Real Housewives of New York City Season 7: Aviva Drescher Fired; Ramona Singer Demoted; LuAnn de Lesseps Promoted; Sonja Morgan, Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson, and Kristen Taekman Returning

By Kara Michelle Oct 02, 2014 08:08 AM EDT

Real Housewives of New York City Season 7: Aviva Drescher Fired; Ramona Singer Demoted; LuAnn de Lesseps Promoted; Sonja Morgan, Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson, and Kristen Taekman Returning

Real Housewives of New York City Season 7 casting decisions are always on the table until the new season starts filming according to Bravo TV. Since filming hasn't been started, there is really still no final lineup of the cast who will be featured in Real Housewives of New York City Season 7. However, it's probably safe at this point to say that Sonja Morgan, Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson, and Kristen Taekman will be returning.

Ramona Singer on the other hand, according to an exclusive from US Weekly, has been demoted to a recurring role on the Real Housewives Of New York City Season 7 reality show TV series. An original member of the cast since it premiered on air, the 57-year old Singer's close to $600,000 per season paycheck may have been a factor in the network's decision to demote her according to the report. Also, Aviva Drescher has been fired, according to another exclusive from US Weekly. A regular in the show for the past two seasons, she will probably be best remembered for throwing her prosthetic leg in the Season 6 finale at six cast mates who accused her of lying and using fake alibis to avoid going on mandatory group trips to Montana, Berkshires, Saratoga Springs, and elsewhere. LuAnn de Lesseps however will be seen again next season. Lesseps will return no longer as a "friend" but as a full-fledged "housewife."

Bethenny Frankel, an original member of the show who was a regular from Season 1 to Season 3, was reported by US Weekly to be returning for Real Housewives of New York City Season 7. According to the online magazine, an insider revealed that "bringing her back is a last-ditch effort" to help boost ratings, which fell to just 1 million viewers during Season 6 from a previous record of 2.6 million viewers. Frankel left the franchise after her televised cat-fight with then fellow cast members Jill Zarin and Kelly Bensimon, who have both also exited from the show. The 43-year-old Frankel, aside from being a TV personality, is an author of five books and an entrepreneur.

Frankel herself neither categorically confirmed nor denied the US Weekly report about her return to the show during her interview with SiriusXM Radio host Jenny Hutt to promote her new children's book Cookie Meets Peanut. She said: "I haven't signed or decided to do anything. But it's not what everyone thinks it is... Well I feel like I'm going to get in trouble if I say what I'm actually doing with Andy. So I don't want to say much more, but I haven't signed anything and I have a great relationship with Andy and the housewives and they've asked me to come back for years.... But Andy has a production company now. He's doing a lot of different shows, so we're talking about a couple of different things and deciding together what we're going to do. So that could be why everyone's writing about this."

Previously, Danish supermodel and photographer Helena Christensen reportedly turned down an invitation to be a part of the Real Housewives of New York City Season 7 cast according to Page Six. Helena was one of the first Victoria's Secret Angels and has been featured in campaigns for Revlon, Chanel and Versace. She has appeared in the covers of Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar.

The Real Housewives of New York City Season 7, once it returns on air, will have host Andy Cohen back at the show's reigns as executive producer. To boost the ratings, Cohen may need to do "a little cast re-shuffling and maybe even a little firing" says Reality Tea.