‘RHONY’: More Cast Members Break the 4th Wall
The Real Housewives of New York City pulls a “Bravo, Bravo, f**king Bravo” as Ramona Singer urges producers to shut down filming during her birthday party.
A growing number of Bravo cast members are breaking the taboo “fourth wall” in the last year. From glances at the camera to outright talking to producers, shows from Family Karma to Below Deck Mediterranean seem to be at a reality turning point.
In an upcoming episode, Singer, who is an original cast member becomes overwhelmed as a melee ensues during her party. Leah McSweeney appears to “ride” Luann de Lesseps as Singer storms off. “Get the f**king producers here,” she demands in a preview clip. “Shut it down!” McSweeney tells Singer she’s being psychotic. But Singer looks directly into the camera. “We’re done. We’re done,” she says gesturing.
‘RHOBH’ also broke the wall this season
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills also broke the fourth wall when Denise Richards burst out with “I am not doing this, you guys. Stop. Bravo, Bravo, f**king Bravo I’m out. I am not f**king doing this.”
Kyle Richards told Bravo’s The Daily Dish podcast she and other cast members used to use the “Bravo” codeword when they didn’t want to be filmed. “If the cameras come back up and we don’t want them to film us yet, we would joke and say, ‘Oh, Bravo, Bravo, Bravo. Hi, Andy Cohen. Hi, Andy Cohen,'” she said. “And then laugh so they wouldn’t use the footage because you can’t break the fourth wall because they don’t acknowledge that we’re on a show.”
“So I guess someone told Denise that, that we used to do that. But that literally was 10 years ago,” she continued. “[Denise] started saying that when she didn’t want what we were talking about [in Season 10] to be used. She was like, ‘I’m just gonna start throwing that out there, and they won’t use the footage.’ And then they did.”
This producer prefers to break the 4th wall
Family Karma producer Ian Gelfand said he thought breaking the fourth wall made sense. “How are people pretending there are no cameras in their face?” he said on the Reality Life with Kate Casey podcast.
Family Karma was the first series on Bravo to actively involve the production crew. A producer was summoned by a cast member’s grandfather during the first episode. The grandfather wondered if the producer was married with children and she obliged, crouching next to him at a dinner table to answer his questions. In another scene, a cameraman samples a cast member’s cooking and then suggests she put a bowl aside for him for later.
Below Deck Mediterranean season 2 saw a break in the fourth wall when chef Adam Glick admitted to producers he and deckhand Malia White knew each other before they started filming. Executive producer Nadine Rajabi told the BravoCon audience she suspected the cast members knew each other. Glick came clean during a confessional when his romantic relationship with White started to tank on the show.
