![]() ![]() The only place you have privacy on the boat is the bathroom.” Even bathroom sanctity has limits cast members are informed at the beginning of a season that if two or more people enter one at the same time, a camera should be expected to follow. “They’re here to share every aspect of their lives,” said Mr. Once the network has convinced nine professional yacht workers to open their lives up to a TV audience, production’s task is to outfit a boat in such a way that it becomes virtually impossible for them to escape that audience. “Every location we go to, there’s some sort of special flavor of Pringles,” said Mr. Simultaneously, on one monitor, the yacht’s chef, Hindrigo Lorran, nicknamed Kiko, prepared a sumptuous spread of jamon Ibérico to tide the guests over until their six-course dinner. But I just start stress-eating Swedish Fish.” “I get halfway through a thing of gummies and I’m disgusted with myself. Cox, perusing a packed shelf of Spanish supermarket treats. “I eat stuff in the control room that I would never eat in my real life, ever,” said Mr. In the control room, where crew members had been working since six that morning, anxiety begat snacking. Per production policy, the production crew cannot influence the captain’s decision about how or when to operate the boat - such as by notifying her that the wind has died down to insurance-approved levels.Ĭast members scrambled, around midday, to orchestrate a beach picnic that would distract the guests from the fact their seafaring was being limited to those waves that had migrated from the open water to lap gently against their docked luxury yacht. The problem was wind gusts, which, for insurance reasons, precluded Captain Sandy’s attempt to pull out of the crowded marina, lest she assume personal liability for any possible damage or injury, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Which is why it was tough, that September morning, to tell who was more distressed that the yacht had not left the dock: the captain or the network executive. “The window for shooting the show is the window and that’s it. ![]() He was seated in “Below Deck” mission control as part of his traditional once-a-season set visit to ensure production was running smoothly. “You can’t say, ‘Oh, the show’s not going great. It is, for a reality show, uncommonly constrained by the bounds of reality. Whereas a season of “Housewives” might shoot for four to five months, “Below Deck” is allotted one third of that time to produce the same number of episodes. The operation’s inherent expense and scheduling logistics - booking 47 hotel rooms for six straight weeks for production, for instance - render the filming timeline largely inflexible. At its salty core, the franchise is a workplace drama. Viewers are told, and immediately permitted to forget, their names as, one after another, each group of six to 10 high-rolling vacationers is welcomed aboard. The ultrawealthy guests are still more evanescent. Apart from captains and chief stewardesses, the majority of crew members arrive fresh each season, and are never seen again. Unlike Bravo’s ostensible tentpole franchise “The Real Housewives,” which depicts the lives of the same cabals of wealthy women year after year - and often underperforms “Below Deck” in ratings, according to Noah Samton, a senior vice president of current production for Bravo - the yacht shows feature few familiar faces. Typically, every incarnation is set in a new locale and follows what is presented generally as an eight to 10 trip “season” in the life of a luxury charter boat, from the perspective of the vessel’s crew. Those who have never seen “Below Deck,” “Below Deck Mediterranean” or “Below Deck Sailing Yacht,” and who do not wish to spend the rest of their lives glued to Bravo’s flotation-themed programming, must never, ever watch even one minute of either program, for the “Below Deck” franchise lures in viewers with the pitiless ease of sirens summoning sailors to hurl their ships against the sun-warmed Grecian coast. White’s breezy protestations hours earlier. White’s reaction: a newly-arrived boat was obstructing her path through the marina - exactly as her boss, Captain Sandy Yawn, had warned might happen, over Ms.
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