Anyone who's followed the "Real Housewives" franchises on Bravo know that they are paid to say outrageous things to each other, a garage full of divas on wheels. So it's mildly shocking that the E! channel collapsed in wokeness and fired Real Housewives of New York veteran Jill Zarin from a reboot with her former cast mates called The Golden Life for an Instagram video she made trashing the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show. Media accounts called her comments "racist." For what?
Variety's headline: “Jill Zarin Fired From E!’s ‘RHONY’ Reunion Show ‘The Golden Life’ After Racist Bad Bunny Tirade”
Entertainment Tonight headlined its YouTube video "Jill Zarin FIRED From E!'s RHONY Reboot After Racist Bad Bunny Halftime Show Review"
ET's Cassie DeLaura suggested just these words were a firing offense: "I don’t speak Spanish. I would’ve liked to have known the words he was saying....To me, it looked like a political statement... I think it was an ICE thing." Is that all? It's not a trenchant critique of Bad Bunny's leftist politics, but "racist"?
Here's the fuller transcript:
Jill Zarin’s review of Bad Bunny’s #SuperBowl Halftime Show… 🥴 pic.twitter.com/XH8f0HjQpI
— Gibson Johns (@gibsonoma) February 9, 2026
JILL ZARIN: Now we all agree — I said it before -- that it was the worst halftime show ever. And it’s 250 years that we’re celebrating right now in the United States, and I just don’t think it was appropriate to have it in Spanish. And, quite frankly, grabbing his G [groin] area, I think it was totally inappropriate. You’ve got all these young kids watching the Super Bowl and he doesn’t have to be grabbing himself every five seconds because he’s so insecure.
Seriously, I don’t speak Spanish, I would have liked to have known the words he was saying, to me it looked like a political statement because there were literally no white people in the entire thing I think it was a political statement, and I’m not taking a side one way or the other, I just do, I think it was an ICE thing and I just think that the NFL sold out, and it’s a very sad because, seventy-five years and, you know … shame. Shame. And Lady Gaga got a facelift, I didn't recognize her, I literally had to Google her face to see who she was, because we all couldn't agree who she was. At least it gave me something to do, because it was so hard to watch.
Let's assume the most "racist" thing in her is complaining there weren't white people in the show, but then she acknowledges pale Lady Gaga was singing and dancing in it.
The producers of the Zarin reboot issued a statement: “In light of recent public comments made by Jill Zarin, Blink49 Studios has decided not to move forward with her involvement in ‘The Golden Life.’ We remain committed to delivering the series in line with our company standards and values." So a show based on gaudy rich women trashing each other is upholding "standards and values"?
The "values" here are clearly wokeness. You can't condemn something not being done in English, and to say it's distasteful to get all political about deportations is apparently beyond the pale.
ET turned to another former RHONY cast member, Dorinda Medley, for the woke take against Zarin: “I disagree with absolutely everything she said. I don’t know how you walk away from what we had the luxury and the honor of witnessing yesterday at the Super Bowl and the effect it probably had on so many people – especially people who are frightened right now, that are faltered right now [?]. He created hope!”
