Snooki Says ‘RHOM’ Is ‘Totally Scripted’
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is no stranger to reality TV. She was introduced to households everywhere on the smash reality TV series Jersey Shore at the turn of the last decade, and she’s appeared in countless TV shows since, including the currently-running spinoff series Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. When it comes to The Real Housewives, Snooki has some thoughts about how the stars’ stories are portrayed on screen.
Snooki rose to fame on reality TV
For decades, reality TV has become an increasingly dominant form of televised entertainment. Jersey Shore was a vanguard in many ways, ushering in a new decade of reality TV that saw the genre gain even more popularity.
Many reality shows, however, have been accused of being scripted or containing moments that aren’t actually genuine, going against the label of “reality” TV. For Snooki, The Real Housewives franchise falls into that formula.
Snooki says ‘The Real Housewives of Miami’ is fake
Snooki appeared on the BFFs podcast in February 2023 along with her Jersey Shore co-star JWoww, and during the show, they discussed all things reality TV and more. The show’s host, Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy, recounted a story of the house next to his in the Hamptons being used as a filming location for The Real Housewives of Miami. “They were redoing scene after scene,” he said. “I could see them say, ‘Do it again.'”
Snooki chimed in with her opinion of the seemingly scripted nature of the show, and of the franchise in general. “Yeah, Housewives is totally scripted,” she said, adding that Jersey Shore was a truly authentic affair. “Our original show, nothing was manufactured. Nothing was scripted. We were in a house 24/7 with cameras in our faces for a full month.”
Lea Black said the Real Housewives of Miami aren’t friends in real life
Lea Black, a former Real Housewives of Miami star, had her own thoughts about the veracity of the relationships and situations on RHOM. According to Black, some of the show’s cast members worked hard to drum up attention around them in an attempt to revive the show, which went off the air on Bravo in 2013 and was revived on Peacock in 2021.
“These girls worked it,” she said in a January 2022 interview on the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast. “For years they would just go to the opening of an envelope and show up really fast. Have someone waiting in the car to drive them off and run and get their picture together and then go on their separate ways and pretend to be best friends and call the press and get these stories that they’re all best friends and they’re not.”
“So they worked it,” she continued. “And then they finally got someone to pay attention. They finally got their show back. And I mean, some of them never let it go. Never let it go.”
“They all stick together,” she added. “You see, that’s another problem. When you have a group that sticks together, I’m going to always back you and you’re always going to back me no matter what.”
“And I’m not going to tell your dirty secrets and you’re not going to tell mine no matter what, you don’t have a show,” Black said. “Because if you’re not willing to tell the truth and hold other people accountable so that they can hold you accountable, then it’s just two sides – there’s no show there. And that’s, I feel like some of them had so much to hide that when someone else would do something so blatantly obnoxiously wrong and out of line, they would never say anything because they didn’t want that person to go and say, well, what about this over here?”
