This season of The Real Houswives of Orange County has been an absolute whirlwind, but … things haven’t gone so well for a few of the Housewives.
In fact, the network is reportedly looking to really shake things up with the cast before next season.
So which familiar faces are getting the axe?
Normally, the feud between Vicki Gunvalson and Tamra Judge is good for ratings.
And, you know, maybe it still is.
But both of these reality stars pushed some boundaries and even crossed some lines this season.
Vicki Gunvalson blindsided Tamra Judge on screen with a diss track that included further assertions that Tamra’s husband, Eddie, is gay.
We know that Vicki only brings it up because it gets under Tamra’s skin, but a lot of viewers feel that the accusations imply that Vicki Gunvalson thinks that a man being gay or bi is an insult.
To further compound things, the Eddie Judge gay rumors kept coming up this season.
Tamra Judge seems inordinately upset by them — which seems homophobic on her part, too.
To top it all off, Tamra has continued to talk about her daughter, even though Sidney Barney has publicly slammed Tamra as a bad mother and wants nothing to do with her and has repeatedly asked that she keep her name out of her mouth on camera.
There’s a difference between drama that makes good television and off-putting drama that leaves a bad taste in the mouths of viewers.
Fortunately for them both — and for their respective fans — it doesn’t look like either Vicki or Tamra will be fired from the series.
However, All About The Real Housewives reports that Vicki may face demotion next season.
We’ve all heard Vicki Gunvalson threaten to quit The Real Housewives of Orange County, so it’s no secret that she’s not entirely happy with things.
Vicki is the only star who’s been on the series since season one, episode one.
Sometimes stars get fatigued … but sometimes, fans get fatigued with the same stars doing the same things over and over again.
If the rumor that Vicki’s getting demoted are true, it’s possible that the network wants to focus on other people and other storylines.
But, honestly, Vicki’s demotion is a far cry from an outright firing … and we’re hearing about three of those.
According to what an inside source reportedly told All About The Real Housewives, the network is making three cuts from the main cast.
That source claims that Lydia McLaughlin, Peggy Sulahian, and Meghan King Edmonds will not be returning for season 13.
Honestly, in each of those cases, we understand it.
And we’re starting to wonder if the conflict between Lydia McLaughlin and Meghan King Edmonds that we saw on the reunion special was an attempt on both of their parts to be interesting enough to stay.
(In case it slipped your mind, Meghan King Edmonds was hurt that Lydia McLaughlin refused to participate in part of her party because a psychic was invited, and Meghan got controversial when she told Lydia that she wished that Lydia’s Christian beliefs didn’t hold her back)
Maybe their argument worked and the source is working with outdated information.
Or maybe it didn’t work.
Honestly, the show could take or leave them, even though there are things about them both that we’d miss.
Nobody’s going to miss unapologetic homophobe Peggy Sulahian.
Reality television can forgive bigotry up to a point, but as we all saw with Derick Dillard’s firing from Counting On, that’s only true up to a point.
But the biggest crime that a reality star can make is being a totally uninteresting bore, which is why we’ve been expecting Peggy to be sent packing all season long.
Despite being a bad person, she’s just not interesting. Even when she gets into arguments, she’s boring, and that’s basically a jailable offense in the world of reality stars.
If you’re feeling bummed about the looming departures, know that we should probably hear an announcement of some sort in December.
And also know that the same rumors that say that we’re bidding farewell to these three say that The Real Housewives of Orange County is looking to add five new stars.
That’s a lot of new people to meet.
