Real Housewives of Atlanta: Andy Cohen addresses Phaedra Parks’ future
Speaking to TV Guide while promoting his new Love Connection series, Cohen (who is the guru of all things Bravo at this point) made it clear that producers are absolutely looking towards a future without her on the show:
“I think we’re looking at how Atlanta could shake out with or without Phaedra … I think the big question becomes, not what she did — well, that’s part of it — but how will the women interact with her or will they interact with her anymore. If you have a show about a group of friends and one of them is completely cast out, it’s hard to do a show about a group of friends.”
Andy’s point here is absolutely beyond valid. How in the world do you do a show that is meant to feature all of the different women if nobody wants Phaedra there? All that is going to do is cause all sorts of awkwardness and make it harder on everyone to film, let alone create good content. We actually saw this a few seasons ago on another Bravo show called The Shahs of Sunset when they had Lilly Ghalichi as part of the cast and she didn’t seem to get along with anyone (to be fair to her, she doesn’t drink or party so she was miscast on this show to begin with). Bringing back Phaedra could also mean not getting ANY scenes with her and Kandi Burruss, who understandably wants nothing to do with her after some of the stuff that went down with the two of them on this past season.
In the end, The Real Housewives of Atlanta needs some new blood. Bringing Phaedra back at this point indirectly sends the message that the show doesn’t have that big of a problem with what she said, which is almost certainly the wrong sort of idea to throw out there since this show is about fun and silly drama. Plus, creatively this show is best served by getting new people into the mix. Many of the people in the cast now were found over the years, so if you have confidence in your casting team to deliver some more interesting people, this is clearly the better way to go than trying to deliver with people who are already deemed as toxic in some way.
The new season will premiere on Bravo at some point coming up later this year.
Is it the right move at this point to dispatch of The Real Housewives of Atlanta? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below! Meanwhile, head over to the link here to get some more news when it comes to the series. (Photo: Bravo.)