Melissa Gorga is ready for change.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey star is in agreement with viewers who think that the Bravo reality show needs a cast shakeup amid a “toxic” season 14 and a canceled reunion.
“I agree with Bravo that there needs to be changes … I agree with that 100 percent,” Melissa told Entertainment Tonight on Monday, July 8, at the New York City premiere of Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black. “I think things have gotten really toxic.”
“There’s two of my cast members that have played really dirty behind the scenes and it’s coming out,” Melissa, 45, added, though she refrained from naming the cast members in question. “It’s all coming out because it always rises to the top, it always comes out in the laundry. It’s been years, so it’s all coming forward.”
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Melissa has not shared any scenes with her sister-in-law Teresa Giudice, 52, this season after years of bitter family infighting. (Melissa is married to Teresa’s brother, Joe Gorga.)
The feud between the two has also split loyalties among the rest of the cast, which includes Dolores Catania, Margaret Josephs, Jennifer Aydin, Danielle Cabral, Rachel Fuda, Jackie Goldschneider and Jennifer Fessler.
In June, multiple sources told Us Weekly that RHONJ will forego a traditional reunion this season amid the cast tension. “The reunion is supposed to be about resolution and it’s clear there’s no resolving any issues between the women,” one source told Us. “There is no wrap-up in a bow and it’s not going to happen.”
However, executive producer Andy Cohen has promised there will still be plenty of resolution in the season 14 finale.
“The main thing is this will all make sense once you see the finale,” he said in a June episode of SiriusXM’s Reality Checked With Kiki Monique. “When all of us producers saw the last cut of the finale, we all came to the decision separately and then we talked. We all had the same thought, which is the finale is kind of the finale and the reunion all in one.”
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“It’s in the great tradition of absolute shocking, dramatic Jersey finales and they have this final epic group encounter, which is like, it feels like the Last Supper and is just so Jersey. And it’s shocking and it’s dramatic and it’s amazing TV. I’m telling you, when you see it, I think that you’ll feel complete,” Cohen continued.
As for rebooting RHONJ with a new cast — similar to The Real Housewives of New York City — Cohen is not making any decisions yet.
“We are gonna cross next season as that comes,” he shared with Kiki Monique in June, adding that producers “ want to take a minute to figure things out.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs on Bravo Sundays at 8 p.m. ET and on Peacock.
