BBWLA has been struggling this season, and even the drama between Tami Roman and Duffey couldn’t save the ratings.
That Grape Juice writes:
Launched as VH1’s answer to the Bravo‘s ‘Real Housewives’ empire, ‘Basketball Wives Miami‘ saw its plug pulled following the departure of its leading lady Evelyn Lozada who sought greener (and undoubtedly more peaceful) pastures at Oprah’s OWN.
Unable to continue without her, two of ‘Miami’s wives (Tami Roman and Shaunie O’Neal) made their way over to ‘Basketball Wives Los Angeles’ to fill the large void left by that show’s star Draya Michele once she quit the series in the middle of its fourth season.
Now it seems ‘LA’ may be following in ‘Miami’s footsteps.
For, after delivering abysmal ratings all season (some of which coming in at under a third of what the average ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ pulls in weekly) the show’s reunion special was slapped with worrying low numbers.
How so?
The highest-rated episode of the season was October 16th’s season finale which drew in 1.82 million viewers.
Modest, when placed next to the 3,320,0000 viewers ‘Love & Hip Hop Atlanta’s season four finale attracted on the same platform.
However, fans had hoped its reunion special would see things take a turn for the better.
It didn’t.
Perhaps repulsed by the physical and verbal attacks dished out to charismatic newcomer Duffey, exactly 50,000 viewers opted to turn away from the season before it ended.
Here’s a couple of interesting tidbits to add:
– The last time a BBWLA reunion reached over two million viewers was back in 2014, when Draya was still a focal part of the show.
– This year the reunion pulled in 1.77 million viewers.
I just think this show has run its course. It needs to be cancelled but VH1 won’t put it out its misery yet. It’s just a matter of time before the same thing happens to Mona’s shows. There’s so many great scripted programs now with black leads. Reality shows just can’t compare.
I don’t really think it’s about Draya. It’s just that the show is so redundant. How many times are we going to see Tami try to fight someone and Shaunie fire that person for not backing down to Tami? It’s gotten old. Not to mention Brandi can be annoying and Malaysia doesn’t have a strong personality to carry the show. Jackie is interesting but outside the show, she’s not likable because of her personal life.
I forgot all about BBW. Truth be told the only reality shows I still watch are RHOA and Married 2 Medicine. I can’t stand a whole bunch of fighting and ratchet activity.
That’s what Tami doesn’t understand…
I still watch the others but I feel like most of us could just watch RHOA and call it a day.
Sorry, I love the shows you’ve mentioned, but how is RHOA and M2M less rachet?
They all fight
They all get petty/ratchet/wretched
They all include a number of black women
Seems the only difference is the fact that Andy Cohen delivers the ratch rather than Mona Scott Young (hence the upgrade in production value), and the men that the women are involved with (on Bravo) are an upgrade.
Let’s not fool ourselves, they are equally degrading.
You pretty much said it for me. I feel the Bravo shows are a little less ratchet. I don’t have to watch people fist fight over s-x tapes, fight side chicks and baby mamas, etc. I like my ratchet lite hahaha. Happy Sunday.
Draya knew this show was on its last legs and got the hell on. I don’t blame her.
I think people are just bored. A whole new cast could do the show some good but I know that won’t happen.
I liked Draya on the show but that isn’t why I forget to watch it now. I just think I’ve outgrown seeing grown azz women fighting over silly ish. I’d rather be watching something else like Power, Atlanta, Empire,TWD, Insecure, Blackish, Scandal, HTGAWM, Queen Sugar, Underground, I mean really I can go on. Too many good shows on TV now to still be watching this trash.
I’m still depressed Power is gone until next summer. But I do think reality shows as a whole are going to struggle as more scripted shows centered around black people come out. In the beginning, we watched reality shows because in most cases they were the only shows with black people on them. There was just an era where TV was so white washed and all the great black shows were taken away. Then Flavor of Love and Making Da Band came and that’s how we got to BBW and Mona’s shows. I feel like all of the reality shows have pretty much peaked. There’s nothing they can do to shock us anymore. We’ve seen it all and most people are still watching just out of habit.
Truth written!
I just think it’s the same old, same old so people aren’t pressed to watch anymore.
The season has just been ok to me. I think that’s the problem. Draya wasn’t all that interesting in her last season anyway because she thought she was too good to be there.
Believe it or not, Mona’s time will come too.
I haven’t really been watching. I don’t know if it’s because Draya left or the show is just boring as hell anyway. I have seen Tami fight enough times. Time for something new.