The ‘RHONY’ Pregnancy Prank Is Going Down As One Of The Worst Housewives Storylines Ever

Despite the state of, you know, everything, the one thing I can always believe in is the hilling power of the Bravo network. I’m a certified skeptic and nasayer when it comes to just about everything, except The Real Housewives, which is why I have paid the accusations that the RHONY reboot is doomed dust. “Let them cook” I said, after season one. “Look how much Sai has grown from watching herself on TV” I gloated, after this season’s first few episodes. I haven’t been blind to the Twitter warriors tooting the reboot’s every misstep into a megaphone but I haven’t totally disagreed with them either.

Jenna’s second run is underwhelming. Rebecca Minkoff is boring. Pavit’s “sense of humor” is too cringe to watch. It pains me most to admit that Brynn, who I firmly to believe is delightful Housewives gold, has a Sour Patch Kids dusted chip on her shoulder this year, making the joyful gem we once knew come off suddenly sour and superficially sweet. All that said, I have still been rooting for my girls. And then they have to go and do something unprecedentedly dumb: a multi-episode secret pregnancy prank arc. Now, I’m not worried about The Real Housewives of New York, I’m Dorinda in Miami pissed!!! Here’s a breakdown why fans are mad at the RHONY pregnancy prank controversy.

Is Rebecca Minkoff actually pregnant by another man?

Image Credit: Bravo

No, Rebecca was only pretending to be prengnant outside of wedlock as a prank to prove the girls gossip too much. She and Erin plotted to drop a salacious rumor at lunch, and prayed none would be the wiser when they let the “tea” spill to the group. By the end of the seventh episode, Rebecca storms off when Jenna warns her what’s being talked about. When Erin goes after Rebecca, they quietly laugh about how “good” Rebecca’s performance was. Watching the original scene where this “prank” began, it’s so obvious the lie cannot be real, by the smile on Erin’s face as she plants it. Erin Lichy is a mom and a wife with her own marital kerkuffles, so I found it hard to believe she would be so joyfully brazen in sharing a family-destroying secret over cockys. Yet, Jessel and Brynn buy it without blinking, so much so that Brynn even asks around, spreading the rumor outside of the ladies’ bubble, clearly something Rebecca and Erin didn’t consider.

Why is the RHONY pregnancy prank making fans mad?

Excuse my French, but what the actual fuck was the point of this?! I’d ask why Erin would think this was funny, but we all remember from last season executing pranks is not Erin’s forte. Erin having an odd sense of humor still isn’t enough of explanation, though. Producers had to not only let the pair concoct this superfluous storyline, but also encourage it by filming several scenes around it. Then, worst of all, they took the footage that couldn’t been spent showcasing more about Rebecca’s “confusing” relationship with Scientology, and spread it out over at least TWO episodes??? Fans couldn’t help but clock this happened in the same episode where there was a heavy-handed Wicked plug taking up prime real estate, too. Now I have the Wicked bug to an alarming degree, but in an episode that served us a big ol’ heaping plate of nothing, it felt like adding insult to injury.

What ever happened to the pure, raw talent that makes a Housewives series great? The RHONY OGs didn’t have to manufacture ridiciulous schemes to make us laugh. They went to the Berkshires with some top shelf booze, a fish painting, and a dream and let what happened, happened. Even if pregnany jokes were ever funny, which they’re not, hitching two episodes on a storyline that not only tricked the group but tricked the viewers feels naughty and not in a nice way. Perhaps if the editors had given the audience a chance to be in on the joke with Rebecca and Erin it wouldn’t feel so wasteful, but honestly, I doubt it (and so does Andy Cohen, who publicly agreed the prank flopped). The fact that the women starring on what was once the definitive Housewives franchise had nothing better going on in their lives to make this lowbrow gag a B story is what we really should be worried about.