Below Deck is the perfect reality show. It’s got everything we crave in a reality banger: hot people, beautiful sights, dramatic events, dickheads, hookups, and stressful situations. While I reckon it’s the best — and least contrived — reality show on our screens, there are still a whole heap of people who doubt the magic. As a result, there are a bunch of misconceptions swirling on the internet about the show.
So, to get to the bottom of what is real and what is rumour, I had a chat with Below Deck Mediterranian and Below Deck Down Under’s golden girl, chief stewardess Aesha Scott to clear things up.
True or False: Rumours about Below Deck
The drama is created by producers: FALSE
“Oh, my God, false, false, false. This one drives me fucking crazy because our jobs are so hard. No drama needs to be created,” Aesha exclaims.
“I remember before I started Below Deck, I would sit there and think, ‘This should really be a TV show’.
“We’re all working 16-hour shifts. We’re working on boats where we don’t see anyone from the outside world. We don’t talk to our family. We’re so stuck in this pressure cooker of being overworked and not seeing anyone else that the drama just happens.
“People have meltdowns, people fight, people sleep with each other’s boyfriends, they have love triangles or even love octagons. It’s just what happens when young, mostly single, people are stuck on boats together.”
The drama is edited to seem worse than it is: FALSE
“No, I don’t think so,” Aesha says, but does note that the production team does have to edit the content down a lot.
“You might get from A to B quicker, but I think it’s still what happened. It’s not like they can make things up. And even though you’re getting there quicker, it’s still what actually happened.”
The guests are chosen by production for maximum bad behaviour: TRUE-ish
Although the guests who board the motor yachts are chosen by the production team, Aesha says that they’re not just looking for guests who are going to treat the yacht staff like shit — even if it sometimes seems like it watching the show back.
“People apply to be guests on the show and they have to go through casting interviews, but it’s not necessarily to see if they’ll be bad. It’s just to make sure that they’re interesting because we have had some groups on before that are just so boring,” Aesha clarifies.
“It’s just boring for everyone watching so we want it to be fun. It’s not always to see if they’ll be bad guests and entertaining for the viewers, the guests could just be really fun, interesting and funny.”
Working on a Below Deck charter is shorter than a regular one: TRUE
While we’re used to seeing charters on Below Deck last for three or four days tops, Aesha says a charter usually goes from one week to 10 days.
“It’s really nice because you do the [food and drink] order for the whole 10 days, you stock the fridges once, and then by the third or fourth day, you’re used to their routine so you can juggle and shift all the girls around to match the routine that you’re used to for them,” she explains.
“Whereas on the show, they want to make it more interesting and have all these different groups which adds to the stress. So they purposely give us the around nine charters that are only three days each.”
As a result, Aesha then needs to do nine separate orders for food, drinks and any other requests the guests may have for themed parties or events held on board.
“I’ve got to do nine preference sheet orders. I’ve got to get new provisions on, take all the old stuff off, swap the new stuff into the fridges, put the new spirits out, put the new wines out. Like, it’s such a fucking headache, it’s insane,” she continues.
“That’s why it really pisses me off when people are like, ‘Oh, they’re not even working’. We are working so insanely hard, it’s not even funny.”
You’re not allowed to interact with the camera crew: TRUE
For the fly-on-the-wall magic of the show to work, it’s true that the yacht crew have to pretend the camera crew aren’t there.
“You have to ignore them otherwise you break the fourth wall,” Aesha says.
“You just have to pretend that all of production doesn’t exist.”
Although it was hard for Aesha at first, after so long on the show she doesn’t even think about it.
“I’m so used to it but it’s funny because now that I’ve been doing the show for so long, I know all the camera guys, I know the audio guys, and it’s so funny standing in a room having a conversation with someone right in front of these people that I’ve known so long, and I just have to pretend they just don’t exist.”
Guests get a discount on their charter for appearing on the show: TRUE
“Yes, this one is true,” Aesha confirms.
“I believe they do get a discount but it’s still effing expensive. I’m not allowed to say the exact amount. It’s still like more money than I would be able to pay for a weekend, that’s for sure.”
Bad guests are much worse than they seem on TV: TRUE
Although Aesha had to think about this one for a second, she says it’s true that the guests are much worse than they appear on TV — but only because we’re not seeing the whole story.
“When I’ve had bad guests on in the past, I’m often watching it and I’m like, ‘Oh, they didn’t include this part and this part and this part’. But I guess, it’s like it is mainly about the crew, not the guests. So it’s not like they’re going to put in every single bad thing that the guests did,” she says.
“So if the guests are coming off as a little bit rude, then they’ve probably done a lot more than that.”
However, Aesha did note that she’s generally been pretty lucky during her career.
“We’re very lucky for the most part, for the most part. I usually have the loveliest guests. I’ve got one group this season that were fucking twats, but the rest of them were awesome.”
Well, there you have it. Misconceptions = sorted!!!
And if you want to catch up on Below Deck, you can tune in on Hayu or Binge.
The post Below Deck’s Golden Gal Aesha Scott Breaks Down ALL The Behind-The-Scenes Rumours appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
