'Real Housewives': Does Bravo know how to handle a real death on its hit show?
Following the reported suicide of the husband of one of the main 'Real Housewives' characters, Bravo has indicated it is either delaying the start of the fall season or reediting the hit show.
Los Angeles
In an unsteady stab at damage control, Bravo is scrambling to save its hit reality TV show, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” hit hard by the reported suicide of one of its main characters, Russell Armstrong, Monday night.
The network president announced Friday that the second season, slated to return on Sept. 5, would be reedited and that no plans were being made to delay the show. Thursday evening, however, a spokeswoman sent an email stating that the network had confirmed plans – as reported in The Hollywood Reporter – to delay the next season of the popular Los Angeles franchise. On Friday, the spokeswoman called to say she had not intended to confirm that report.
Mr. Armstrong, a self-described venture capitalist, was the husband of Taylor, one of the show’s lead women characters.
Reports of the pressures on the Armstrong’s marriage have mounted this week. Mr. Armstrong’s lawyer, Ronald Richards, has been widely quoted in Los Angeles area media. He told the Wrap, an online industry trade site, that the businessman who was still digging himself out of a 2005 bankruptcy filing, “basically spent all their savings … to support the show.”
