Michael Rosenthal/Michael Rosenthal/Bravo TV ©
Season 5 of this iteration of the Real Housewives’ franchise, witnessed the largest ever cast change of any franchise with two 4 year veterans; Alex McCord & Jill Zarin, three year alum Kelly Bensimon and season 4 newbie, Cindy Barshop all getting the axe, as the producers of Real Housewives of New York City retooled the cast in the hope of emulating the wealth of the Beverly Hill’s franchise. Original NY Wives Ramona Singer and LuAnn Delesseps were retained as was Sonja Morgan, who’d joined in Season 3. The 3 new wives were Aviva Drescher, Carole Radziwell and Heather Thomson.
In the end the cast change precipitated a major ratings decline as Season 5 became the 2nd lowest rated of the five dropping -26.09% in the 18-49 demo versus Season 4 and in terms of total audience was down -14.59% versus 2009′s Season 2
“The Real Housewives of New York City” was produced by Shed Media U.S. – Jennifer O’Connell, Nick Emmerson and Omid Kahangi serving as executive producers.
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| Episode | Time | Date | Lead-in | Audience | 18-49 Audience | 18-49 Demo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S05E01 | 9:00 PM | 4-Jun-12 | RhoNJ (rpt) | 1,660,000 | 974,000 | 0.80 |
| S05E02 | 9:00 PM | 11-Jun-12 | RhoNJ (rpt) | 1,430,000 | 808,000 | 0.60 |
| S05E03 | 9:00 PM | 18-Jun-12 | RhoNJ (rpt) | 1,390,000 | 770,000 | 0.60 |
| S05E04 | 9:00 PM | 25-Jun-12 | RhoNJ (rpt) | 1,462,000 | 769,000 | 0.60 |
| S05E05 | 9:00 PM | 2-Jul-12 | RhoNJ (rpt) | 1,386,000 | 674,000 | 0.50 |
| S05E06 | 9:00 PM | 9-Jul-12 | RhoNJ (rpt) | 1,299,000 | 696,000 | 0.50 |
| S05E07 | 9:00 PM | 16-Jul-12 | RHOC R2 | 1,394,000 | 688,000 | 0.50 |
| S05E08 | 9:00 PM | 23-Jul-12 | RhoNJ (rpt) | 1,507,000 | 841,000 | 0.70 |
| S05E09 | 9:00 PM | 30-Jul-12 | Rpt | 1,553,000 | 849,000 | 0.70 |
| S05E10 | 9:00 PM | 6-Aug-12 | Rpt | 1,441,000 | 762,000 | 0.60 |
| S05E11 | 9:00 PM | 13-Aug-12 | Rpt | 1,651,000 | 942,000 | 0.70 |
| S05E12 | 9:00 PM | 20-Aug-12 | Rpt | 1,653,000 | 916,000 | 0.70 |
| S05E13 | 9:00 PM | 27-Aug-12 | Rpt | 1,823,000 | 1,010,000 | 0.80 |
| S05E14 | 9:00 PM | 3-Sep-12 | Rpt | 1,928,000 | 999,000 | 0.80 |
| S05E15 | 9:00 PM | 10-Sep-12 | Rpt | 1,801,000 | 1,066,000 | 0.80 |
| S05E16 | 9:00 PM | 17-Sep-12 | Rpt | 1,989,000 | 1,026,000 | 0.80 |
| S05E17 | 9:00 PM | 24-Sep-12 | Rpt | 1,700,000 | 974,000 | 0.80 |
| S05E18 | 9:00 PM | 1-Oct-12 | Rpt | 1,838,000 | 1,135,000 | 0.90 |
| S05E19 | 9:00 PM | 8-Oct-12 | Rpt | 1,700,000 | 1,012,000 | 0.80 |
| S05E20 | 9:00 PM | 15-Oct-12 | Rpt | 1,720,000 | 972,000 | 0.80 |
| S05E21 | 9:00 PM | 22-Oct-12 | Rpt | 933,000 | 480,000 | 0.40 |
| Season 5 Average | 1,583,714 | 874,429 | 0.69 | |||
| Season 4 Average | S5 v. S4 | Total Aud -22.36% | 18-49 -26.09% | 2,039,833 | No Info | 0.93 |
| Season 3 Average | S5 v. S3 | Total Aud -21.59% | 18-49 -33.28% | 2,019,889 | No Info | 1.03 |
| Season 2 Average | S5 v. S2 | Total Aud -14.59% | 18-49 -35.69% | 1,854,286 | 1,359,667 | No Info |
| Season 1 Average | S5 v. S1 | Total Aud 41.50% | 18-49 5.06% | 1,119,222 | 832,334 | No Info |
Source: Live + Same Day – Nielsen Media Research via TVByTheNumbers and TheFutonCritic
Links to Episode by Episode Reports
23 October 2012 – Lost Footage ratings drop below 1m Viewers
Last night the longest RHoNY season of its five, wrapped up with off-cuts and some ‘off’ moments. Seemingly the audience was off as well, off watching the 3rd & final Presidential Debate, as just 933,000 viewers tuned in. With a 0.40 in the 18-49 demo, that means that this is the lowest rated episode for RHoNY since April 2008. While it’s true that Lost Footage episodes tend to score lower ratings, Season One’s had 1,063,000 viewers, and Season 3′s was watched by 1,440,000 (demo 0.60), under one million would never have been expected. Incidentally Season 2 and Season 4 didn’t have Lost Footage episodes. Embarrassingly for Bravo this also means that Jill Zarin’s appearance on WWHL last Monday had higher viewership than the final RHoNY episode of the season.
These disappointing final episode ratings, drops the 5th season RHoNY average to just 1,583,714 viewers per episode with a 18-49 demo percentage of 0.68. This compares to 2,039,833 (demo 0.93) down -22.36% & -26.09% respectively for Season 4 and 2,019,889 (Demo 1.03) for Season 3 -21.59% and -33.28% respectively. Additionally the drop against 2009′s Season 2, which averaged 1,854,286 viewers per episode is -14.59% . Bravo may have expected a little reduction in the ratings with the large cast change, but there’s absolutely no way that decreases of this magnitude would have been expected. The question is now, whether they can recover in a sixth season.
Updated after Part 2 of the Reunion
The 2nd hour of RHoNY’s reunion aired to a smaller audience than the 2nd hour of Season’s four reunion, which was the preliminary cause of Bravo’s panic which led to this season’s cast shake-up. That episdoe attracted 1,781,000 viewers down from its first hours 2,325,000 whereas this season’s 2nd Reunion hour’s audience climbed 20,000 from last weeks 1.7m.
With just next Monday’s Lost Footage episode left to air, we can now finalize the ratings averages for this 5th season. This 5th Season had 18 regular episodes versus 16 in Season 4 and averaged just 1,605,833 (demo 0.69) versus the 14 regular Season 3 episodes which averaged 2,038,188 (Demo 0.93). That’s a drop of -21.21% in total audience and the 18-49 demo dropped by a larger -26.03%.
Reunion Part 1 Update October 9th, 2012
Finale Update October 2th, 2012
Update August 28,2012
Update August 21,2012
Bring Jill back boring without her and Kelly. Sonja needs to go!!!
I don’t miss Jill but I do miss Alex. She was the voice of reason in her talking head and, like Bethenny, she was something of an outsider looking in saying, “Can you believe these women?” The show needs that.
Mr. Cohen….whats it gonna take to make you see that firing Jill was the worst decision you ever made?
RHONY will never be what it was without her….the only thing you could do now is bring her back, and FIRE Ramona. That might save the show
Bring Jill back!