Ratings Decline for New Cast of Bravo's REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NY

Ratings for the premiere episode of Bravo TV's REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW YORK have declined from the show's previous seasons according to The Huffington Post. The reality series returned to the air on Monday night, without its original housewives Jill Zarin, Kelly Bensimon and Alex McCord, who were fired from the show after last season. 

The premiere episodes of Seasons 1–4 drew 824,000, 1,640,000, 2,040,000 and 1,965,000 viewers respectively. According to early ratings numbers, this season's debut episode pulled in 1.7 million viewers, with 1.1 million tuning in for the encore airing.

A network insider commented, “Bravo didn’t expect the numbers to be huge. Monday is a new night for the show and it’s the most competitive night of the week. The show used to air on Thursdays. What is good is that it's up over 90 percent over the past four weeks in the Monday time period [for Bravo's programming]. However, the real truth won’t be known until a couple of weeks when the numbers grow or continue to decline.”

Said another insider, “This has proven that you can’t just fire cast members and hope the show remains the same in the ratings. Viewers get attached to even the cast members they love to hate. If I were a housewife on Bravo at the moment, I would be asking for a raise.”

Photo courtesy of Bravo Network