Did Bravo Censor 'Summer House' Premiere to Appease Montauk?
In the promotional lead up to Bravo’s Summer House, trailers for the show offered an irksome description of Montauk, at least to real locals, but that description was toned down and changed in last night’s unofficial premiere, which was bundled into the latter half of a special two-hour Vanderpump Rules Season 5, Episode 10, “Summer House Rules.”
Looking back at the original quote from the first trailers (which have since been altered to exclude it), party boy entrepreneur Kyle Cooke said, “Everybody’s heard of the Hamptons—that’s like your mom’s friend who wears pearls. My group of friends, we go to Montauk. Montauk is like your mom’s friend’s daughter, who’s a little promiscuous—and by ‘a little,’ I mean a lot.”
Needless to say, the people of Montauk didn’t take a shine to the comment. So Bravo fixed it.
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Cooke now says, “The Hamptons, that’s like your mom’s friend who wears pearls. The East End is like the cool surfer chick, who’s a little promiscuous—and by ‘a little,’ I mean a lot.”
So, the word “Montauk” was mysteriously missing from Cooke’s quote, which now compares the Hamptons to the “East End,” which is a term describing both the North Fork and South Fork of Long Island. (Perhaps they were trying for Montauk’s nickname, “The End?”) And instead of mentioning “your mom’s friend’s daughter,” Bravo offers the more vanilla “cool surfer chick.”
It appears the network is hoping for a less frosty reception if the show is successful enough to warrant shooting another season this summer. It’s a safe bet Summer House will be a hit, but it’s also a safe bet that the powers that be in East Hampton Town and the hamlet of Montauk will remain as frosty toward the show as the hot Hamptons summer will allow.
The town is never going to like how it’s depicted on Summer House, so Bravo should probably stop trying to make nice and either pull the plug or go for it—in all its ugly, distasteful and entertaining glory.
Summer House returns to Bravo with Episode 2, “No Way, Rosé,” on Monday, January 23 at 10 p.m.