Why Are Fans Treating Jen Shah’s Sentencing Like It’s the Super Bowl?

If my Twitter timeline—which is now mostly tweets from unfamiliar accounts that share my taste in celebrities—is accurate, this upcoming Friday, Jan. 6, marks a new national holiday.

As you probably know, that date already has some significance. This year will be the second anniversary of insurrectionists storming the Capitol and threatening to harm Democrats. Surely, a number of liberal politicians and pundits will spend the day recalling this terrifying event and denouncing right-wing extremism on social media, as they should. Tucker Carlson will probably be tweeting something about how it wasn’t that bad.

But while that’s happening, it seems like a good chunk of Twitter will be discussing, celebrating, and maybe even tailgating another cultural event that same day, one a bit more fascinating and enthralling than the very serious but well-understood (well, for some us) reality of white supremacy in America. Get your party favors ready. A 49-year-old woman from Utah is going to prison!

If I sound gleeful about this, I am not, personally. I’m simply echoing the overwhelming sentiment on social media regarding Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah’s long-awaited prison sentence being decided this Friday.

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After dominating headlines for nearly two years and cementing Bravo as the new home of true crime, Shah will finally face consequences for the years she spent defrauding the elderly through a shady marketing business and say goodbye to the Real Housewives franchise probably forever. (Although, we can only hope for a one-on-one sit down with Andy Cohen a la dubious cancer patient Brooks Ayer from Real Housewives of Orange County.)

Undoubtedly, this is a sad and unfortunate situation, primarily for the unwitting elderly folk who were preyed 0n financially by Shah and others involved in the scheme. It’s also tragic for Shah’s two sons, who will possibly have to live without their mom around for as much as 10 years—the sentence prosecutors are seeking—and have already had to deal with the FBI raiding their home with guns. The jury’s still out on whether we should feel bad for her husband, Sharrieff, who, as TikTok philosopher Julia Fox argued, has barely been questioned or received any heat for his potential knowledge of his wife’s crimes. Either way, the whole thing is sad!

However, the reaction to Shah’s inevitable time in prison from Bravo fan accounts has been far from somber or critical of the situation. (Although, I did laugh at this one analysis). To be clear, I’m not saying she deserves support. Bravo fans who seem to genuinely like this woman are also concerning—mostly because, in my opinion, she makes bad TV. However, it’s a bit jarring to step back and watch Twitter users prep their schedules for Shah’s prison sentencing like my dad clearing his day for the Super Bowl. Or how I will plan my week for Rihanna’s upcoming Halftime Show.

In other tweets, folks have also pointed out (rather, funnily) that Shah’s sentencing coincides with two other notable occasions, the long-awaited debut of robot thriller M3GAN in theaters and the Season 15 premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Remarking on this timing, one poster wrote, “cannot believe Jan 6 is not only the Drag Race premiere but also Jen Shah sentencing day, the gays are reclaiming.”

Some of these tweets clearly contain some irony. Presumably, some users are consciously participating in what’s become a meme. Others I’m not so sure about, given how unaffected the general public is by these kinds of scammer stories—not to mention a lack of understanding of prison as something that unfairly punishes people and causes significant collateral damage.

In general, the Real Housewives fanbase—I’m including myself here!—like to revel in the misery of the wealthy women we claim to love. Podcast host Ira Madison III correctly summed up the perverse psychology of most reality TV consumers when he tweeted, “texting friends “#RHOM is SERVING” and it’s literally about Lisa’s divorce destroying her life.”

More and more, we also like to police these women and see justice carried out, whether it's Cohen nailing a Housewife at a reunion, a fellow Housewife reading them for filth or Bravo terminating their contracts. This is most evident watching viewers live-tweet the current season of Real Housewives of Potomac, where the most mundane conflicts inspire the most passionate debates, with fans demanding that certain women be held accountable at the reunion like they’ve shot someone. Sometimes—most of the time—they deserve their criticism. Sometimes, we should remind ourselves that making these women behave exactly the way we want them to isn’t the point!

Likewise, it makes sense that fans are foaming at the mouth waiting for Shah to be incarcerated. It’s been awhile since viewers’ hatred for a specific housewife has manifested so extremely. Despite viewers’ calls for her firing over the two past seasons, Erika Jayne will probably remain on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for the foreseeable future, given that she’s the only cast member really doing anything. (Sorry!) Bravo fans certainly expected the network (and Cohen) to come down more harshly on Lisa Rinna’s behavior on social media. And it was genuinely disappointing when the most reviled Housewife in the show’s history, Diana Jenkins, was able to skate by her first reunion with hardly anyone but Garcelle Beauvais calling out her bullying antics.

Jen Shah’s ‘Real Housewives’ Fraud Scandal Is So Tragic. Why Is It Also So Much Fun?

Overall, the entire Shah situation represents why Real Housewives can be so compelling and why the show kind of sucks in its current iteration. Crime has always existed in these franchises, but now it seems like it’s growing into a major facet of the show, an expectation almost.

But as we’re learning on a rather scattered, uneventful season of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, none of this is inherently fun to watch play out. The announcement of Shah’s arrest (the photos of her in box braids!) was certainly something to behold. But now, we’re all rooting for a woman of color to be imprisoned for a whole decade when we should all be enjoying a bunch of socialites talk shit about each other and throw embarrassing parties instead.

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