“Shahmazing is over, it’s done. She’s here.” So sayeth Judge Sidney H. Stein on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, as Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, plus millions of dollars owed in restitution and forfeiture. Shah pled guilty to a decade-long telemarketing scheme against thousands of victims, after being arrested on camera—or rather, adjacent— during RHOSLC’s second season.
I attended Shah’s sentencing in lower Manhattan—one of the many members of the public/press in the at-capacity federal courtroom—along with Shah’s family, friends, therapist, and Shah herself. The Jen in attendance, quiet and remorseful, was a different Jen than the version viewers have seen lash out at cast members and fans since she was cast on the show, including in the time following her indictment and, most recently, change of plea.
During the sentencing, Judge Stein stated some awareness about Shah’s time on Housewives, and reality TV.
As Stein noted to the court, Shah’s time on Housewives would not influence his determination of her sentence because, according to his understanding, reality TV was not in any way real. As Stein said to Shah’s lawyers and the court, “The character your client plays on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, which I guess is why the court is so full, it’s a character,” he said. “It’s acting. It involves role playing, editing, and a heavily scripted production. People should not confuse the character she plays on TV with the person I see in the courtroom. One is acting, one is reality.”
And yet, the cruel, deceptive, manipulative, and certainly charismatic Jen shown in hundreds of court exhibits submitted by the government seemed far closer to the Jen seen on Bravo than the solemn and almost demure Shah I watched on Friday.
If only the government had included a Peacock login code.
The Bravo community reacted to the day’s events with equal parts shock, derision, and concern. What does it mean to have yet another Housewife convicted of a federal crime?
In her address to the court, Shah agreed with the judge’s assessment of RHOSLC, and said her time on Housewives was a highly produced affair in which she had no control. It’s a defense that her lawyer also argued, while emphasizing that the upcoming season finale episode, during which Shah finally admits her guilt, is an example of her accountability.
What does all of this mean for a Bravo community feeling whiplash around Jen’s sudden change of plea in July 2022—made right before her trial was to begin, shortly after the government submitted seemingly irrefutable evidence of her guilt—and the ways her time on Housewives seemed to both reflect and enable her grift?
I talked with several Bravo viewers about their reactions to Jen’s sentencing and time on Housewives, including the current third season, which began filming after Shah was indicted. One fan called it “theater of the absurd.”
Bravoholic NYC resident Trace Bechter, who attended the sentencing, disagreed with Stein’s understanding of Housewives as purely scripted entertainment. “I thought, that can’t be true, because if this current season of RHOSLC was written, we need completely new scriptwriters.”
(Bravo, I’m avail.)
Kathryn Doorey from Honolulu, Hawaii, discussed feeling upset after finding out about Shah’s crimes, considering that she was a standout personality.
“The way [the network] pitched Jen in the first season, I thought we had another larger than life, funny, eccentric Housewives megastar,” she said. “Seeing the severity of the harm she has caused has literally made me stop watching the Housewives altogether. She literally ruined lives and never took accountability on the show in a meaningful way. I think the show actually promotes people to act like this: selfish, angry when called out, self-promoting, frauds. Very vulnerable people had their lives ruined all because of her greed. I find it all grotesque.”
Canton, Massachusetts resident Meaghan McCarthy felt conflicted about Bravo’s decision to keep Shah in the cast after she was indicted. “I find it a little confusing that Bravo got rid of Jenny (Nguyen) because of her racist posts—which I think is the right call—but continue to work with someone who was arrested by the federal government for scamming elderly out of money,” she said. “I know it’s innocent until proven guilty, but I really think they should have parted ways.”
McCarthy remains hopeful. “I want Bravo to try to shift back to what it was like in the beginning,” she said. “I’m now a mom of two, and the real world we are living in sometimes seems too dark and overwhelming. I need Housewives to get me a place where I can laugh and find it fun to watch. Potomac is really good at that.”
Allison Plut from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, doesn’t want to see Jen on a public stage following her change of plea. “I'm not interested in ever hearing from Jen again. She knew exactly what she was running and what they were doing.” She continued, “Jen clearly thought she was untouchable and could get away with anything, and then just couldn't resist the opportunity to flaunt her fake wealth. I believe she should've been off the show from the time of her arrest as information came out very quickly. Bravo rewarded bad behavior."
Melbourne, Australia-based viewer James Anfruns remembered seeing how the show’s marketing following Shah’s indictment centered on following her around town “I immediately thought of seeing Jen's face on the side of a bus earlier this year, traveling around here in Melbourne Australia, and surely other Australian cities and other countries,” he said. “Jen's scamming, performative wealth and narcissism got her on the show, which in turn provided an international platform. All at the expense of these elderly and vulnerable victims.”
“Like, that's fucking crazy.”
Rebecca Toll in Fort Collins, Colorado, told me that the number of prosecutions against current/former reality TV stars feels significant. “Between this, the Chrisleys, Erika (Girardi, wife of swindler Tom), Trump, etc., we seem to be in a cultural wave of understanding how to connect the dots between reality TV as a medium and how that uncovers or illuminates what it takes in our country to be considered wealthy. Hint: It’s crime. I think there is something there to unpack.”
While Jen’s guilt has brought her already-divisive persona to truly scorched earth levels of fan derision, how is this different from what happened in Franklin Lakes? Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice pleaded guilty to fraud, and served 11 months in prison; her then-husband Joe served 41 months, and was later deported. Teresa’s family filmed a limited spinoff while she was away; production on RHONJ even paused during her time behind bars, until she was back home and promptly began filming the show again.
I asked Cesie Alvaraz and Angela Angotti, lawyers and Bravoholics who run @TheBravoDocket on social media, about the differences between Giudice and Shah’s cases. “Procedurally, Jen and Tre’s guilty pleas are the same,” Alvarez explained, “but what differs is what they pled guilty to and the extent of their involvement in the crime. Teresa was seemingly ignorant to the fact that she was committing bankruptcy fraud by not declaring the full extent of her assets. Jen, on the other hand, not only knew she was defrauding helpless people but also tried to conceal it all. She directed [her assistant, Stuart Smith] to lie under oath, she tried hiding documents, she texted on encrypted messaging apps.”
Giudice also seemingly kept her head down in the months between pleading guilty and reporting to prison; Shah, meanwhile, attempted to crash BravoCon after being disinvited, partied on IG stories with never-ending glam, and continued to attack and threaten cast members on social media. Her attempts to show a sense of shame in court was in direct contradiction of her shamelessness in real time.
The government noted, somewhat incredulously, Shah’s strong and consistent work ethic in advancing her criminal enterprise to increasing heights.
Angotti thinks there was a potential benefit to Shah’s time on RHOSLC. “I think the publicity from her arrest brought so much attention to these schemes and the nefarious practice, that I actually think it was a really good thing that she was on Salt Lake City,” she explained.
“With social media and the intelligence and resourcefulness of Bravo fans, anything anyone has done in their past will likely come to light. The majority of people willing to go on reality television seem to have the type of optimism bias and narcissism that seems to run parallel with criminal activity. Is it a cost or a benefit that we can all watch and see what happens? Maybe it leads to more general deterrence.”
Fan Jim Gormley from Philly wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue watching Housewives after Shah’s indictment. “Honestly. It made me take a step back and ask myself “why am I idolizing some of these people? Why am I putting them on a pedestal? Am I rewarding this behavior by continuing to watch?”
But then he thought of franchises like The Real Housewives of Miami, a show filled with the kind of light currently missing from Salt Lake. “At the end of the day I do love it and for me, it’s a form of escapism and entertainment. Gotta take it with a grain of salt. Be a Marysol [Patton, a popular RHOM star], NOT a Jen Shah.”
“We may have a criminal housewife here and there,” he continued, “but we might also get a goat in a diaper.”
Shah’s time on Housewives typically mixed charisma with cruelty. Viewers watched her engage in physical altercations and countless screaming matches to silence and intimidate her cast, body shame her close friend, reference SEC filings to say a cast member couldn’t afford her lifestyle (how…rich), and lash out on social media, including as recently as last month. As creator @BravoBravoDuckingBravo noted, “Her friendships on the show felt fear-based more than built from a mutual respect and real connection.”
Shah told Judge Stein she is still a cast member on the show—possibly a technicality as season three is still airing—though it says something that Bravo hasn’t actually fired her, and that something is, “Yikes.” The majority of her cast—with the exception of Whitney Rose—have not referenced or commented on Jen’s sentencing. It’s a form of asset protection, one presumes, not wanting to step out of turn with the also-quiet network. Or perhaps their focus is elsewhere. Morality doesn’t sell cosmetic procedures and sweatsuit brands, after all. Silence might.
While many fans expressed unease about watching and supporting Salt Lake in light of Jen’s criminal activity, among other, unsavory elements—including the current storyline surrounding Heather Gay’s black eye—Connecticut viewer Mary Chatman felt differently. “This changes nothing about my feelings about RHOSLC; the flaws of human nature are at the forefront here which, to no one’s surprise, proves that life is truly not all diamonds and rosé, and that is authentic.”
If only Shah’s authenticity didn’t come at quite such a high cost.
