Radar Told You First! Andy Cohen Confirms ‘RHOC’ Star Tamra Judge Refused To Film Just 3 Episodes
‘It was very dramatic,’ he says about her Bravo exit.
Jan. 28 2020, Updated 4:31 p.m. ET
RadarOnline.com told you first!
Andy Cohen confirmed the news that Tamra Judge refused to film just three episodes of the Real Housewives of Orange County as she left the show.
“It was a big weekend in the ‘Housewives’ world,” Andy said on his radio show on Sirius XM on Monday. “It was very dramatic,” he confessed.
“She told People magazine that we had offered her three episodes to come back and kind of wrap out her story. That is true. She didn’t want to do that,” Andy explained.
“She’s been on the show for 12 years,” Andy said about the RHOC star who joined the show in season 2.
“We wanted to give her a sendoff,” he insisted, but she turned that down.
RadarOnline.com was the first to report that Tamra was on the chopping block for the show and that her contract negotiations failed.
“Bravo bosses wanted Tamra to be a bridge from the old cast to the new in season 15 and she refused,” a source previously told RadarOnline.com.
“Tamra got her pickup contract letter last, after the other ladies, and it had major conditions in it. She was even more than demoted to a friend role. She’d have very little camera time. And it meant she would earn next to nothing in reality TV terms.”
“She would go from $900,000 a season to $20,000 an episode for just three show appearances, which would add up to $60,000 total. It was humiliating.”
“So Tamra walked away,” the source said.
Tamra announced she was exiting the Bravo show with a terse message on her Instagram only writing, “It’s been a wild 12 years . But it’s time for me to move on. Im sad to go but very excited about my future . Love ❤️ you guys ✌?,” on January 25.
She wasn’t the only RHOC star to get the boot – The OC of the OC Vicki Gunvalson was out too!
Scroll through the gallery for more details about Tamra’s shocking exit from RHOC.
Listen To Andy
“She has been an incredible housewife,” Andy said about Tamra. “She’s been dramatic. She has been great. And we have been wanting to kind of…shake it up a little bit. For a few years.”
Never Say Never
“I’m hoping that she will come back in some form,” Andy said on Sirius. “Either in this season or in the next couple. She is someone I am always interested in.”
Petty
Tamra promptly unfollowed Andy, Shannon Beador, Bravo and Evolution Media, the production company behind RHOC. Andy laughed when he learned that on the radio show.
Changes
“The network wants to skew younger,” a source told RadarOnline.com last year about the Bravo franchise.
The Truth
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"Tamra was about to be fired. But in the end she wasn’t - and was offered a contract for next season,” a source previously told RadarOnline.com. Tamra confirmed that she was offered a reduced three-episode role on the show that she decided to walk away from.
Vicki Out
“I will always be the OG of the OC, but it’s time to say goodbye to The Real Housewives of Orange County. It’s been an incredible ride for 14 years and I want thank all of you for your support, for your love and for ‘whooping it up’ with me along the way,” Vicki wrote on her Instagram page on January 24.
