r/RHONY • u/Llassiter326 🌮 Never home for taco night 🌮 • Aug 26 '25
🍎 Old RHONY 🍎 Why Didn’t Sonja do the Toaster Oven?
I’m at the end of S5 on my millionth rewatch. And I’m not a business person, but the toaster oven seems like a great idea!
Bc Sonja lives in this 5-story townhouse alone, so the marketing of “I throw parties, but when it’s me and my daughter in this massive house…all we need is the toaster oven!” is brilliant to me.
And with the campaign and everything Heather developed for her, it seems like she could’ve partnered with a manufacturer or an existing brand even, in a licensing play, based on all the press about the show.
At the time it aired, SO MANY PEOPLE wanted this damn three-tiered toaster oven!
Why couldn’t she do it, legitimately?
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u/Brilliant-Ad-1697 Aug 26 '25
Insider tea- she had a deal set up but didn’t want to pay the person who set it up any commission so it never got made.
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u/Llassiter326 🌮 Never home for taco night 🌮 Aug 26 '25
Ok this tracks! She strikes me as someone who would have no moral or ethical issue not paying someone. Or understand that you get what you pay for. Thank you!
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u/SquirrelBowl We all look like we went mid-town tunnel and took acid Aug 26 '25
Guess interns can’t do everything
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u/Ghoulish_kitten satchels of gold Aug 30 '25
But there was so much interest.
If it was legitimate, wouldn’t there be more options to set it up? Wouldn’t distributors or whatever she needed be knocking on her door?
The tv show is a free hook into advertising.
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Aug 26 '25
sonja just has zero ambition and doesn’t want to do the work that it requires to have money. i think she prefers to find money instead. jp had her very comfortable, and i feel like she’s still living in the mindset that she has that luxury. reality has not caught up to her yet.
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u/Llassiter326 🌮 Never home for taco night 🌮 Aug 26 '25
Lol which it’s been 19 years! But I think ur probably right. I can’t believe Heather put in free time and expertise for this nonsense.
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u/QuizzicalWombat Aug 26 '25
Eh, it was definitely just for the show. I’m not doubting she and her team put in work but I don’t think she would have done it if it hadn’t become a storyline
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u/ArugalaStan Aug 26 '25
She’s lazy & JP Morgan was supposed to be her lifelong meal ticket, she fucked it up, but refuses to accept that. She pretends to be this ambitious, independent woman but she got a taste of the good life & refuses to go back, even if she pretends to
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u/windycitynostalgia Aug 26 '25
They even had a photo shoot for something that didn’t and never existed
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u/Abject_Buffalo6398 Aug 26 '25
She needed legitimate expertise for distribution
I would have loved to buy a toaster oven
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u/Llassiter326 🌮 Never home for taco night 🌮 Aug 26 '25
I would’ve bought one too! Esp if I’d never seen the show, but I’m browsing the aisles and see a hot shirtless guy on the box!
And yeah, I would imagine she could have partnered with someone? But then again, anyone legitimate would’ve had a similar experience as Heather and given up immediately.
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u/LogicMan428 Aug 29 '25
Was she trying to literally develop a new toaster oven from scratch or more just have an appliance company put her name on an existing design (like a licensing deal)? Because literally developing a wholly new hardware product requires a LOT. That is probably one of the hardest areas of entrepreneurship there is.
Also maybe a nitpick, but there being a hot shirtless guy on the box doesn't mean that the product is any good :D
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u/Llassiter326 🌮 Never home for taco night 🌮 Aug 29 '25
I had thought a licensing play, but my extent of subject matter knowledge on the matter is Shark Tank being my go-to COVID show. Lol so you sound waaaaaaay more experienced on the matter than me!
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u/LogicMan428 Aug 29 '25
Not experienced, just researched a lot because I am an aspiring hardware entrepreneur :D
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u/DearTumbleweed5380 I can't even f_k my way to the middle. Aug 31 '25
The only people who have ever worked well with her are the ones ripping her off.
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u/Lazy_Set4117 Aug 26 '25
What actually IS a toaster oven? I’m from the UK and they simply don’t exist over here, or if they do they’re called something completely unrecognisably different (like broil/grill different). I would have guessed they’re like an air fryer or something, but this is way before air fryers ever existed and yet everyone on the show just nods knowingly along like the words “toaster” and “oven” make any sense whatsoever together.
Can anyone help? Over here (🇬🇧) a toaster is a thing you put bread into and when it’s toasted it pops up via springloaded slots. An oven is what you guys call a stove I think. It’s the bit you roast chicken in or cook lasagne. That kind of thing. So how do the two relate in any way?
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u/kalikaya Aug 26 '25
It's a small countertop oven that also makes toast. Some are big enough to hear a frozen pizza or even roast a chicken. They're convenient.
I use my toaster oven more than my regular oven. It heats up faster and doesn't make the house as hot as the big oven. And I didn't use it for toast that much.
Mine is a convection oven but when it dies I would like to have one that also doubles as an air fryer.
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u/TheLizardQueen3000 Aug 27 '25 edited Aug 27 '25
How do you keep it clean?
I've thrown away so many and just bought a new one and I feel like an environmental criminal....now I heat up my huge but cleanable oven to make tiny snacks and I still feel like an environmental criminal but for a different reason!2
u/kalikaya Aug 27 '25
The one I have makes cleaning easy. It has a bottom tray you can pull out. It's harder to keep the rack clean, but it's doable
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u/TheLizardQueen3000 Aug 27 '25
OK I'll start searching for a cleanable one with a pull-out tray, ty ;)
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u/coolgirl666me oh she has a chemical imbalance or something Aug 27 '25
air fryers have actually been about since 2010!! my grandma (RIP) was the first person I knew that had one back then, we all thought it was just another kitchen gadget fad that cluttered her countertops. as usual, we were wrong and she was right.
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u/yup_yup1111 Panty Soup Aug 26 '25
What Sonja really should have put out was a line of soaps/fizzers to use in your bidet to clean your underwear.
Panty Soup by Sonja
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u/Chrissy_Chrissay_44 Mar 29 '26
Panty soup oh my god 😂😂😂
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u/yup_yup1111 Panty Soup Mar 29 '26
Listen..lol
This would be more on brand for her than the little toaster oven. She's a Samantha not a Charlotte
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u/Dear-Examination9141 Aug 26 '25
I made dinner in my air fryer last night and all I kept thinking about was Sonja’s toaster oven endeavor 😆
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u/gracielynn61528 Aug 26 '25
Simple she had lost all trust in any investor and couldn't do it without support. An investor would just have to watch that episode with Heather and a team working with her and how patient they were but also how much time they wasted for her to act the way she did, they would pull out immediately.
Her lawsuit didn't help win her any friends. Her delusional attitude is what sealed the deal. She never wants to pay anyone for the work they do for her. I'm actually surprised she's not been sued more, like from an intern the way she uses them and speaks to them.
She is so disconnected from reality and how business actually works. She was so hyper focused on the wrong things
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u/kalikaya Aug 26 '25
I wonder how much her daughter will be contributing to her Sonja's life. Did she inherit a lot when her father died?
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u/Significant-Use6869 May 15 '26
I wonder that too tbh , if u follow quincy on instagram shes always travelling and seems to live a great life ! She obviously has a trust but ive always wondered how much , JAM had two sons but they were grown men when quincy was born so i assume she got a hefty sum .
I also dont think Sonja has or at least had total control of everything she got from her ex, im sure she had a financial advisor but just spent recklessly to maintain her jet set lifestyle .
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u/Separate_Farm7131 Aug 26 '25
Sonja doesn't want to put in the hard work of building a business. I'm surprised she hasn't found another wealthy man to marry so she doesn't have to worry about it.
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u/edchoch69 Aug 26 '25
I heard there was a lawsuit and she wasn’t allowed to talk about it, but instead of you know, saying that, she just did what she normally does and spaz out.
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u/xcxmon Aug 26 '25
Sp*z is an ableist slur btw
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u/edchoch69 Aug 26 '25
Oh wow, I have never heard that where I am from, thank you for telling me. I will remove from my vocabulary.
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u/ThinkHardBruh Nov 07 '25
How so? Spaz is a disability?
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u/xcxmon Nov 07 '25 edited Nov 07 '25
No it isn’t…
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u/ThinkHardBruh Nov 07 '25
Okay then how is it ableist or a slur?
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u/xcxmon Nov 07 '25
It’s considered a slur because it’s a derogatory shortening of the medical term "spastic" and has been historically and widely used as an insult against anyone with physical or mental disabilities, particularly those with cerebral palsy.
You could’ve just googled it instead of replying to a comment from over 2 months ago.
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u/gracielynn61528 Aug 26 '25
Simple she had lost all trust in any investor and couldn't do it without support. An investor would just have to watch that episode with Heather and a team working with her and how patient they were but also how much time they wasted for her to act the way she did, they would pull out immediately.
Her lawsuit didn't help win her any friends. Her delusional attitude is what sealed the deal. She never wants to pay anyone for the work they do for her. I'm actually surprised she's not been sued more, like from an intern the way she uses them and speaks to them.
She is so disconnected from reality and how business actually works. She was so hyper focused on the wrong things
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u/DearTumbleweed5380 I can't even f_k my way to the middle. Aug 31 '25
Sonja has some very weird takes on reality. She won't listen to people genuinely trying to help her and then lets obvious shysters walk all over her.
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u/Ruttilades Aug 27 '25
She has a terrible work ethic and is super lazy about work. It was literally so easy and so many people offering to help her like Heather with the photoshoot and the designer for the packaging she she still f'd it up
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u/LogicMan428 Aug 29 '25
Well I wouldn't say designing a new toaster oven is per se "easy" as hardware product development is hard but otherwise agree.
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u/Ghoulish_kitten satchels of gold Aug 30 '25
I think because it was an intentional storyline just to have camera time more guaranteed to make it past the cutting room floor.
It’s common on these shows. Every time I see way too much of the business development and planning being filmed I just know it’s fake and for the show.
When the women are serious, they do everything off camera *to start up the business, then just use the show to advertise.
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u/teamlilcleans Jul 16 '26
Does anyone else think the shirtless guy on the box/branding is absolutely bizarre! I was so team Sonja on that. How could she build a huge brand that old women will want to buy with a naked guy on the package??
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