Roxanne 
Summer House executives are shutting down speculation that Amanda Batula is being protected by production.
Amanda’s future on Summer House and In the City has become a major question after the explosive fallout from her romance with West Wilson. West is reportedly not returning to Summer House, and with most of the cast seemingly not on speaking terms with Amanda, fans have been questioning whether Bravo is trying to soften Amanda’s role in the drama.
Some viewers have accused the network of pushing a victim narrative around Amanda, especially after West’s exit and the way the reunion and bonus episode played out. But according to Bravo/Peacock SVP of production Noah Samton, that is not what happened.
Speaking to Variety, Noah denied that production protected Amanda during the Summer House reunion.
“I don’t know how you could watch that reunion and feel like anybody protected her from anything,” he said.
Noah explained that the job of reality TV producers is to tell every side of the story as fairly as possible, while also cutting down hours of footage into a limited amount of airtime.
“This is what we do on reality TV—we tell everybody’s story, and we try to tell it as best we can from a very fair point of view. We are cutting down 10 hours of a reunion into three hours total or something. So sure, stuff hits the cutting room floor. But there’s never any intention of protecting somebody, or spinning it in a certain way. It’s about representing what actually happened in the most fair—but also entertaining—way we can.”
The comments come after fans noticed that certain moments from the reunion and aftermath episode did not make the final edit. Lindsay Hubbard recently claimed that part of her conversation with Amanda was cut, including the moment she told Amanda what she needs from friends moving forward.
Lindsay wrote, “Not seen/didnt make the edit:
I told Amanda at the end of that convo, in order to be friends with me, I need my friends to show “integrity, character, and better decision making skills. And until that happens… unfortunately, there’s no place for people like that in my life.””
That only fueled more conversation about whether viewers were seeing the full picture of Amanda’s accountability.
Still, Noah said there is a difference between protecting someone from a storyline and wanting cast members to be treated humanely once the show airs.
“I would want to protect anybody on any one of our shows, to the extent of it’s a cruel world out there. People are vicious on social media. I don’t want anybody to get death threats. I don’t want anything bad to happen. People have opened up their lives for the viewers’ entertainment, and they deserve to be treated with respect and kindness. But that’s different than protecting somebody.”
That distinction is important because the backlash against Amanda and West has been intense. Their relationship became one of the biggest Bravo scandals of the season after they confirmed their romance in March. The timing shocked fans because Amanda had recently separated from Kyle Cooke, while West previously dated Ciara, one of Amanda’s closest friends.
The fallout dominated the reunion, with Ciara making it clear she felt betrayed, Kyle struggling with Amanda moving on with someone in the friend group, and several cast members questioning how Amanda and West handled the situation.
As for Amanda’s future on In the City, Noah did not rule anything out, but he made it clear that the friendship dynamic matters.
“I do think if you’re doing a show about a friend group, they do still need to be friends to an extent. So if there’s a world in which Amanda made sense with that cast—sure, that’s a possibility.”
