It seems that all NeNe Leakes had to do to get a Real Housewives of Atlanta spin-off was to threaten to quit the TV show. According to the latest gossip news updates, the real reason the Bravo network gave the Glee queen bee her own a spin-off with former cast member Kim Zolciak is because she was flat out threatening to walk away from the hit series forever if they didn't come up with some sort of way to pay her more money going into Season 8. Doing her part to stimulate the economy -- NeNe reportedly went right out and just bought a new $2.075 million mansion with her raise.
After telling everyone that bothered to listen following her completion of Season 7 that she really didn't see herself going through that kind of torture again, it must have been pretty obvious to the producers of Bravo's Real Housewives of Atlanta that they were going to have to come out with some sort of super-incentive if they were going to successfully lure NeNe Leakes back for Season 8.
One TV show insider told OK! Magazine that the powers that be quickly decided that it was easier to just give Leakes a new spin-off than it was to try to replace the most popular cast member on the series:
"NeNe absolutely hated Housewives this season. She hated almost all of the other women and wanted off the show entirely.
"But she is the most valuable person in the entire franchise and Bravo was going to do whatever she wanted to keep her.
"So they offered her the spin-off, which she gladly took."
That has to be good news for Andy Cohen, who thinks that Kim Zolciak is one of the best Housewives the show has ever had.
During a recent chat with Real Housewives of New York's Bethenny Frankel, Andy recalled his all-time favorite moment from all the series being Kim's first reunion show, wherein she admitted that she had basically lied about having had cancer all season long (via Inquisitr):
"It was the Season 1 Atlanta reunion when I asked Kim Zolciak about her having cancer.
"And she went into this cockamamie story...about sitting in the parking lot of a Chili's waiting for test results and it turns out she didn't have cancer.
"And I was like, 'Well did you have it?' And she was like, 'No I did not.'
"It's just that it's an absurd moment and it defines the entire operation to me."
While the exact amount of NeNe's new contract with Bravo has not been officially announced, it's probably safe to assume from the multimillion dollar mega-mansion that Radar Online is reporting Leakes just bought that it's a good bit more than whatever they are paying Kenya Moore and Claudia Jordan.
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