When it first aired in 2013, Below Deck quickly garnered the attention of a loyal band of die-hard fans. Three years later, the spin-off Below Deck: Mediterranean followed. Amid the chaos of crew love triangles and outrageous guest requests, returning captains Lee Rosbach and Sandy Yawn emerged as respected industry professionals and brand ambassadors for the show.
In 2020, the brand’s second spin-off, Below Deck: Sailing Yacht, launched, shining a new light on the crews and challenges of sailing yacht charters. Together, the reality show triumvirate propelled Below Deck and the superyacht industry to global audiences, earning the show its own unique place in the hall of reality television fame. But Below Deck’s producers aren’t done yet. Earlier this year, US network Bravo announced the Below Deck empire was set to grow further with two new spin-off seasons, Below Deck Adventure and Below Deck Down Under. As the sixth season of Below Deck: Mediterranean gets underway on June 28, BOAT talks to executive producer Tania Hamidi about Below Deck’s stratospheric rise and the behind-the-scenes reality of filming the show.
Hamidi is a seasoned television producer and one of Below Deck’s longest-serving team members. She has been a staple of the Below Deck production team for seven years, joining as the second season of Below Deck got underway. Soon after, she was involved in the launch of Below Deck: Mediterranean fronted by captain Mark Howard, who was promptly replaced by captain Sandy Yawn in the second season. This was a key casting decision, Hamidi says. “We loved Mark, but it was really exciting to have a woman in the wheelhouse. When that opportunity presented itself, it just took over,” she says, adding that Sandy “got herself on that boat”.
While captains Lee Rosbach, Sandy Yawn and Glenn Shephard have become familiar fixtures of the show, Hamidi reveals that not even they are safe when it comes to casting the next season. “All the different positions are on the table each season, including the captain,” she says. However, when it comes to changing a captain “there’s got to be a reason”. With crew, familiar faces often return, with notable examples being chief stewardess Kate Chastain and bosun Malia White. This creates a sense of continuity, Hamidi says. “We often have yacht crew come back in higher positions.” Diversity also informs key crew casting decisions to ensure “different types of people feature in different roles.” “It’s fantastic to have a female bosun or a different culture as head of a department that you don’t expect to see,” says Hamidi. “It’s fun to lean into the reality of the industry because it does exist.”
Below Deck: Inside the boats from the hit reality show
A Below Deck charter typically carries a maximum of 12 superyacht crew on board, including up to three resident crew who work on the yacht full time. Often the official captain of the yacht will drop down to first mate to allow for an incoming Below Deck captain. However, generally these crew roles stay off-camera and are not considered “part of the season,” Hamidi says. “They don’t really fit into part of the story, and if you do see them, it’s in an organic way, like an emergency.”
When it comes to casting new crew members, Hamidi reveals that “most” incoming crew already hold their STCW qualification, with some needing a refresher. While the show is totally unscripted, the casting team does look for a specific type of person when choosing the crew. “It’s a TV show so the crew we choose are definitely outgoing and happy to be open,” Hamidi says. “If they are closed off, it’s hard to tell a story and hard for others to come out and tell them their stories.”
The same ethos applies when recruiting the season’s charter guests. As an unscripted show, the guests must be outgoing and excited for the charter. “We really don’t try and make them do things they don’t want to do,” says Hamidi. “We say ‘just have fun, it’s your vacation’.” This, Hamidi claims, is why they have so many guests keen to return, with the Below Deck charter guest casting team having to restrict the amount of returning guests to keep things “fresh”. While it’s well known that Below Deck’s guests pay a subsidised charter rate, Hamidi reveals the opportunity is still very much “aimed at the one per cent”, with guests expected to tip to the full price of the charter. “The guests have a slightly discounted rate but it’s still a pretty penny,” she says. “The average person couldn’t afford it.”
The filming schedule of a typical season of Below Deck is hectic. The intense schedule squeezes nine charters into a filming period of eight weeks. A total of 30 people, comprising yacht crew, guests and camera crew, can be on the boat at any one time. Split into pairs, the camera crew consists of a camera operator and a second team member operating the audio rig. Guided by the director, who watches from a cabin transformed into a “control room”, the camera crew “jump around the yacht” trying to capture key moments of the charter, from pulling anchor to meal prep in the galley. They often arrive onto the yacht at 5.30am and get the cameras rolling before the guests are out of bed. Working a 12-hour shift, they need to ensure all the unfolding action on board is caught on camera while avoiding the other camera crews on board. “The camera crew are running around and hiding from each other while getting all the action,” Hamidi says. This is especially difficult on a four-deck motor yacht, she says, but easier on the wider decks of Parsifal III, the star of Below Deck: Sailing Yacht. To support such an operation, the main charter yacht is accompanied by a support vessel and water taxi, which ferries the camera crew to and from the main yacht. The support vessel, which in previous seasons has been a schooner, catamaran and “mini yacht”, is chosen on the capabilities of its galley to ensure the crews are well fed. The support vessel follows around the mothership but is always carefully anchored out of sight to avoid being in the shot.
While Hamidi admits filming the series is “full on”, for her the hard work begins weeks before when preparation for the show begins. This includes everything from casting the show, choosing a charter yacht, selecting brands to appear on the show and sourcing water toys, such as floating golf courses and superyacht slides. Equipment is checked in the galley, visas are approved and valuable objects – such as art – are removed from the charter yacht. Amid all the noise and intensity of preparing and filming the show, it is the morning water taxi rides to the mothership that stay with Hamidi the most. “You’re out on the water, it’s too loud to have a conversation and it’s beautiful – it’s those moments that stay with me,” she says. Despite two more spin-off series being greenlit, Hamidi is adamant the Below Deck franchise is just getting started. “It’s internationally syndicated, more and more people are interested in yachting, and I think it’s just going to grow and grow and grow.”
Below Deck Mediterranean premieres on Monday, June 28 at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo. New episodes will be available one week early on Peacock beginning Monday, June 21.