Heavy/Peacock/Bravo "Real Housewives of New Jersey" cast members.
Dolores Catania said she always expected to be fired from “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” and is “grateful” every time she gets the call to come back.
The Paterson, New Jersey native spoke out on Jason Tartick’s podcast, “Trading Secrets,” in August 2024 to explain why she always prepares for a pink slip. “I don’t know the fate of the show,” Catania told Tartick amid RHONJ’s rocky 14th season. “But you never know from year to year whether you’re getting signed up again.”
She also admitted that every year she prepares herself to be fired from the Bravo reality show.
“Every year I tell myself I’m fired so if I have a job, I’m excited,” Catania explained. “I make the call to my friends, to my closest people every year and go ‘I’m out, I’m not coming back.’ For eight years I’ve said, ‘I’m out.’ Since year one, ‘I’m not coming back, it was great, thank you, I’ll leave.’ So, you know, I never took it for granted but again I always prepared myself for the day that you don’t come back.”
“Every year is a new year,” she added of her fate on the show.
Catania joined the cast of RHONJ starting in season 7 in 2016. In addition to Catania, season 14 starred Teresa Giudice, Melissa Gorga, Margaret Josephs, Jennifer Aydin, Danielle Cabral, and Rachel Fuda. Jackie Goldschneider and Jennifer Fessler appeared as “friends” of the cast.
Dolores Catania Wants the Whole Cast to Return For Season 15
BravoCast members from RHONJ.
Catania admitted that no one can be a Real Housewife forever. On the August 16, 2024, episode of Sirius XM’s “Jeff Lewis Live,” she said, “Everybody has an expiration date as a Housewife, it is not a forever thing.”
“I’m very realistic,” she added. “I don’t like building myself up for a fall, and every year I’ve told myself it’s over, I’m not getting called back, no matter what the season looked like.”
Still, Catania is not ready for her ride as a Jersey Housewife to end. “I want my cast together. I want everyone together,” she told Lewis, adding that the cast had a great time when they traveled on a girls trip in Ireland during season 13. “We had such a good time. We stuck together,” she said of the trip that took place during happier times for the group.
Catania seemed to hold on to hope that a miracle could happen for season 15. She told Tartick that “divine intervention” needed to happen for the casting. In her interview with Lewis, she added, “It’s not over ‘til it’s over. I love my job. We’re still a cast … until we hear differently, which we haven’t. We have only heard they don’t know.”
There Is a Chance the Entire RHONJ Cast Could Be Replaced
BravoRachel Fuda, Margaret Josephs, Melissa Gorga, Dolores Catania, Teresa Giudice, Jennifer Aydin, and Danielle Cabral of RHONJ.
Tensions were so high among the RHONJ cast members during season 14 that they did not tape a traditional reunion. Instead, they had a watch party filmed at Rails Steakhouse.
In an interview with Out magazine in August 2024, Catania said the cast was ready to face off at a reunion hosted by Andy Cohen and were disappointed not to get that chance.
The watch party could be the very last time fans see this iteration of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast. Speaking on his Sirius XM show “Andy Cohen Live” in April, Cohen said it wasn’t a “sustainable universe” to have “two camps on the show.”
During a July 29, 2024 episode of his radio show, Cohen flat-out told a caller that “big changes” were afoot for Jersey. “We’re rebooting the show,” the seemingly frustrated Bravo producer said. “We’re gonna do something different, we’re gonna see what we do. We’ll see. I don’t know. Maybe just all fresh faces. We’ll see.”
READ NEXT: Jackie Goldschneider Reveals What She Did After Awkward RHONJ Exit
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RHONJ Star Expected to Be Fired From Show Every Season