RHOC hit a season low in viewers following Kelly Dodd and Andy Cohen‘s feud over Season 16 ratings just a few weeks ago.
The latest episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County earned a 0.24 in the demo and 797,000 viewers, which is a season low in viewers. Episode 4, which aired back on December 22 and caused the back-and-forth between Kelly and Andy, scored a 0.24 and 822,000 viewers.
While this week’s episode of RHOC does mark a season low in viewers, it should be pointed out that the demo—which is the most important metric to advertisers—was even with Episode 4, which is a good thing. It was the number 10 show of the night, according to Nielsen.
That said, episode 5 of Season 15, which aired in November 2020, earned a 0.38 and 1,091,000 viewers.
Kelly Dodd talks RHOC Season 16 ratings
Just a few weeks ago, former Real Housewives of Orange County star Kelly Dodd got into a bit of a back-and-forth with Bravo boss Andy Cohen over the Season 16 ratings—and used TV Deets in order to prove her point.
Quote tweeting TV Deets, the former Real Housewives of Orange County star pointed out that ratings for Season 16 are lower than Season 15, the last season that featured Kelly herself.
“Wait, wasn’t I the ratings problem?” she tweeted. “Wasn’t there a boycott?? We got over a million viewers 14 out of 16 weeks last season despite HUGE competition from election coverage on the news!!!”
She continued, “This year? #RHOC16 under a million 3x in 4 weeks!”
At the time, Andy promptly responded to Kelly’s question, explaining that Bravo also takes into consideration delayed viewers like DVR.
“Good morning!” he replied. “Reboot going great. Feels like a return to form for #RHOC. Look at the delayed numbers, not live. That’s what’s measured.”
(Photo: Bravo / TV Deets Composite)
In our analysis of the back-and-forth, we came to the conclusion that both Kelly and Andy are correct. Kelly is correct that live ratings, when compared to Season 15 live ratings, are down, and Andy is correct in that while that may be true, Bravo heavily takes into account delayed viewings.
So while the network would most likely want higher live ratings than what we are currently seeing, the show does see increases once DVR views are taken into account and is still performing better than other Bravo shows that have since been put on hiatus, like The Real Housewives of Dallas or The Real Housewives of New York City.
Click Here to see the live ratings for both seasons and compare on an episode-to-episode basis yourself.
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Wednesdays on Bravo.
