Below Deck

Production

Producers booked a five-week Caribbean charter on the 50 meter (164 foot) yacht Cuor di Leone. The yacht was renamed Honor for the series, and is captained by Lee Rosbach. The original crew used for the vessel were given the time off, to be replaced by the cast of the series for the duration of filming. Rosbach and his first officer and engineer stayed on board the vessel to ensure everything went as planned. Chief Stew Adrienne Gang, Chef Ben Robinson and Stew Kat Held had worked on yachts prior to the series. The series was shot over a six week period in September and October 2011.

On August 27, 2013, Bravo announced that the series' first season averaged 1.4 million total viewers per episode, which led the network to renew Below Deck for a second season.

The season premiered on August 12, 2014, and featured four returning cast members from the previous season, including Captain Lee Rosbach, Ben Robinson, Kat Held, and Eddie Lucas. New cast additions included Kate Chastain, Kelley and Amy Johnson, Jennice Ontiveros, Andrew Sturby, and Logan Reese. The second season had the crew working on Ohana, a 153' mega-yacht during the charter season in the British Virgin Islands. The season concluded on November 4, 2014.

Bravo renewed Below Deck for a third season after the second-season finale, which was the highest rated episode of the season. In March 2015, Bravo announced a Below Deck spin-off show entitled Below Deck Mediterranean, which will feature a crew heading to "the world’s oldest cruising grounds, the Mediterranean Sea, for its next super-yacht charter season."

The third season premiered on August 25, 2015. The show followed crew members living and working in The Bahamas on a 161’ mega-yacht called Eros. A sneak peek of the season was released on July 21, with a half-hour preview special which aired on August 10, 2015. The season featured Lee Rosbach, Kate Chastain, Amy Johnson and Eddie Lucas who all returned from the previous season, along with another five new crew members.

In April 2016, the network renewed Below Deck for a fourth season.

Reception

The reality show has received mixed reviews from television critics. David Hinckley from New York Daily News was rather negative towards the show by saying that Bravo "make waves with reality series set on a luxury yacht, but viewers aren't well served by a show that's anchored in tedium." Reviewing the first episode of the show, he was not impressed because of the lack of storylines and called the premiere "pretty mundane". Emily Yahr, a critic from The Washington Post, questioned the show's truthfulness and added that the series "seem[s] so scripted--the stereotypical spoiled crew members, the neatly wrapped-up “plotlines”—that it’s hard to take seriously, even in the dubious cable reality show genre." Rob Owen of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was more positive by describing the show as a "fairly entertaining, voyeuristic look at a made-for-reality-TV crew."

David Wiegand, writing for San Francisco Chronicle, noted the show's idea by saying that Below Deck "takes the idea of disparate types thrown together in a controlled environment and capitalizes on two seemingly inevitable results: friction and sexual tension". Neil Genzlinger from The New York Times criticized the casting choices by saying that "the real issue with this series is that the crew members aren’t all that interesting." He also felt that "it's not actually the crew members — the stars of this series — who are unbearable," but the guests for whom "the word “insufferable” was invented." Sandy Malone, writing for The Huffington Post, questioned whether the show is hurting the yachting industry. Malone said, "My conclusion, if this show is going to do positive things for the yachting industry, instead of destroying its reputation for stellar service, a big change had better come with [the upcoming season]."

Broadcast

Below Deck premiered on the Bravo cable network in the United States; the first episode debuted on Monday at 10:00/9:00 ET/PT on July 1, 2013. The preview special of the series aired on June 10, 2013. The first season ran for eleven episodes and concluded on September 9, 2013. The second season of the reality series debuted on August 12, 2014 and ended on November 4, 2014, after airing thirteen episodes. Both seasons featured a "Reunion" episode that reunited all the crew members to discuss the events of the season, as well as a special episode "The Crew Tells All" with unseen footage of the season. The third season premiered on August 25, 2015 and concluded on December 1, 2015 with a two-part "Reunion" episode.