Eboni K. Williams: Storylines on race not the reason for low ‘RHONY’ ratings
The 'Real Housewives of New York' star is the first Black housewife in the show's 13-year history
Eboni K. Williams is not your scapegoat. In recent comments to TMZ, she defended herself against complaints that conversations surrounding race on The Real Housewives of New York are to blame for this season’s low ratings.
As Williams told theGrio earlier this year, she is all about “protecting her peace.”
Williams entered The Real Housewives of New York as the first-ever Black housewife in that iteration of the franchise, integrating the all-white (and often problematic) cast for season 13.
This season has seen Williams engaging in conversations surrounding race and the 2020 election with the women, and even featured a cringe-worthy scene in which is she was referred to as “angry.”
For whatever reason, however, fans are not taking to the new season, with ratings hitting an all-time low last week.
In a TMZ report, she makes it clear that the current ratings on the series are not her fault.
TMZ reports, “Eboni tells TMZ she shouldn’t be the scapegoat for a declining TV audience just because she doesn’t make final cut decisions about what ends up airing … but the producers do. The way Eboni sees it …’RHONY’ has tackled tons of sensitive issues over the years — like mental health, alcoholism, bankruptcy, and divorce — so race shouldn’t be any different.”
Williams recently appeared on Watch What Happens Live! with Andy Cohen and was asked to respond to fans who are calling her too preachy. She told the late-night host, “I’m getting that a lot and my answer is simply this: I’m a little bit of a preacher and I wear that as a badge of honor, and I’m a little bit of a teacher too.”
She continued, “The other thing is, I really just wanted to go into this thing, Andy, making the most authentic connections with the women and just being truthful and honest about where I am and what I’m about and if there’s an outstanding question about values alignment, I gotta get to the bottom of that. That’s all!”
In June, Williams opened up to theGrio about her first season of RHONY.
“A lot of people have been asking me recently, is this better or worse than my experience in hard news…and you would think that perhaps my experience in cable news, especially my Fox News days, would have kind of maximumly prepared me for this!”
She continued, “The difference here…is the reliving of it. These things happened in real-time back in September of last year, and I had to go through it at that point and so did they!”
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