Although it’s less flashy—and less all-consuming, at least for now—than the double strike currently engulfing most of Hollywood, the brewing battle between Bravo and its reality show talent is continuing to pick up steam. Case in point: NBCUniversal apparently feeling forced, earlier tonight, to issue a statement making it clear that the nondisclosure agreements it requires of most of its stars aren’t supposed to stop them from talking about actual crimes, and that it won’t enforce any that might impede its stars from revealing or reporting such incidents that take place on its sets
This is per THR, which reports that Bravo has been forced to clarify this evening that “Confidentiality clauses are standard practice in reality programming to prevent disclosure of storylines prior to air. They are not intended to prevent disclosure by cast and crew of unlawful acts in the workplace, and they have not been enforced in that manner.”
The issue is on the table for a couple of reasons this week, neither of which spell great things for Bravo. One, of course, is Bethenny Frankel’s ongoing campaign to organize and potentially unionize reality stars, which has been brewing for several weeks at this point. This week, that took the form of attacking the NDAs, with Frankel’s lawyers, Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos, sending a letter earlier this week demanding that cast members be freed from them. In his letter, Freedman diagnosed NBCUniversal with a case of “systemic rot for which sunlight is the first necessary remedial measure,” claiming the network uses its NDA not to avoid spoilers, but to silence critiques and cover up issues.
Meanwhile, the company is also facing scrutiny over the handling of Bravo reality series Below Deck, with production member Samantha Suarez accusing cast member Gary King of sexual misconduct while they were filming Below Deck Sailing Yacht in 2022. Suarez has said that when she brought the issue to HR, she was eventually advised not to discuss the incident with her fellow crew members.
Given that Frankel’s argument, in part, is that networks like Bravo have disproportionate power over the reality stars in their employ, while also alleging that the company has a long history of cleaning up and quieting misconduct on its shows, it’ll be interesting to see how much the company’s latest assertion that it’s certainly not stopping anybody from talking about any such incidents will be taken at face value by all involved.
