RHONY: Bethenny Frankel slams the show, says it isn’t “inspiring”

Now that RHONY is back and Bethenny Frankel is no longer apart of the show, she had a lot to say…about anything but the show.

Bethenny Frankel spoke with Extra on Tuesday about the return of The Real Housewives of New York without her.  While speaking with Renee Bargh, Bethenny said she had spoken to Andy Cohen and he was feeling better.  After that, Renee asked about how she felt about the intro to the new season. “The beginning of the show was the proverbial middle finger to me,” she said about the ladies’ reaction to the news she was leaving RHONY.

Bethenny said, “I wish them well.  My new show, The Big Shot…” and trailed off to discuss her show, and her initiatives with BStrong.  The show is slated to be released on HBO Max in May.

According to Page Six, Bethenny continued saying that though television ratings are at a high right now because of all the people at home, Housewives shows, in general, are not.

“It’s sort of not maybe the content that is inspiring people to do what they need to do right now. Or maybe they want to watch either the news or something uplifting or some way to pay it forward,” she told People.

While her point about needing inspiring television might be true for some, a lot of viewers want an escape right now.  A rep told PEOPLE the ratings were similar to last year’s premiere.  He said, “You could argue even more people showed up intentionally to watch RHONY this year,” and gave no metrics to back up that statement. It was noted, however, that streaming views for last week’s premiere was up by 13%.

It will be a bit longer before we can tell what kind of real impact Bethenny’s absence will have on the series, if any.  Right now, people are home more than ever which could give the show a boost it might not have otherwise seen.  Tune in tonight for the next episode!

The Real Housewives of New York is on Thursdays at 9 PM ET!