Is ‘Below Deck’ Scripted? Find Out If Life on the Super Yachts Is Real or Fake for Crew Members

After 10 seasons of Below Deck and four spinoffs — Below Deck Mediterranean, Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Below Deck and Below Deck Adventure — fans have seen everything from the crew members’ long hours and grueling work to boatmances and heavy partying. Keep scrolling to find out the shows are real and if any of the production is scripted.

Are the ‘Below Deck’ Shows Scripted?

Below Deck Sailing Yacht‘s first mate Gary King told In Touch exclusively ahead of 2023’s season 4 that everything you see on camera is organic.

“All the drama’s real, and I get this question a lot from fans that stop me in the streets. They ask how much of its scripted and they don’t believe me when I say nothing scripted. And when I say nothing scripted, we don’t speak to the producers during the show. We don’t speak to the camera crew during the show,” he explained.

“It’s just what happens in our lives and the rest of the crew’s lives is what goes on board. And with saying that, I feel a lot of people have a judgment of us, but in all fairness, they can have a judgment of us because it’s a reality show. And this is who we are as people. We are not acting, we’re playing ourselves,” he continued.

The sailor added, “So, when people, I guess people feel like they know you and they’ve got the right to feel like they know you because this is reality, and this is real life for us. It’s just being recorded on camera.”

BSDY‘s longtime chief stew Daisy Kelliher echoed Gary’s sentiments, telling In Touch exclusively about the show, “It really is scary. 1,000 percent real, which is absolutely petrifying.”

“I do think sometimes people come on (the show) with possibly a bit of an agenda. But other than that, all of the drama, all of the boat drama, all of the romances, they’re all pretty real,” she continued.

As viewers know, working on a super yacht makes for very long and stressful days during charter season. “You’re so tired, you’re so busy, you don’t have time to think about the cameras,” Daisy revealed about the camera operators who follow the crew around. “The formula is pretty incredible, and it works and yeah, it’s very much real.”

Where Are the Cameras on ‘Below Deck’?

As fans are aware, there are cameras in every nook and cranny of the boat to capture what’s going on. Nowhere is safe, including the crew cabins, which are equipped with night vision cameras that film any hanky panky after wild nights out on the town after charters.

The only room that didn’t have a camera originally was the laundry room. That changed after season 3 of Below Deck, when then- deckhand Eddie Lucas and third stew Rocky Dakota hooked up in that part of the boat. During a Bravo Below Deck season 7 original video, Captain Lee Rosbach admitted, “We now have cameras in the laundry room,” while then-chief stew Kate Chastain laughed, “It ruined it for everyone! That’s why we can’t have nice things.”

Do ‘Below Deck’ Crew Members Have Any Privacy?

Below Deck Mediterranean season 5 third stew Jessica More told In Touch exclusively there is “zero privacy unless you’re going to the restroom” aboard the yacht and that cameras are constantly recording. “I just know there’s cameras everywhere,” she shared. No matter if “it’s an actual cameraman or it’s placed on the wall somewhere or propped up somewhere,” they are always being filmed.

Do ‘Below Deck’ Crew Members Speak to the Production Team?

Former Below Deck Med chief Stew Hannah Ferrier exclusively told In Touch that any interaction with the production crew is forbidden. “On Below Deck, they’re very, very, very strict with the fourth wall. So even for myself, I’ve filmed five seasons of it, the camera crew, audio and everything like that, they won’t interact,” she shared, adding, “They won’t say hello to me. They won’t.”