The end may be near for hit show Basketball Wives! After a boycott was launched last month against the show, sponsors are starting to drop like flies.
Summer’s Eve has become one of the first advertisers to not only pull ads from “Basketball Wives,” but VH1’s planned spin-off for Evelyn Lozada and Chad Ochocinco, too.
Meanwhile the ratings for the show are falling off a cliff. Ratings have dropped from 2 million viewers to 1.7million last week which is a 12% drop..Insiders at VH1 tell us that producers and executives are pulling out all of the stops trying to stop the bleeding. Other sponsors are said to be considering pulling their ads from airing during the show.
This latest drama is being linked to the “Basketball Wives” petition that not only calls for fans stop watching the show, but to contact VH1 and Viacom to do something about the bullying and violence that often permeates throughout each episode. So far the petition has more than 23,000 signatures!
After four seasons and several ghetto fights later, the show is feeling the backlash from fans who’ve grown tired of the drama. One fan in particular named Alexis M. began a petition on change.org called ‘Boycott Evelyn Lozada’.
“Evelyn Lozada is a bully. The violence on “Basketball Wives” is horrible and disgraceful. Physical assaults, threats, verbal abuse, and harassment. VH1 is rewarding this behavior by giving Evelyn a spinoff. Don’t reward negative behavior. This is not a hate petition against Eveyln Lozada. We simply will not support violence. It hurts to see violence amongst women on television for entertainment purposes. It is not ok for women to hit each other on TV.”
Another vocal advocate of the boycott is Star Jones.
Last month Jones called for a boycott and after the episode aired where Jennifer Williams was slapped and later pressed charges. Jones spoke out on Twitter with hashtag #ENOUGHisENOUGH.
