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The June 16 season finale set ratings record with 4.6 million viewers
BY LINDA MOSS
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Several years ago HBO's "The Sopranos" put New Jersey in the national spotlight, as the mob show created a sensation, won awards and was praised to the high heavens by TV critics. This year "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" has viewers and the media buzzing about the Garden State, with its depiction of bad behavior like table-flipping, tacky taste in mansion décor and the relations of a large Italian-American family.
Audiences and TV critics alike were captivated by this particular iteration of the "Real Housewives' " franchise, with the Jersey housewives turning out to be a ratings winner and surprise hit for the cable network Bravo.
Some TV experts said that "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" was enthusiastically embraced by viewers who still miss, and crave seeing, Tony Soprano and his murderous, but amusing, crew. Viewers, perhaps buying into stereotypes of ethnic groups and the state, seem to love watching Italian Americans who live in North Jersey.
In fact, "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" has turned out to be the most popular, highest-rated of the four "Housewives'" series so far. And revelations about one of the show's housewives continue to make headlines in the tabloids, creating plenty of publicity for the series.
Christian Barcellos, executive producer of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," said the show's big success was a bit of a surprise to Bravo.
"But this was definitely a great cast," Barcellos said. "It's definitely been a fun peak of the franchise for us."
For example, the final episode of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" on June 16 garnered 3.5 million viewers its first airing at 10 p.m. and another 1.1 million for its encore at 11 p.m., for a total of 4.6 million viewers. It was the highest-rated season finale for any of the "Housewives'" franchise shows.
This week Bravo, sensing more ratings' gold, expanded the reunion show for the popular Jersey housewives into two parts. The first part aired Tuesday, and the second part will air tonight, Thursday night. The first part of the reunion — where most of the women shed angry tears and hurled accusations back and forth — drew nearly 3 million viewers, the most-watched "Housewives'" reunion ever.
The Jersey "Housewives" series grabbed viewers with its twists and turns, and its "balance of drama and comedy," according to Barcellos.
At first blush, a New Jersey version of the "Housewives'" format would seem an unlikely audience pleaser. The show's formula has been to chronicle the lives of self-indulgent, status-conscious, overdressed rich women of a certain age in glamorous, upscale settings, including Orange County in California, New York City and Atlanta. New Jersey isn't like those other locations, but it made sense for Bravo to go there, according to TV historian Tim Brooks, co-author of "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows."
"When you build a franchise like that ("Housewives"), you have to keep topping yourself," Brooks said. "You need to make it seem fresh. Setting it in New Jersey, the perceived land of smokestacks and garbage dumps, is completely unexpected. But there are estates out there. I was surprised how glamorous they made New Jersey look."
Robert Thompson, professor of TV and popular culture at Syracuse University, noted that "New Jersey is part of a lot of punch lines," and that the Jersey version of "Real Housewives" "could have been the weakest of all."
Nonetheless, viewers were drawn in by Bravo's batch of aging Jersey girls and their chemistry: sisters Caroline Manzo and Dina Manzo, who are married to brothers; Jacqueline Laurita, whose spouse is Caroline and Dina's brother; Teresa Giudice, the one who tosses a table in an angry rage; and drama queen Danielle Staub, a randy troublemaker whose shady past is revealed during the show.
Audiences watch reality shows like "Real Housewives" "to feel superior," according to Thompson, who enjoyed and tuned in to all six regular episodes of the Jersey housewives. Such programs "are all about kitsch, camp and irony," and setting "Real Housewives" in New Jersey "boosts the level of campiness and kitsch," Thompson said.
The show turned out to be a guilty pleasure that many couldn't resist. Even The New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley admitted her affection for the Jersey housewives, describing them as "deliciously vulgar heroines."
Caroline, Dina and Jacqueline live in tony Franklin Lakes, which has mansions that make Tony Soprano's hacienda in North Caldwell look like the servants' quarters. Danielle resides in Wayne. Teresa lives in Montville, and has built a new home, an extravagant — some might say tacky — McMansion, all onyx and marble and chandeliers.
On Tuesday's reunion show, the Jersey housewives angrily bristled at the notion that they are anything like "The Sopranos", and furiously denied persistent rumors that they have ties to the Mafia, chalking it up to stereotyping of both Italian-Americans and New Jersey.
Caroline, the tough family matriarch, and Dina also complained that because of the show, an old family tragedy was brought out in the public again. Dina and Caroline's father-in-law was found shot and dumped in a car trunk in 1983, a death with the earmarks of a typical Mob hit. Not so, according to an angry Caroline.
"My father-in-law was the victim of a horrific crime," she said, while a teary Dina added, "It makes me feel horrible that it's even brought up."
Caroline then defended the integrity of her husband Joe, who owns the Brownstone in Paterson, a popular venue for weddings.
But it didn't help dispel any organized-crime rumors when Caroline at one point described said her family as "thick as thieves."
Billie Gold, vice president and associate director of programming at the ad agency Carat, is a huge "Real Housewives" fan, having seen every episode of all four of the show's versions — Orange County, New York, Atlanta and New Jersey. She is among those who believe that "The Sopranos'" factor played a big part in the success of the Jersey "Real Housewives", as does TV historian Brooks.
"It's like a real-life "Sopranos"," Gold said. "That's what really sold it."
Americans are intrigued by the mob and the Mafia and "its lore," according to Gold, who also noted that Bravo heavily marketed the show.
Bravo's Barcellos said he believes the show's success was due to "a confluence of factors." He agreed that "The Sopranos" played into viewers' expectations for the Jersey "Housewives", and that "worked in our favor"
But Barcellos said he thinks the biggest factor in the show's popularity was that it actually played more to people's expectations of New Jersey, home of the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, with Jersey "a body of water away from (from Manhattan), but a world apart."
The key to a reality TV show's success is who is chosen to participate, and Bravo did a great job with "Real Housewives of New Jersey", both Brooks and Thompson agreed.
"It all comes down to casting," Thompson said. "Reality TV is a casting director's medium. They (the participants chosen) have to be interesting, and they (the New Jersey housewives) were really fun to watch."
Bravo also credited the show's popularity to its cast.
"This group particularly popped in terms of cast," Barcellos said. He added that the fact that members of the group were related, had blood ties, "also raised the stakes of the conflict."
The show's most controversial character was Danielle, a 46-year-old tarty single mother who created many cringe-worthy moments on the show. At the start of the series she is dating a much younger man, 27-year-old Stephen Zalewski of Lincoln Park, and in the middle of dinner at the classy Highlawn Pavilion in West Orange she suggests they go into the bathroom for a quickie.
Danielle broke up with Zalewski, but they are still tangling. In the latest sordid chapter of Staub's life, Wednesday she won a temporary injunction in Passaic County to bar Zalewski from releasing an X-rated video of her.
Jacqueline is Danielle's only friend among the Jersey housewives. The rest distrust and despise Danielle, who they blame for creating a wedge between Jacqueline and her family.
"They (Bravo) clearly know who to play up," Brooks said, referring to Danielle. "You've got to have your villain."
All the show's drama and tension is sparked by Danielle, who Gold said "really stirred the pot."
And during Tuesday's reunion show, Caroline told Danielle, "You were the straw that broke the camel's back."
The show's popularity, and ratings, exploded when a book turned up, "Cop Without a Badge", that accused Danielle of being a stripper, a cocaine user, and says she at one point had been charged with kidnapping, extortion and sundry other offenses.
Barcellos said that Bravo had no idea about Danielle's shady past, or the controversial book, when it started shooting the show. The Manzo family later brought the book to the network's attention, he said.
In fact, that book led to Teresa's table-flipping incident in the show's finale. Danielle put one big damper on a dinner that Teresa was holding for everyone at the ritzy Lu Nello restaurant in Cedar Grove, prompting the table flip.
At the end of the dinner, which Bravo dubbed "The Last Supper," Danielle whipped out a copy of the book and put it on the table, denying its allegations. She accused Dina of finding and circulating the book, but Caroline stepped up and took credit for passing the book around at a Franklin Lakes beauty salon. At that point, all the women at the table start nastily arguing and shouting. It's then that an exasperated Teresa flips the table up, an event that Bravo replayed in endless promos touting the final episode.
Teresa created one of the "The Real Housewives of New Jersey's" other memorable moments, as well. She goes shopping for furniture for her new mansion, and picks out $120,000 worth of goods. Teresa then peels off bills from a big wad of cash to pay. Gold pointed out that Teresa later claimed she was only making a down payment on the merchandise, that she doesn't walk around with $120,000 in her purse.
Cable networks such as Bravo are adept at creating buzz for their shows. The surfacing of the book and Danielle's shady past helped hype the show and boost its viewership, according to Brooks.
"The way to get big numbers is stunts," he said. "You need to do things that surprise people."
Linda Moss, a Montclair resident, is a veteran entertainment writer. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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