RHONY Season 14 - What We Know So Far

"RHONY" is the shorthand pet name for "The Real Housewives of New York," the long-standing Bravo hit reality show about rich, spoiled housewives getting drunk and acting like petulant children. Millions of people keep tuning back in every week for more of the table-flipping, drink-throwing, guilty-pleasure drama. However, there are some shakeups in the wings which may have a dramatic effect on the upcoming 14th season of the show.

Sadly, the ratings weren't so great for the Season 13 finale (more on that later). This has led to some unforeseen production delays as producers figure out what to do about their predicament. To make matters worse, two of the cast members are apparently having a "leak war" behind the scenes to influence who will — and who won't — be returning next season. It's the type of drama that "Housewives" fans have come to know and love as the franchise has matured over the years. We have plenty of juicy details on when the show is coming back, who will be a part of it, and why people are talking about this major upset.

According to many sources, US Magazine included, the Season 13 reunion special won't be filmed until September of this year (as opposed to August). On top of that, filming of the next season likely won't start until early 2022, which is several months past their normal production start date. Theoretically, this could mean that fans won't get Season 14 until early summer 2022 or later, but why is Bravo dragging their feet on filming?

According to The Sun, there's chaos behind the scenes due to the fact that ratings are plummeting. All About the Tea puts that number at 764,000 for the April 6 season finale, which puts it in the top 3 lowest-rated episodes in the show's history. There are a couple of reigning theories as to why this is, but needless to say, it could cause some major changes to the upcoming Season 14 cast.

Going back to The Sun article, rumor has it that three stars in particular — Eboni, Ramona, and Leah — could all be gone by Season 14. However, Ramona and Eboni both have gone out on social media and insisted that they intend to return for the upcoming season, so who's lying (or in denial), and who's not? That depends on who you believe.

Each news outlet claims to have a confidential source close to the show feeding them their info, but when you're getting your news from tabloids, you're bound to run into some misinformation and contradicting stories. According to RadarOnline, Ramona is likely to get the axe because her salary is too high and because audiences are growing bored with the whole "rich white lady gets upset about first world problems" narrative.

The Daily Mail has a very different and opinionated take on the subject. They point the finger at Eboni, accuse her of leaking a false story about Ramona leaving, and claim she's doing it to get her co-star kicked off the show.

As to who would replace the wives if either one got cut, RealityBlurb outed radio host Carolina Bermudez as a potential candidate. When reached for comment, though, she gave a perplexing "no comment" response — which sounds suspiciously like talks are actually happening behind the scenes.

Everything that's up in the air about Season 14 is centered around the apparent feud between Ramona and Eboni. Given the resurgence of the #BlackLivesMatter movement that started in the summer of 2020, Eboni has not been shy about calling her co-stars out — Ramona in particular — for their microaggressions. Outlets like Page Six, however, are blaming the newest housewife's teachable moments for the show's drop in ratings based on several whiny social media posts from fans who don't want to hear the women "talking about race."

Eboni has fired back with some sound logic of her own. She pointed out to TMZ that the producers chose to leave those scenes in the show (when they could have just as easily catered to their audience's race-talk-fragility and left that footage on the cutting room floor). Maybe the producers were hoping that particular hot topic of discussion would bring more and/or new fans to the show? Regardless, it's a little unfair to blame the low ratings on her in particular when she didn't force anyone to broadcast those discussions. That was the network's decision at the end of the day, not hers.