There were plenty of ads for Cover Girl and Lexus and Match.com in the season premiere of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” which returned on Monday less than a month after Russell Armstrong, the estranged husband of one of the main characters, killed himself.

And commercial advertising must have been the real suicide prevention message that Bravo said it would broadcast during the show, not the scant spot for a suicide help line tacked on at the end. Those glossy endorsements from corporate sponsors delivered a scary warning: not even suicide will prevent a profitable show from going on.

The premiere itself, which was stitched together with shopping sprees and catfights filmed before Mr. Armstrong died, was as spritely and mean-spirited as ever. Even by the low standards of reality television, Bravo’s determination to slither past suicide and accountability was, well, chilling. Mr. Armstrong, who was apparently in despair over severe financial reversals and a broken marriage, had not been a central character, but the unhappiness of his wife, Taylor, was a recurring theme. After his death, Mr. Armstrong’s mother told HLN that her son was worried, among other things, that he would be vilified in the second season.

Actually he was edited out.

The tragedy was dealt with in an opening addendum: Two weeks after Mr. Armstrong’s death, all the Beverly Hills housewives except Taylor gathered at Adrienne’s mansion to address the suicide over hot beverages and chilled white wine. The women expressed anger, denial and acceptance — not grief, but a Kübler-Ross model of limited liability for the show.