When The Real Housewives of Miami was canceled by Bravo in 2013 amid dwindling ratings, it seemed like the show was dead and buried.
Eight years later, Peacock swooped in to save the day by picking up a new season of the series with a mix of old and new cast members.
Little did they know it would blossom into the best entry in the long-in-the-tooth Real Housewives universe.
After spending two seasons with Peacock having first-run rights to the reality TV hit, news broke that Bravo would become the show’s home again.
Alarm bells immediately started ringing because it meant RHOM would have to perform to remain on the air.
While Peacock never released any viewership statistics, the series dominated the conversation on social media, meaning the show had an audience.
RHOM is being lost in the shuffle at Bravo
But with the audience now accustomed to watching on Peacock, on their terms, returning the show to linear TV was always going to come with some hurdles.
Of course, episodes remain on Peacock, but they drop a day after their Bravo airing.
Sadly, Bravo is making moves that harm the beloved series.
Airing out of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills initially seemed like a good idea because the Kyle Richards-led series commands decent on-air ratings.
However, that show is just as dramatic as The Real Housewives of Miami, and the past has taught us that airing Real Housewives shows back-to-back isn’t a recipe for success.
Airing Real Housewives shows back-to-back is a recipe for disaster
When The Real Housewives of Miami Season 6 got underway late last year, the numbers weren’t very good.
Even without the RHOBH lead-in, today’s Bravo standards would consider them a flop.
The cabler also hasn’t been treating the show very well. Airing episodes over the holidays while the other shows in the franchise are on hiatus didn’t give us the fuzzies that the show wasn’t being burned off.
Another red flag was when Bravo banished an episode to 10/9c to help prop up The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip Legacy.
As you can probably imagine, the numbers dropped.
The sporadic scheduling is killing RHOM
The sad reality is that without knowing how the show performs on Peacock, it’s hard to tell how well it is doing.
If it managed two renewals on Peacock, the numbers must have been strong enough because it wouldn’t be getting the Bravo treatment again if there was minimal viewer interest.
The network’s promotion of the show should also be scrutinized because the cast was MIA from Watch What Happens Love at the beginning of the season.
Typically, Andy Cohen interviews talent from the shows on the night they air.
That wasn’t the case at the beginning of the season, and it took cast members and fans to react to any meaningful changes.
All of the above highlights that Bravo isn’t handling the show as well as it does the ones that didn’t take a detour to streaming.
Bravo has canceled the series before, which doesn’t instill the hope that RHOM can have an off-season and bounce back from it.
The sad part of all of this is that the series is having another top-tier season at a time when most shows in the franchise are imploding.
RHOM is one of the franchise’s best entries
The cast includes Alexia Nepola, Larsa Pippen, Lisa Hochstein, Guerdy Abraira, Julia Lemigova, and Nicole Martin.
Friends Adriana de Moura, Marysol Patton, and Kiki Barth are also delivering the content required to have the coveted mojito to be deemed Real Housewives of Miami.
I wouldn’t mind all nine having housewife status because they’re that good.
You can tell they’re a legitimate friendship circle, and their back-and-forth delivers some of the best scenes on TV.
If Bravo continues mishandling the show, there’s always that chance that it will be canceled, which wouldn’t sit well with the fans who fought tirelessly to bring the show back in the first place.
There was a lot more buzz when RHOM was a Peacock original, and moving it back there would be the best way to secure its future.
It’s a real surprise that, aside from The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, Miami is the franchise’s only other original show on Peacock.
Maybe that’s something that will change in the future.
The Real Housewives of Miami airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
Take larsa off!