Bravo execs know that trips to exotic places both fuel the alcohol intake of the cast as well as fuel a show’s ratings, and so it was with the first of three episodes of RHoNY filmed in the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy. Monday night’s episode, the 13th which proved lucky for Bravo, saw the highest ratings of this 5th season as 1,823,000 viewers tuned in. Additionally this episode equaled its highest 18-49 demo percentage of the season (0.80), a feat it last achieved for the premiere back on June 4th.

With the drama increasing next week after Aviva’s arrival (with husband in tow), we hope that before the St Barts sojourn is over, that RHoNY might finally break the 2m viewer mark for this season.

With this season-high, the Season 5 average has improved slightly against prior seasons and has reduced the season-on-season deficit with Season 4, to be down 24.35% in total viewers and down 30.83% in the 18-49 demo. Providing the ratings continue to grow we expect that these deficits will get smaller over the next two weeks. Episodes 14 & 15 from Season 4 were watched by 2,017,000 (Demo 0.90) and 2,171,000 (also Demo 0.90) respectively, and so if the remaining two St Barths episodes can both breach 2m then the deficits will reduce to 22% & 27% respectively.

On the back of the improved RHoNY ratings, Gallery Girls‘ audience grew by 118,000 to 668,000 however its demo of 0.30 stayed flat across all three episodes that have aired so far. However it is closing in on its predecessor in the same time slot as Miss Advised at its highest pulled 700,000 viewers, and so if RHoNY can continue to grow, then the Gallery Girls should top that.

Although RHoNJ takes a break this Sunday for the Labor Day weekend, both RHoNY & Gallery Girls both still air on Monday September 3rd. That may have a slight negative impact on their ratings, as people return from the last weekend of summer and unpack and miss TV in the process. This is one area where Bravo’s practice of airing many repeats of their first run programming impacts their ratings, as viewers know that if they miss the first airing there’ll be plenty of other opportunities to catch a repeat.

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Source: Nielsen Media Research via TVByTheNumbers and/or TheFutonCritic