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Bravo is no stranger to navigating feuds, but the intense one between Alexis Bellino and Shannon Beador has them stumped.
As the network begins to make casting decisions for season 19 of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Alexis may be on the chopping block.
Feuds aren’t just common in The Real Housewives franchise - they’re basically Bravo’s bread and butter. But the one between Alexis Bellino and Shannon Beador may just result in Alexis losing her job.
According to The Daily Mail, Bravo is struggling to find a way forward if both Alexis and Shannon are in the cast.
And if one of them has to go, it seems more likely it will be Alexis.
“Bravo is so happy with how this season turned out, and they know that adding Alexis is a big part of what made it such a success,” an insider informed The Daily Mail of the network’s deliberation.
“Everybody brought their A-game this year, but it’s really the drama between Shannon and Alexis that’s made this season a blockbuster hit.
“Producers don’t want to change a thing, but they’re not sure how they can bring both Shannon and Alexis back given the current state of their relationship.”
Alexis and Shannon are apparently putting their feet down about not wanting to film together - which is obviously a problem.
“They don’t want to film with each other, and the audience hates Alexis so much that Bravo may have no choice but to let her go unless something changes,” the insider told The Daily Mail.
Alexis’s behavior at the reunion reportedly did not help.
The insider claims that Alexis “did everything she shouldn’t have done’ at the reunion, which only made things worse between herself and Shannon,” according to The Daily Mail.
But there seems to be dissent about Alexis’s future.
“While things may look bleak, another production insider says that an Alexis return is still very much on the table.”
Right now, things are up in the air.
“Nothing has been decided yet, and casting won’t officially begin until this season has finished airing, so nobody has been fired or rehired,” the source spilled.
“With that said, there’s a lot of people who do want Alexis back next year. She’s easy to work with compared to some of the other women, and she’s authentically friends with the cast, which is hard to find.”
Alexis recently begged fans to show her more “empathy” as this season airs.
"What’s so difficult is that it’s, like, we’re in a vortex where all of the hate is based on things that aren’t true,” John Janssen stated in a recent interview with Us Magazine.
"Me having no voice has been very difficult," he told the outlet.
“Then, Lex feels the responsibility to try and help me and then she gets criticized for that," he said. "It’s a tough no-win deal.”
The backlash has increased after the couple mentioned having videos of Shannon Beador from the night of her DUI.
But when asked whether she had "empathy" for Shannon, Alexis shared she wanted more empathy shown to her.
"What about me?" she told Us. "I had to be on a show just lost my mom [and] wasn’t eating, wasn’t sleeping, was barely getting out of bed, filmed a show and still put on my big girl panties to go film with his ex-girlfriend, which is just as hard."
"I’m tired of hearing about that," Alexis said. "I have sympathy for her, but at the same time it’s, like, I had to do a really fricking hard job and I got beat down the entire season.”
During the interview, John said that Alexis might "regret" bringing up the videos at all.
"I am the one that has the videos and nothing has ever come outta my mouth that I was ever gonna show them to anybody,” he told the outlet. “That was never a possibility.”
"I thought I [spoke about the videos] off-camera," Alexis claimed. "Like, you film for 12 hours and I was with my good girlfriends. You think you do something and then it’s like, ‘Oh shoot, the cameras were rolling. I didn’t even remember that.’
"I told friends about them off-camera, I thought. And so, it is what it is, but I don’t really have any regrets ’cause the truth is the truth and we have truth on our side.”
