The three-part special "Real Housewives of New Jersy: Teresa Checks In" was meant to be an opportunity to reconnect star Teresa Guidice with her fans after her incarceration for bank fraud, but according to a report from the NY Daily News, early ratings for the show dropped below expectations.
According to the report, the Oct. 11 "Teresa Checks In" special episode only managed to garnder a total of 1.2 million viewers which, is on par with the ratings of a regular episode. It was expected to do much better than this given that this would be Teresa's first appearance since she was imprisoned last January.
"Viewers don't seem to want to support criminals, and Bravo is paying attention," an unnamed source told NYDaily News' Confidenti@l, "They'll see what the rating are for the the remaining parts and go from there."
Teresa's criminal history isn't the only plausible reason for the drop in ratings. According to the report, Teresa and her husband Joe's strategy to keep the fans interested in their show has been "disastrous."
According to the report's source, Teresa and her family should have focused on relaying to the audience how difficult life in prison was. This strategy may perhaps play on the audience's sympathy and draw in higher ratings. However, as cited in the report, Teresa and her family did the exact opposite.
Instead of focusing on how hard life in prison was, Teresa's daughter had expressed how good her mother looked even in prison, Joe stated that the prison was more akin to a low-budget spa instead of some form of rehabilitation and punishment, and Teresa was even able to do yoga while in prison.
Teresa only appeared via jail telephone in the first part of the special and the report states that Bravo expects the ratings to increase when Teresa is seen outside of jail in the second part of "Teresa Checks In."
