Reality television is a ratings juggernaut. But that hasn’t alway been the case. Bravo executive Frances Berwick, chair of Bravo and Peacock Unscripted, shares her thoughts on reality TV and touches on how controversial casting (i.e. casting criminals) is a bit of a gray area and “always a surprise.”
It’s hard to imagine a time when the Real Housewives franchise wasn’t a staple on reality TV. Frances reminisced that the now famous franchise started with Real Housewives of Orange County and snowballed from there. Viewers loved all the glitz and glam. But they seemed to be especially drawn to the scandals and the jaw-dropping villains that graced the series.
Bravo is willing to be graceful about the gray area when it comes to casting criminals and controversial personalities
In an interview with Fast Company, Frances touched on several things, including the genesis of reality tv shows and the Housewives shows in particular. Turns out they didn’t start off thinking of franchising.
“But during production we saw how successful RHOC was and had a whole internal debate if it would tarnish the show if we made Manhattan Moms, a show for NYC, Real Housewives of New York instead,” Frances shared. They decided to go for it.
They looked for authentic and vulnerable cast members ready to share their whole lives. Authenticity is a key ingredient of a good cast member.
When asked why Bravo has such a big hit rate with finding and casting criminals, Frances was magnanimous. “This is really the furthest thing we want,” he shared. “It’s always a surprise and disappointment.”
However, they don’t seem to mind keeping cast members who have spent time in the slammer (hello Teresa Giudice who spent time in jail for fraud) or who have addiction issues or smaller crimes like Shannon Beader and her DUI and the like.
“There’s a lot of gray area,” Frances explained. “We put people on television who are flawed, as we all are. But those flaws aren’t criminal. We want to give people grace in terms of getting forgiveness and being able to move on.”
It’s clearly a case-to-case basis. For example, Erika Jayne is now potentially facing jail time and it looks like Bravo is willing to keep her around. And to be fair, the Housewives aren’t the only franchise casting criminals. Anna Delvey appeared with an ankle monitor on Dancing with the Stars and Love Is Blind has had their fair share of cast members with criminal histories.
At the end of the day, is it because criminals or controversial folks make for more entertaining television?
Real Housewives is available to stream on Peacock and Hayu in the UK and Ireland.
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This story originally appeared on Realitytea
