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Hit real estate reality TV series Selling Sunset drops on Netflix Friday, but the show’s drama already began spilling out earlier this week after the cast viewed screeners of the new season — and some were not happy with the results.
One of the show’s stars, Oppenheim Group agent Chrishell Stause, took to Instagram to sound off on Selling Sunset producers, who she claimed allowed her fellow agent Nicole Young to tell lies on air about another cast member and O Group agent, Emma Herman.
“Are we really still giving air time to LIARS that just want air time,” Stause said. “I will NEVER work on a show with her on it again. I would rather be sued,” she continued, suggesting that her days on Selling Sunset might be coming to a close.
“Disclaimer when you watch: just know she spews a disgusting lie about a bestie that is categorically FALSE and SUPER damaging. It is NOT TRUE.”
Stause and Oppenheim group agent Chelsea Lazkani both stood up for Herman on social after reportedly watching Young in one episode claim that Herman had an affair with a married man.
“Good morning everyone, except for [Nicole Young],” Lazkani wrote in an Instagram story over the weekend. “[Nicole] you are the most diabolical piece of 🗑️ I’ve ever met.”
“You wanna start a rumor about Emma because all the rumors about you are true. OK, let’s see how this works out for you.”
Lazkani and Stause also both claimed they had “receipts” that prove Herman could not have committed the acts that Young alleged.
In spite of (or perhaps because of) the sometimes vitriolic spats between cast members, Selling Sunset has outlasted other shows like it, including other Selling spin-offs (Selling Tampa), Buying Beverly Hills, which recently failed to renew for a third season, and Buying London, which has been canceled by Netflix after just one season, Deadline reported Wednesday.
Oppenheim Group President and founder Jason Oppenheim told Inman he thought the show’s longevity likely had to do with several factors, chief among them the cast members’ long-term relationships — even if they are volatile.
“I don’t think there’s any one reason, and I think that probably, therein lies the answer,” Oppenheim said.
“It’s also unique that many of us have known each other [for a while],” he added. “So it’s not just a group of Realtors working together at a brokerage. It’s a group of friends who are Realtors who are working at a brokerage. In that sense, I think that creates a lot more interpersonal issues and just more intensity around certain social issues, personal issues, relationship issues, things like that, that you don’t really find on other shows.”
The show’s production quality and, of course, the jaw-dropping luxury properties featured also help gain views, Oppenheim added. But in addition to that, he said that he thinks viewers enjoy the Oppenheim Group agents’ fashion sensibilities too.
“The fashion is just unrivaled,” he said. “The [show’s female agents] have unbelievable fashion.”
When things get tense between the show’s agents, Oppenheim said that, over the years, he’s learned to try and allow things to work themselves out instead of getting himself enmeshed in the fray, despite his own history of dating some of the firm’s female agents.
“I used to feel the responsibility to resolve everything and I felt that weight on my shoulders,” Oppenheim told Inman. “But I think I’ve learned, as life has gone on and the show has gone on, things tend to resolve themselves. It’s not always necessary for me to get involved, particularly if it’s not a professional-related issue, and sometimes it’s actually beneficial for me to not try to get involved unless I need to … the less that I get involved, the more influential my involvement is when it is necessary.”
Real estate professionals who tune into the new season may recognize another well-known industry face during the first episode: Branden Williams of Williams & Williams at the Beverly Hills Estates. As co-developer (alongside wife and partner Rayni Williams and Jason Somers of Crest Real Estate) of an old-world Hollywood compound that Williams calls “if James Bond and the Playboy Mansion had a baby,” he makes an appearance in the episode to allow Stause and her client into the home for a showing.
Tudum by Netflix released a sneak peak of Episode 1 on Wednesday, which shows off the singular property, priced at $38 million.
The “Californication House,” as Williams and Williams have dubbed it, features luxurious finishes like Arabian black slate, Japanese Shou Sugi Ban raked wood, Roman titanium travertine vein cut floors and Brazilian greed jade onyx. The home also features a “secret nightclub,” according to the listing description, that Stause and her client access in Episode 1 by lifting a samurai sword from the wall.
The property is currently not active on major listing portals, but it is featured on Beverly Hills Estates’ website. The developers spent a total of seven years on the project, including five years of construction, according to Robb Report.
All 11 episodes of Selling Sunset Season 8 will be available to stream on Netflix on Friday at 12 a.m. PT/3 a.m. ET.
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