to the Grammys last night, it's the 25-year anniversary, I believe, of when she won her Grammy for writing No Scrubs, icon legend in the music industry, and in the Housewives industry, of course, the longest-running Real Housewife, 14 seasons, and she is leaving Real Housewives of Atlanta. There it is. She talked to

to Variety at the Grammys. And this is what she said. This is the quote. I'm just going to read the whole thing. It's a little bit chunky, but I think it's interesting. And then we're going to unpack it. Candy told Variety, quote, I'm not really keeping up right now. I'm not keeping up. I already said it, so I'll tell you. I decided I'm not coming back this year. It's been 14 seasons, and they allowed us to sit around for a little too long. But during that time, I had started working on a lot of other things, and I got some nice big projects coming soon, so I'm super excited about those things. But it's not just that. It's just like after you really have time to think, and a friend of mine was like, why do you keep doing it? And I was like, well, I think because I've

just been doing it for so long, it feels weird to think not to do it. So I was just like, you know what, I'm going to take a break. I'm going to take a moment. I'm not coming back this year. So this is kind of a multifaceted explanation. And I think that it's interesting to sort of look at the different angles of what's going on. And first of all, if you just look at the calendar, the Real Housewives of Atlanta, season 15, the most recent season, finished airing in September, which means they finished filming the season. It premiered in May.

They finished filming about a year ago. I was looking up trying to figure out the exact timing. Remember Drew and Ralph filing for divorce? That happened on March 1st of last. year. So they were filming, you know, in the fall, winter time. And so it's been about a year. And Candy Burris, she's a businesswoman. She's a hustler. She has multiple plates in the air at all times. Multiple plates are spinning. The balls are in the air. Whatever the circus metaphor I'm trying to go for. Suffice to say, Candy Burris Tucker is not.

the kind of person who is going to finish filming a season of Housewives, just wait for it to come out on TV, and then sit around the house waiting for Bravo to call her and let her know when they're going to start filming again. Obviously, she has been on this roller coaster for a decade and a half, but she has so much other stuff going on. She's working on something else. She probably has other shows. You know, the reality, influencer, creator, personality, industry is, you know, there's so much going on at all times. So when she says they let us sit a little too long, I think that's a real thing. And especially for some of these TV personalities that are going to be getting bigger opportunities, other things to work on. Candy is a talented

artist in her own right. I think that's super real and I think that's something that Bravo should be cognizant of. But then the flip side of that is, of course, the month's long question now of what's happening with Real House size of Atlanta. Last season was objectively not great. There's a reason that it's taken them so long to get their shit together to start filming another season. They still haven't started filming. We don't know what's happening with that. Sonia Richards-Ross had her baby. Congratulations. There's no news. There's no update. And so when I saw Candy's quote going around last night, I saw some people that were kind of side-eyeing her and being like, girl, just say you got put on pause or she got fired or, you know, basically suggesting that Candy is giving this whole

long-winded quote as a way of sort of like, you know, shielding the fact that she wasn't asked back to housewives. I don't think that's what's happening. Because based on everything that has or really hasn't happened with Real Housewives of Atlanta in the last few months, I don't think they've been talking to anyone about anything. It seems to me like they basically have just been idling, you know, they've been, I don't even know if they're idling. I think the car is just off. I think the battery would have died if they idled for this long. But the way that Housewives casting and that sort of the production process works, somebody like Candy, a Housewives cast member who's not a member of production, she doesn't have an EP credit on the show,

she's not in constant conversation in between seasons. Usually, what, happens, you know, as far as I'm aware, is that basically you don't hear anything until it's time to really start ramping up for the new season and they come to you with an offer, with a contract, with negotiations. Obviously, there's a time period for that. But their housewives are not full-time employees. They're contracted cast members on a show. So from Bravo's perspective, once season 15 wrapped up, everybody gets brought back every season fresh. So, like, Candy didn't have a job to get fired from, if that makes sense. I think what's more realistic is that she is looking at the picture of what's happening

or what might be happening with Real Housewives Atlanta and kind of just reading the tea leaves and saying, yeah, I don't know what direction this is going to go. So I'm just going to make the call myself to remove myself from the situation. I'll say that I'm taking a break. I'll part on good terms with Andy, with production. Andy posted a whole carousel on Instagram of thanking candy for the memories, whatever. She's not burning bridges here. She's not, you know, talking ill of the network.

She's just saying that it is a good time for her to take a break. And now they'll do whatever they want to do with real. Hostos of Atlanta. And to be honest, if Candy wants to come back in a year or two, I don't think anybody's really going to give her a hard time on that. Candy is not somebody, obviously they pay her a lot, which is something to take into consideration. But in terms of being steady and consistent on the show, I don't think that she's somebody that they're really excited about getting rid of. I think it frees up a spot that maybe something exciting could happen. But I don't think that anybody has really been like scheming on how to get candy off of housewives.

Except the person that this brings into question the most, which I think is super interesting, is somebody who is already on our TV screens in two different shows airing right now, and that is Fager Parks. Because when Fager left Real Housewives of Atlanta, what is it, six years ago now, obviously she and Candy, a lot went down there. And I think for a long time when people talked to, about Fadra potentially coming back to Bravo or coming back to Real Housewives of Atlanta in particular, it was always sort of, you know, an unspoken rule that probably there's not a spot for Fadra on that show

as long as Candy is still there. And Candy has been there the whole time. So this is the first moment when it's like, oh, all of a sudden, if Candy has been there the whole time. If Candy is a whole time, so this is the first moment when it's like, oh, all of a sudden, if candy's not there and people are loving Fadra, I mean, Fadra on the Traders is turning in one of the reality TV performances of our age. I was going to say of the year, it's February 3rd, February 4th, 5th, it's the 5th. She's turning in a performance of the decade, perhaps. Spoiler alert for last week's episode. of The Traders, but the way she took down Dan at that roundtable was inspired.

I think Fadra is opening herself up to a whole new audience. She's showing people her value as a reality TV power player. She was great on girls' trip. At Dorinda's house, she's on the season in Morocco, which, you know, based on recent updates, seems less and less likely that we'll ever see. Caroline is suing the network if you haven't been keeping up. I don't even know if I've mentioned that. But the weird sort of wringle in Fadra's come up is that now she is a full-time cast member on a different Bravo show that takes place in Atlanta. And I almost wonder, are the producers of Real Housewives and the Bravo execs this morning, are they kicking themselves a little bit?

that they pulled the trigger on bringing Fadre to married to medicine when maybe if they had just waited a year they could have brought her back to housewives? I don't know. I mean, that's something that it's a really interesting question and I don't know if there's a definite answer. I mean, it's been a long time since Fadrea was on

Real Housewives of Atlanta. Kenya's still there. Charray is back in the picture. It's not like she doesn't have connections to the show as it is right now, but it's a different picture that she would be coming into. I mean, who knows who else is even going to be on the cast next season. There's been talk about them trying to bring back Portia. Obviously, Portia and Fadra had a whole, you know, arc together. There was, there were rumors now, like a couple months ago that Nini might be in the picture. Who

the fuck knows what's happening there? But I do wonder, are they happy? with the way Fager is working on married to medicine? Do they try and bring her to housewives? It's all of a sudden it's like everybody is going to want Fager on their show. And I don't know what the best move is. I don't know what her best move is. I don't know what the network's best move is. Do they put her on every season of traders? God, it's going to be interesting. And, you know, as far as we know, Real Housewives of Atlanta is, you know, still pretty much on pause. But we'll see. I don't think we've seen the last of Candy Burris on Bravo.

I think she's too valuable in the sort of NBCU stable for that to be the case. But I support her decision. And I'm excited still to see where Atlanta goes next season. But I think we know less and less what that's going to look like. And God, I would love some answers. So good, so good, so good. Everything you want for summer is at Nordstrom rack stores now and up to 60% off. Stock up and save on the brands you love like Vince, Sam Edelman, frame, and free people.

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But speaking of a franchise that's, um, That's a little bit in limbo right now, it seems there have been some weird Roney casting rumors going around the last week or so. And I didn't talk about them last week because to be honest, it didn't really seem super rooted in anything. But now we have a couple updates. So basically there was this, there's been chatter on social media that for season 15 of Roney, the upcoming season, they might be doing some mix of the season 14. cast, the reboot cast, and the legacy kind of OG cast. And the list that was going around on Twitter that I saw was Dorinda, Sonia, and Luann making a comeback along with Uba, Brin, Aaron, and Jessel. So it would be kind of half and half. I think the theory was that Uba would be a friend of.

But so this kind of melding of legacy and new Roney in a way that I don't think people had really thought about very much. I think there's been a lot of like, oh, like, Brin and Sonia would be fun together. But to me, when those types of things came up, it was always like, oh, maybe Sonia could make a guest appearance on New Rony. Or maybe, you know, maybe they could be at a party. Maybe somebody could pop up. But the idea of doing really like a half and half season where you have housewives from both iterations, it's a little bit strange. And I think that it never quite rang true to me. But then Luanne had a cabaret show last week in New York.

And she always does a little bit of audience Q&A at her show. And Matt Rogers was in the audience. And he asked her about this cast list that's been floating around. And he read off the names and she said that she had not heard about this. And that she never says yes or no to things. She always says maybe. But that right now she's also, quote, being pitched a couple of other shows that she can't talk about. And this response was kind of what I needed to know to feel like this.

cast list that's been floating around is kind of just like fan fiction. I know these women have been interacting some on social media. They've been at some events together. I believe that there could be some sort of crossover. I don't think that they're going to do half and half with who's holding apples. I just think that season 14 of Roney, it seemed to go really well in a network sense. I think they were pleased with how it went. And so to go from that to then sort of like retrench with half of the former cast, it would feel like sort of a, a vote of no confidence in the Rony reboot. And I just, I don't think that that's what Bravo would want to communicate. That it's like, we tried this thing. Yeah, we got a few good girls, but then it did it. They did it.

needed Sonia and Luana and Durinda to kind of rescue the ship. It would just, it would send a weird message. And I also, I can't help but feel like, didn't we just watch the Roney Legacy Girls trip and feel like that ship had sailed a little bit? And that's not to say that I think that Sonia and Luann and Durinda have nothing to give in terms of like reality TV entertainment. but in terms of following that group and their lives and sort of what they have to give us in the housewives format, I feel like the general consensus was kind of like, yeah, we got it.

And obviously, I know losing Ramona would be sort of a vibe shift with that group, but would it really? I mean, I felt like Durinda was kind of giving broken record that whole trip. I just, I don't know. Like, I would rather really put in the work to find some new people to add to the reboot girls. And then maybe we get a cameo. Maybe we get a guest appearance from Sonia, from Luanne. I just don't think, it feels like a step backwards and not one that even particularly makes sense.

Maybe, maybe this is, you know, an unpopular opinion. But I just, I feel like I have more confidence in the. the new Rony women than the network does. Like, I don't know why they're not filming yet. There's been some rumored new cast members. There's this, like, jewelry lady who addressed speculation that she's joining Roney on her Instagram story. And she's like, maybe there have been talks, but also I don't like drama.

I'm like, girl, enough. If you don't like drama, then get off the show. I don't know. She's not on the show. I don't know. It just is like. It seems like it shouldn't be this hard. And looking down the barrel of the calendar, we've got to get these shows filming.

I don't know what's happening with Atlanta. I don't know what's happening with New York. If Salt Lake can get back cameras this quickly, what's your excuse? I don't know. I don't know. We've got a lot of questions to answer. At least Traders is good. Hey.

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love your thing the next thing you know it's a thing Canva the thing that makes anything a thing I guess speaking of franchises that seem to be in a little bit of a a question mark status.

We got to talk about Potomac. It has been a few weeks. I don't even, to be honest, I don't know the last time I talked about Potomac on this podcast. It's been a little bit. We've had, you know, guests, scheduling, holidays, whatever. It has not felt like a must-cover topic for the majority of this season. and, you know, I'm up to date. I have a few thoughts. It's, it's disappointing because it feels like for such a long time, for so many seasons, Potomac was just kind of that reliable housewives show that even if the, even if the subject matter of the drama wasn't necessarily always super fresh or exciting, it was like the cast was strong enough.

to sort of keep you entertained. And something about that this season is just that spark is missing. When I was catching up over the weekend and when I watched last week's episode, which was Candice and Robin having their sit down to talk about what went wrong in their relationship. And this is, you know, when Robin's Patreon, Juan Saga came out last season and Candace was, you know, fired up on Twitter about it. Going back to all of that stuff, I need to understand from a production standpoint, I literally want an explanation. Why did that sit down not happen until episode 10 of the season?

Because I can't be making this up. coming into this season, that seemed like the thread that we should have been following. That was the thing that happened in the off season. It was after they had filmed their reunion for last season. So it happened post cameras rolling. I think Robin talked about it on to watch what happens live, but that was it. Candace obviously had a lot of thoughts. Why?

Why did production not get those two to have that conversation? episode two at the latest, it just feels like one of those things where even if the stories, even if the pieces aren't there to give you the best possible season ever, why would you not put those two pieces on the chessboard next to each other as quickly as possible? It just doesn't make sense to me. And so watching that episode, you know, this season that has already sort of lost all of this momentum, stalled out, they took two weeks off over the holidays, which they just kind of like

never, never recovered from. I'm watching this and I'm like, damn, we're just now getting to this? Not even to mention, you know, the stuff with Wendy and NECA, it's like, I don't, that's annoying, just like spinning our wheels. Giselle not being able to be in a room with Wendy or Candice, that's a whole thing. It's like there are, there are just a couple too many of these like absolute stick in the mud feuds happening on Potomac this season. And Robin and Candice, it seemed like for a second they were going to be able to sort of talk through their shit. And then they were back to square one. And then this, this week's episode, we didn't really talk about it at all. You know, Robin's not going to the Surrey County day. Just,

Zell's not going to the Surrey County Day. Mia's not going to the Surrey County Day, which, I mean, granted, the fact that Karen opened up the invitation to the whole group the night before, I don't know what we're doing here. It's like these events should be on the calendar weeks in advance, and maybe they were, and this is like some production, smoke and mirrors, but it just feels like, bare minimum. We don't need everybody on a housewives cast to be on good terms with each other, but we need everybody on a Housewives cast to, like, show up and play ball and at least, at least act

like you are open to the idea of perhaps moving forward with someone. And so I think, you know, I've spent this whole episode talking about the casting struggles of Atlanta and New York. and I think that Potomac is really is really in for a tough off season. Because I think some tough calls need to be made. And I don't even know how much longer we have in this season. This was only episode 11. I don't think they've taped their reunion yet. So we could still have, God, two more months of this season that feels kind of D.O.A.

already. But I would imagine that they are going to have a longer offseason than they've had the last few years. And I would imagine that some people who have felt pretty secure with their roles this season should be preparing to make a case, preparing to seek other employment, because it's just tough. I don't know how else to put it because Giselle and Candice. Let's just focus on them. They are both so important to this show, but it is not sustainable

to have them just at this place of absolute no in perpetuity. I think Wendy, you know, all due respect to Wendy, I think she is great. I've enjoyed having her on the show. This show, the podcast, and Housewives, I think we've reached last chance kitchen for her.

I don't think the feud with NECA is doing what it was supposed to. I think her personal storyline is just, it's not there this season. I mean, when she was talking about her talk show this week and having to hire a new producer and figure out the concept, I'm like, girl, enough. What is, what are we doing here? When she's hiring a new producer and she's like, can we do this next month? And she's like, well, we have to figure out the concept. But yeah, it's like, then figure out the concept.

You fired your old producer like months ago. What is the show? And then Eddie's doing his weed thing, but he's hosting this joint rolling party that nobody can actually smoke weed at. There's like oregano in the joints because it's not quite legal yet. It's like, I don't know. I just, I liked seeing Raven and Grace together. That was cute. I guess it's, it's seeing Mia and Robin in that weird, like, bootleg spa room and those upside down lawn chairs.

I'm like, where are we? What is happening? How far we have fallen? Potomac used to be so good. God. I don't know. We've got the Happy Eddie party coming up. We've got NECA's unpacking party. Giselle and Ashley are working on their at leisure line that everybody, I think, is rightfully side-eyeing, both on the show and on social media. It's like, what? What are we doing? GNA? It's going to be a mix between Lulu Lemon and Savage X Venty.

It's like, yeah, okay. Good luck with that. I don't know. I feel like I feel like I feel like I. a hater right now, but at a certain point, it's like, what am I supposed to say? Yeah, sounds great. Can't wait to see the leggings. Like, I don't know. I just don't know. But I hope that we will be in a better place with something soon because, wow, this episode, just what a downer. But anyway, that's where we are today. We'll have better things to talk about later this week. Vanderpump, housewives, everything. You know, we're really doing okay. I promise. Below Tech is back tonight. But anyway, thank you for listening. Don't forget to rate review and follow the show wherever you listen. You can follow us on Instagram at Bravo by Betches. And until next time,

be cool. Don't be all like Uncool. Mentioned at all is produced by Dylan Hafer, Sean Kilby, Jorge Morales Pico, and Rebecca Sousmakat. Editing by Horace Morales Pico. Social media by Dylan Hafer, guest booking by Dylan Hafer and Ali Friedlander. Be sure to follow at Bravo by Betches on Instagram and Twitter. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one. entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th,

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