Why Andy Cohen Says There Won't Be A Reboot Of NYC Prep
"The top half of the 1 percent." That was the name of episode one of Bravo TV's NYC Prep, which was like the real-world Gossip Girl. The show followed the drama in the life of six moneyed and elite New York City prep school kids in 2009. The show ran for just one season, and that may be all that we get. according to Andy Cohen.
A fan on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen After Show (via Bravo TV) asked, "Would you ever consider doing an NYC Prep reboot with a new generation, like Gen Z, TikTok [at an] NYC prep school?"
He seemed excited about the idea at first, but then but quickly shut it down, revealing some behind-the-scenes pushback in season 1 that makes future seasons pretty much impossible. "I think we would love to, but that show — between the schools who didn't want us shooting a show with kids and some of the parents — it was incredibly difficult to shoot that show."
Even getting the season that we did sounds like it was a struggle, with Cohen saying, "I'm surprised we even got one season out of it. It was very challenging."
The prep schools and parents weren't happy about the show
Sounds like he definitely wasn't exaggerating when it came to the limitations they had. The schools themselves wouldn't let Bravo TV include their names, and only one school agreed to let any filming happen in the school itself (via The New York Times). As reported in the New York Times, the director of institutional advancement of one of the prep schools featured in the show released a statement shortly after the show aired, which read, "The Nightingale-Bamford School has no affiliation with the Bravo television program 'NYC Prep,' and we strongly disagree with how it seeks to portray independent school students in New York. One of our students decided to participate in the show without consulting Nightingale's administrators."
Some parents saw the portrayal of the prep school kids as potentially damaging to their own children. The president of a private school parents' group told The New York Times, "This is a show that represents a group of kids doing a lot of excessive and risky behavior. This really isn't representative of who we are."