However, Lewis revealed on his SiriusXM radio show Jeff Lewis Live! that Bravo has not canceled Flipping Out yet — which is currently airing its eleventh season.
“Just to clarify: the show has not been officially cancelled,” he said, according to PEOPLE. “Usually what happens is, they will air the show and they air the season and then everyone gets together at Bravo and they collect all the ratings and then they make a decision. As far as I know, no one has made a decision.”
Lewis admits that the timing hasn’t been great for a renewal. “I understand the timing was not right for Bravo,” Lewis said on Jeff Lewis Live. “My contract happens to expire before the rest of the season airs. I would think you might want to air the season a little sooner before the contract expires so that way you can decide whether or not you want to pick up the show.”
He also claimed that Bravo had previously picked up Flipping Out in the middle of airing a season. “There have been times when they picked up the show right after episode 3 airs,” he said. “Sometimes they do it quickly, sometimes not as quickly. As far as I know, there’s been no definitive answer.”
“They’re also not going to send an email and say, ‘We’ve decided not to pick up your show.’ They just go dark as far as I know,” he said. “It would be nice to hear from an upper level executive, with flowers or something.”
“It is personal,” he later admitted of the network allowing the lapse. “My feelings are hurt. I’m not feeling important to them right now. I’ve been with them for 11 years. I’ve done three shows for them. I’ve worked my ass off for them, and I’m not feeling important because they don’t seem to care that my contract is expired and that tomorrow I could be somewhere else.”
“You don’t give a s—,” he said. “And considering right now, they’re launching this whole Bravo Home [initiative] — which I think is a great idea. Is this the time to let your anchor remodeling show lapse?”
No matter what happens, Lewis said on Jeff Lewis Live that he believes that “when one door closes, another door opens” and he “will manifest somewhere else.”
And, he confessed, he did take at least one “big meeting,” claiming that he did not have a non-compete clause in his contract. “I want people to know that I’m a free agent, absolutely,” Lewis said, according to PEOPLE.
Regardless, Lewis says he's grateful for the opportunities that Bravo has given him.
“I do really like everybody at Bravo,” he said, reading a text message exchange he had with Bravo boss Andy Cohen. “I’m always open to working with and for Bravo. There is no ill will from me.”
“I would not be here sitting in this room if it weren’t for them,” Lewis added, separately. “I have absolutely nothing but gratitude for them and I understand what they’ve done for me. If it’s over, it’s over and I can hopefully land somewhere else.”
Then, Lewis took to Twitter to entourage fans to sign an online petition, that was created by a fan so that Bravo renewed his contract and Flipping Out returns for Season 12. “I'm normally not political, but is an important cause.”
That's not all. During his radio show, Lewis shares his exchanged text messages with Andy Cohen. Lewis revealed that Cohen was not to thrilled with his recent Instagram post where the Bravo reality star shared a photo of himself, showing him standing next to a white board bearing his photo and the words “Contract EXPIRED!” written across the top, with a big red X drawn across his face.
“Guess there’s no going away party @bravotv?” he captioned the snapshot.
But according to Lewis, it was simply a joke. “As you know, Andy Cohen has been known to lose his temper with me,” Lewis said on his SiriusXM radio show Jeff Lewis Live, which is part of Cohen’s channel RadioAndy, on Tuesday. “After 11 years, we’ve been very much of a sibling type of a relationship.
He continued by presenting alleged evidence of their sometimes-contentious bond. “I normally would never read his texts on air — but the reason I would read this is that he has changed his strategy with me,” Lewis says. “Yesterday, I think when it happened, he thought, ‘I’m not getting through to him by screaming at him. I’m not getting through to him by writing nasty, threatening texts. I’m going to try a different strategy.'”
Lewis began with Cohen allegedly asking him what he hoped to achieve by posting the photo, to which Lewis responded. “It’s a joke. Didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Would it be funny to Bravo?” Cohen allegedly asked.
“I hope so,” Lewis responded, before Cohen allegedly added, “I highly doubt it.”
“I wasn’t going after them in any way,” Lewis wrote to Cohen. “Just making fun of the situation.”
“Uh huh,” Cohen allegedly wrote back, according to PEOPLE. “Looks to me like you’re vilifying the network. They usually pick up shows after they finish their season. But maybe you want to let competitors know you are open for business, which you are definitely doing.”
Lewis went on to claim that he was not, in fact “vilifying the network” but instead, “letting competitors know I’m a free agent” and even teased leaving Bravo for another network.
“You’re a very smart guy,” Lewis continued. “I’ll be at WE in no time. I really do like everybody at Bravo. It’s not personal.”
However, Andy wasn’t buying it. “You’re just pissing everyone there off again and making them think Bravo is cancelling the show, which doesn’t make them look good,” Cohen allegedly wrote. “If you’re doing it to work somewhere else, I get it.”
But Lewis maintains that he would want to stay with the network.“I’m always open to working with and for Bravo,” Lewis said. “There is no ill will from me.”
Later in the show, Lewis claims he received another text from Cohen allegedly telling him off for reading their messages aloud.
“I thought he looked like a smart, rational guy when he was giving that advice,” Lewis said of their earlier exchange, but then continued to read their conversation on air. “He just said, ‘You’re an a—hole.’ He said, ‘Don’t ever read my texts on air again. You’re an a—hole.'”
“I think we’re back to the old strategy!” Lewis added. “God, he’s funny.”
Meanwhile, Bravo reps confirmed to PEOPLE that “nothing official has been determined” regarding Flipping Out. They had no comment on the status of Lewis’ contract.
Photo Credit: Bravo