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Despite being reluctantly dragged into the role, Captain Lee Rosbach said Below Deck Season 1 was his favorite of all 10 seasons.
Rosbach wasn’t supposed to be the original Below Deck captain. But the yacht owners insisted he command the vessel or producers couldn’t use it for the series. The rest is history. And while Below Deck Season 1 was his favorite, Below Deck Season 3 was when everything changed.
Why was ‘Below Deck’ Season 1 Captain Lee’s favorite?
Rosbach loved the authenticity he experienced during Below Deck Season 1. “Because everything was so new and so fresh,” Rosbach said on the Watch What Happens Live After Show. “We actually didn’t really know what we were doing.”
But executive producer Mark Cronin told Showbiz Cheat Sheet there was also mistrust from the crew toward production. The first charter ended early when stew Kat Held found cocaine in a charter guest’s room. Rosbach booted them off the boat, but then accused producers of planting the drugs to generate drama.
As a result, “The whole cast quit,” Cronin said. “They all basically said, ‘That’s it, we are not doing the show. If you guys are putting our licenses at risk by putting drugs on this boat, we quit.’”
‘Below Deck’ Season 1 wasn’t all smooth sailing for Captain Lee and crew
Cronin had to convince the crew to return and continue with the season. “I said, ‘You are going to have to trust us that this is the story of what happens here.’ And I said, ‘Has it ever happened where the charter has drugs on your boat?’” he said. “And they’re ‘Oh, I’ve had that happen. Oh, yeah, we have that.’ Well, there you go. Like what are you looking at me like this is some kind of weird thing?”
“These are Hollywood photographers,” he said of the guest, “Johnny Eyelash”. “It’s not that crazy. And so eventually, they calmed down, and we, of course, went back to shooting the show. And the rest is history. But the fact that that happened the second day of shooting was probably the biggest disaster that’s been on the show. Truly threatening the existence of the show, that that was the biggest thing we overcame.”
Beyond the crew trying to quit, the series had to be re-edited because producers originally shot around Rosbach, thinking he wouldn’t make for good TV. So the premiere date of the series was delayed.
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“That’s why the release date took so long to get out,” Rosbach said on the Heart of the Matter podcast. “Because I was edited out of most of the scenes. So when Bravo got ahold of that, I think we only shot 10 episodes to begin with. And Bravo got it, and they said, ‘Well, where’s the captain?’ They said, ‘Well, we decided to shoot around him and cut him out.’”
What made ‘Below Deck’ Season 3 so hot?
Below Deck Season 2 was the infamous “rocketship” blanket fold, courtesy of new chief stew Kate Chastain. But then came, Below Deck 3, the s*** hit the fan and the ratings hit the roof.
Captain Lee knew Below Deck was a big hit by season 3, Rosbach said on the WWHL After Show. “That’s when my producer came to me and said, ‘You realize we don’t have you on a contract yet.’ And I said, ‘That’s not my problem. Not my fault.’ And he said, ‘We’re not leaving this room until we do.’”
“And walking in with a bottle of Maker’s Mark and two glasses, no ice,” Rosbach continued. “I said, we’re gonna be here for a few hours.”
Below Deck Season 3 was one of the messiest seasons in the show’s history. Chef Leon Walker was fired after a kitchen fire, the deck had a revolving door of deckhands and bosun Eddie Lucas and stew Rocky Dakota’s secret affair exploded during the season finale.
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