Should Karen Huger be allowed back for Season 10 of RHOP after missing the reunion?

The Real Housewives of Potomac has reached the end of Season nine, and that means that we are finally watching the reunion to see how the women react to some of the things they watched during the season. This is a chance for people to clear the air and get things off their chest.

However, there was one very important person missing from the Season nine reunion. The Grand Dame herself, Karen Huger, skipped out on the RHOP reunion this time around. Instead, it seems that she opted to go to rehab following her DUI conviction. While she has not yet been sentenced, she did preemptively decide to check herself into rehab, which meant that she was unable to attend the filming for the reunion.

The reunion is part of the contract that the housewives sign. And we have seen in the past where housewives have not been invited back after skipping a reunion. Or, they have to make amends before they are given a chance to return to their housewives franchise. Take for instance Mary Cosby from RHOSLC, who after skipping the Season two reunion had to work her way back into being a housewife in Season five (although she did get the chance to be a friend of the housewives in Season 4).

There are always extenuating circumstances that can cause a housewife to miss the reunion. In this case, it was Karen Huger checking herself into rehab. But does that mean that she should be able to return for Season 10 as a full on housewife? Personally, just because she had checked herself into rehab, does not necessarily mean that she should get full housewife status back in Season 10. Instead, it feels like perhaps she needs a bit of a break from RHOP.

Considering everything that she has gone through over the last few years, maybe it’s time for her to take a bit of a break from the franchise. And even with her filming a small video for the reunion, that doesn’t feel good enough. And it’s clear that even her fellow housewives were a bit skeptical over her decision to check herself into rehab following her DUI conviction. That’s not to say that they felt that she was skipping out on the reunion, so much as they had questions about the timing of everything.

Honestly, Karen Huger is a big reason why RHOP has been successful over the years. And yet, it might be time for her to step back for a while. That’s not to say that we wouldn’t welcome her back as a housewife in the series, but at this point, it feels like she needs a break and maybe we need a break too.

Her skipping out on the reunion just opened the door for us to really discuss the possibility of her not being back for Season 10. It also would shift a lot of the dynamics of this group. If you left this group of women as is, heading into Season 10, but left Karen Huger out of the mix, it could end up being a truly interesting season.

Then again, taking Karen out of the picture might also open the door for a little bit of a shake-up with the cast. While we did have new housewives in Season nine, that doesn’t mean that they were the right choice in this group of women. Perhaps new blood is still needed. Or, we could bring back someone from the past to interact with the new women and see what happens.

It feels like there are a lot of possibilities if Karen does end up, stepping back from the franchise even for a season.

The question now is whether or not Bravo will decide to bench Karen Huger from RHOP or if she will be given the chance to return as a housewife.