Fun Facts About Bravo's 'Below Deck' Show
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If you’re a Bravo fan, then you’ve certainly caught an episode or two of Below Deck.
After all, when you’re done catching up with the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast or laughing at the latest RHONJ taglines, it’s only natural to want to go on a virtual vacation somewhere fabulous. Enter Below Deck: The reality show that follows a luxury yacht crew, and the high-maintenance guests that come aboard with them.
Below Deck has been on since 2013, but whether you're a longtime fan or a new one, you likely have some questions. Like, who pays for the charters? Is Kate Chastain ever going to come back? And uh….how much does renting the yacht cost? Asking for a friend.
The answers to all of that, plus more fun facts below!
Soo, how much does it cost to rent the "Below Deck" yacht?
Longtime star Kate admitted to Entertainment Tonight in 2017 that it costs a pretty penny to charter a Below Deck yacht.
“Generally a boat that size, 150 foot...for seven days, is around $150,000,” she said. “But that does not include airfare, fuel, food, wine, docking, tip. So, I would say for a boat like Valor, for a week vacation, it would be around a quarter of a million dollars.” 😱
Anyone want to split it a few ways or...?
And yes, the guests do actually pay to charter the yacht.
Bravo's not handing out free ocean adventures! (Bummer.) The guests you see on the show pay their way—tip included.
“They spend their real money to be on the show,” producer Mark Cronin said. “And then the tip they leave, they decide what it is.”
Fellow producer Courtland Cox also mentioned that most people aren’t doing this just to get on TV. “This is a great experience for them to charter a very large yacht with a very experienced and fun crew and have an amazing three-day charter in an amazing location,” he said.
Apparently it wasn’t easy to get a "Below Deck" cast together.
According to Mark and Courtland, it was difficult to scrounge together the cast for season 1. “Initially, it was very hard to get yacht crew members to commit to doing the show because it was an unknown entity,” Courtland told Bravo. People (understandably) didn’t want to “jeopardize their future employment potential.”
But once it got going, it was easy to attract more interested folks. "The vast majority of people that do the show, they always say, 'I want to do the show because I want my friends and family to understand what my job is,'" Courtland said. "And they’re like, 'If I go on Below Deck, I will have a tangible, visible thing for my family and friends to understand what my job is.'"
Kate Chastain *might* be coming back.
Kate left Below Deck in 2020 after serving as the chief stew since season 2. She told Bravo, “I just feel like I’m 37 and a half—and I don’t think a girl should be wearing a skort at 38.” Fair! 😂
But now, there are whispers that Kate might return. She recently parted ways with Bravo’s Chat Room, and some fans think it's because she’s making space for Below Deck. Regardless of if she returns to the original show, she will definitely be appearing on the upcoming spinoff, Below Deck: Galley Talk, according to ET.
The show—and the drama—is real.
Fans always wonder if reality shows are scripted or not, but the producers say Below Deck is the real deal.
“I think people are so jaded by reality TV, they think that everything is thought ahead five steps or eight steps, and we are really genuinely filming what’s happening on a working charter yacht with people that are working on the yacht,” Courtland said. “I wish that I had the imagination and creativity to come up with the things that actually happen on the show because the things that happen on the show I could never in a million years come up with, could never imagine them.”
Interesting! Now, who's ready for a Below Deck marathon?
