Ok, so 15 months isn't that long, but I digress.
I guess I should say this early on that I don't keep up with the tabloids. I don't read the magazines and the gossip sites, so all I knew of the pending court procedures came from the show (up through season five). Sure, the other housewives would get catty between themselves and dish some of the news, but I think the shows producers saw what could have been a bit of a turbulent situation for their franchise and kept the mentions of it to a minimum. It seemed like this season it was a topic that couldn't be avoided, however, and it was tackled. A lot of people were speculating that Teresa at least would get probation, but alas that was not the case. That being said, it blind-sided me a bit to see that she was going away.
Here are the facts that are known without a doubt:
-She and her husband Joe plead guilty to 41 counts of fraud.
-She was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
-Her husband was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
-They will not be serving their sentences at the same time.
-Teresa will start her sentence January 5th.
This leaves a lot of questions up in the air. They are putting both their main house and summer house up for sale, but they plan on staying in the same city. How will they afford this? They also owe the government a huge amount of money, compounding on the problems. Teresa should be fine monetarily while Joe is away, but he has severed a lot of ties in the business word with this fiasco so how will he support himself with Teresa out of the picture for so long?
And the biggest question of all -- where does this leave Teresa as far as standings with the show goes?
Ok, so that isn't the biggest question, but it's one fans are really concerned about. The general consensus is that she will not be booted from the franchise. As seen with Dina this season, it is possible for a housewife to leave the show and come back. Obviously Teresa won't be able to shoot the show from jail (although that would be a weird Orange is the New Black type situation that would be fun to see), so she will not be a part of season seven. What about eight though? As far as I've seen, Bravo has not made an announcement on the issue.
My biggest concern is the outlook of the show. One season without Teresa could be detrimental. From the very beginning, Teresa was the breakout star of the show. Originally, she was the ringleader of the girls with just a tinge of crazy (flipping tables and what not), but after the main villain of the show's early days left, she became the new focal point of negativity. She is the drama that is The Real Housewives of New Jersey. She drives most of the plot lines in the show (the non-boring ones, anyway) and she was the focal point of three whole seasons, three through five, as she, her sister-in-law, and cousin tried to piece back together their family on TV.
So without the "villain" of the show, where do they go from here? Will they find a new "outcast"? Surely they can't have a reality TV show without drama. Maybe they'll re-invite Danielle? I mean imagine her and Dina getting back together on the same screen after all these years. I know that option doesn't seem the slightest bit likely, but it would be fun. I honestly have no idea where they are going to go with this now.
The real biggest question is how will the kids take it? The Giudice's have four children, all of them young, but old enough to remember what is going on. This could be a big blow to them emotionally, especially being in the media spotlight and having everyone know their business. Caroline Manzo, a former cast mate, got with Andy on Watch What Happens Live to discuss it, stating that despite the falling out they had, she really did feel bad for the situation, and wanted to make sure the children were looked after and taken care of.
The best case scenario here is that come season eight, we get Teresa back on the show, and we get to see a very humanized and humbled version of the diva we know and kind of love as she attempts to keep her family together while her husband is away. Is it really the best idea? No. In all reality, she should probably not return to the show so she can heal her wounds and take care of her family, but being the second highest payed housewife in the entire franchise, she will probably return for monetary reasons. Let's just hope that if that's the case, her co-stars will support her.
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