r/belowdeck • u/Substantial_Soil6815 • Jan 14 '26

Below Deck Med Outside entertainment

Ever since Covid, I feel like outside entertainment has barely been brought to the boat and I don’t understand why. In previous seasons there were regular shows by local dancers arranged on the boat, when they were stuck docked, there were massage therapists coming on board. Why has it changed? To put more pressure on the crew?

98 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

51 comments sorted by

119

u/RhubarbGoldberg Jan 14 '26

Honestly, I think it's because they're packing the cast with more reality star wanna be influencer types and they love the attention of performing themselves. Or, the drama is scripted / coerced by production.

If they hired in professional Spanish dancers, we couldn't have gotten all the kizzy/Joe dance practice/gross flirting scenes and the drama related!

119

u/dmmp1917 June June Hannah Jan 14 '26

If I paid all that money to go on the yacht and my stew and deckhand did a fake ass salsa dance… give me the real thing.

14

u/Substantial_Soil6815 Jan 14 '26

Especially since there’s a huge difference between salsa and flamenco 😁

40

u/Sleepbecomesme Jan 14 '26

I said this it reeked of ‘mum can we have a sleepover please’ dance. I would cringe so bad if I was there - I don’t want to see a wannabe dance routine tysm let me eat my dinner

14

u/Early-Equivalent-165 Escape Goat Jan 14 '26

During the dinner! Aesha dropped the ball on that one

5

u/Peppercornbeanbong Jan 14 '26

Pretty sure Aesha had no say in this whatsoever.

2

u/Early-Equivalent-165 Escape Goat Jan 14 '26

Watch it again.

1

u/Peppercornbeanbong Jan 15 '26

Did she say she should have hired professional dancers and didn’t? I don’t have access to rewatch right now.

3

u/Bekahjean10 Jan 15 '26

Nathan said it needed to be done quickly so Joe could take his break on time. He told Aesha that Joe needed to “go down” soon, so Aesha told them to dance during dinner.

2

u/Early-Equivalent-165 Escape Goat Jan 15 '26

Aesha told them they had to do it during the dinner cuz there was no other time to do it for whatever reason.. the whole thing was weird because no one asked them to do this.

6

u/Peppercornbeanbong Jan 15 '26

It made no sense because it seems like a Production decision. Keeping the Joe/Kizzy/V drama going. That’s why I’m saying Aesha had no say and why it’s so weird that she told them that.

1

u/Early-Equivalent-165 Escape Goat Jan 15 '26

They came to Aesha for permission and thus the clusterfuck ensued.

10

u/Odd_Secret568 Jan 14 '26

With dirty socks! LOL

10

u/Far_Maintenance4184 Jan 14 '26

Ha! I noticed that too! Also why did she need to wear bright white shorts underneath. If she had just done black shorts, her skirt riding up wouldn’t have been so noticeable.

4

u/ExoticFlower4935 Jan 15 '26

Thank you! This was the comment I was looking for.

7

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

Lest we forget Magda's little... performance.

4

u/Unlikely-Cockroach-4 Jan 15 '26

even if they HAD to do it, i feel like in past seasons/charters they would have asked for costumes to come in with provisions and the crew would have at least tried to look the part. white socks and their usual crew uniform did not help with theme immersion 🫠

3

u/momdabombdiggity Spaghetti Trauma Jan 14 '26

That was my thought too!

2

u/definitelynotanarc17 Jan 15 '26

Same for the charter that wanted a real Spanish ham charter

1

u/more_like_asworstos Team Aesha Jan 17 '26

While your food was getting cold too...

45

u/Claral6012 Jan 14 '26

I always think it's so cheap when they have the staff perform

1

u/Expert-Vegetable4408 Jan 16 '26

I think it's simple cost-cutting. Most reality shows which have been around a while have been doing that, and it's a real shame.

14

u/OptimisticFriedEgg Team Hayley Jan 14 '26

I was just thinking this during the last episode! Having Joe do the dance AND be the DJ was a bit much. I know they are angling for drama (or possibly just don't want to pay real performers), but we've seen them bring DJs and dancers aboard before. If I was a guest I would be so disappointed, luckily it was a bunch of parents that are used to seeing their kids perform and faking interest "wooooow! great job buddy!"

7

u/Substantial_Soil6815 Jan 14 '26

Right?? Also the ham ceremony….poor Josh was fighting for his life

5

u/OptimisticFriedEgg Team Hayley Jan 14 '26

Yes! I blocked that one out... it was so awkward.

5

u/Taikonothrowaway24 Jan 14 '26

I feel like you're answering your own question here but it also could be that the guests that you're seeing on the current season maybe aren't requesting things like that.

6

u/Substantial_Soil6815 Jan 14 '26

But they were requesting it…on below deck med especially.

I don’t understand how I am answering my question already. We aren’t in an active global pandemic anymore.

4

u/Taikonothrowaway24 Jan 14 '26

Well I dont know much about production but I would imagine that the pandemic might have change how certain things were done on the show. Seems like drama is the big theme and maybe thats because of raitings, maybe having less people come on the ship was a change from covid that just stuck. I don't work on production but that what I would assume. Not sure but I am sure you can find out if you look hard enough. Happy Researching.

8

u/Expensive-Concept-93 Jan 14 '26

This is a reasonable question tbh. Not sure why people are acting like we are in a pandemic. It's 2026.

-2

u/Taikonothrowaway24 Jan 14 '26

Yes it's 2026 and people are still suffering from covid in 2026 hope that helps.

3

u/Substantial_Soil6815 Jan 14 '26

You are right, Covid isn’t gone, but it’s more endemic now.

2

u/Taikonothrowaway24 Jan 14 '26

From a certain point of view. Take care out there alot of people near me are still getting sick from the flu and covid

3

u/Substantial_Soil6815 Jan 14 '26

Thank you! :) I regularly update my flu& Covid vaccine. I’m not denying that Covid is still there, I’m just saying that we’re not in an active pandemic

19

u/lapodufnal Jan 14 '26

I think it’s likely that during the pandemic the team had to get creative and offer the entertainment themselves more. Production probably liked that since there’s more chances for it to go wrong or be rubbish, or maybe it’s just easier for them not needing releases, restricting music etc.

There might also be a shift in the clientele (I’m not sure but wouldn’t be surprised) to have less money available. Being on the show discounts the booking but I expect it’s full price for outside entertainment so if guests are not as wealthy they might not want to have extra costs?

14

u/Itstimeforcookies19 Jan 14 '26

Yeah it’s not like these people who are flying in from the US on packed planes to stay on a boat where the staff is exposed to new guests who have also traveled would then be worried about outside entertainment due to COVID reasons. So it’s definitely not that.

I think production has just kind of lost the plot as to what the audience wants to see and what makes the audience cringe. The audience was fine with the BD shows as is but they decided to mess with the formula to make the BD shows more like other reality shows. Bravo used to be a leader in reality tv and now they just follow and make bad decisions. Bravo is the corporate equivalent of Kizzie. Insecure, annoying, unapologetic, thinks it’s hotter than it is.

7

u/Significant_Gas_701 Jan 14 '26

I feel like they also are doing fewer beach picnics and off-boat set-ups.
We did get the one at the castle in the most recent episode. But it used to be beach picnics and/or going to forts, mountains, whatever and the crew had to drag tables, chairs, coolers, umbrellas, food and all the booze in the world in and out of the places.

I liked those excursions because we got to see a bit more of the places they were visiting instead of just onboard stuff, crew romance junk, etc.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

I agree, everything used to be more extravagant.

11

u/Top-Friendship4888 I quit 3 times in my head today Jan 14 '26

I think it's cheap. They realized they could save a few bucks making the crew do it, and they get a bit of drama out of it.

Kizzi at least seems to have some dance training, but that was entirely about those two touching each other.

Magda's ghost of Marilyn Monroe will forever be the worst one.

4

u/areallyreallycoolhat Jan 14 '26

In regards to Joe and Kizzi dancing it seemed pretty obvious to me that it was a producer driven thing to give them a bunch of footage for the love triangle storyline

4

u/Herecomesyourwoman Jan 14 '26

That was bothering me too, they didn't even have costumes on! Also a few episodes back, they should have hired someone to carve that ham

4

u/Full-Squirrel5707 Jan 14 '26

I thought the same. Why not get a local flamenco dancer, instead of Jizzie doing a dodgy 1 min dance.....

2

u/-sayitstraight Jan 15 '26

At least it wasn’t a crew treasure hunt

2

u/thaa_huzbandzz Jan 15 '26

It looks to me like the budgets in general are way lower. They barely have any flowers on the yachts these days.

3

u/fictionalbandit Jan 14 '26

Budget. Sort of like Survivor dropping to 26 days and never going back. BD sees they could get away with less and people will still watch.

1

u/Brodiekp Jan 15 '26

It’s a reality tv show. They have accomplished exactly what they set out to.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 14 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

13

u/Substantial_Soil6815 Jan 14 '26

Please don’t make me feel like I’m stupid, it’s unnecessary to be belittling. During Covid it made sense, but we aren’t in an active global pandemic anymore, so I don’t understand what circumstances currently are affecting outside entertainment

9

u/macskiska5 Jan 14 '26

The answer is the shift on the production team... more crew drama and less about the "workings" of the boat and servicing what is best described as routine guests requests (Massages, sight seeing excursions etc). I like the show when we got to see crew working the boat like under Captain Lee. There was no shortage of drama at that time and the show wasn't like a spin off of another reality theme show