Why ‘Selling Sunset’ Has Sunk To A New Level Of Nasty
When Selling Sunset arrived in my life, seven whole seasons ago, it was exactly what I needed. It smushed together the lavishness of Real Housewives and the drama of The Hills with the real estate snooping of Million Dollar Listing. A perfectly ridiculous combination that saw me watching all the episodes in one shiny sitting.
Back in the day, there was certainly bitchiness, with a frosty welcome to ‘newbie’ Chrishell from the season’s villain Christine, and competitiveness between agents to get the biggest listings. But it was relatively above the belt. There were isolated shitty comments and medium-temp fallouts, but it felt like deep down the cast was still focused on the same thing: selling houses and being entertaining.
Fast forward to the latest season, which dropped last week and I gobbled up in a single sitting once again, and there’s been a shift. Rather than feeling connected and curious about the sparkling world of Sunset Boulevard, I felt gross.
You see, things have reached a new low of nastiness. And it’s making me want to switch off Selling Sunset for good.
Amanza, Chrishell, Emma and Chelsea on Selling Sunset. Image credit: Netflix
Season 7 has a heap of the OG characters in the mix, with Chrishell, Mary, Heather and, of course, the twins, Jason and Brett, back in the Oppenheim office. But the introduction of some spicy new characters may have hacked at the harmony.
New agents Chelsea and Bre have arrived with their own drama – they’re feuding with each other because Chelsea finds Bre’s personal life a little distasteful. Actually, that’s a wild understatement. She in fact said that it was foul that Bre decided to have a baby (and a bit of an open relationship) with Nick Cannon as he already had 11 children by five other women before Bre came on the scene.
Chelsea called Nick a “master manipulator” and claimed “creating multiple broken homes is disgusting”, later confirming that it conflicted with her “Christian” values. Once Bre heard of Chelsea’s statements, she was pissed. And rightly so! Imagine a colleague of yours having a big ol’ bitch about your life choices and essentially calling your child and baby daddy “disgusting”. While Bre somewhat blacklisted Chelsea after that, I actually think that Bre handled a distasteful situation with much more grace than it deserved.
But that’s where the compliments end, because other feuds that dominated the narrative in season 7 had very few redeeming features.
This season Nicole made her debut. She’s actually been part of The Oppenheim Group since the real estate group started a decade ago, but now she’s a fully-fledged cast member. While she seems to be on brilliant professional terms with Jason and Brett, she immediately pissed off Chrishell and the two spent the entire season at each other’s throats.
While a lot of it was petty feuds over listings and reputations, one fight was as toxic as it can come.
On one occasion, Chrishell accused Nicole of being on drugs. Yep, actual illegal drugs.
“You’re on drugs, you’re on something,” Chrishell said to Nicole. “It doesn’t seem like there’s only wine in your glass, you’ve been acting a little ‘cracked out’ all night.” Unsurprisingly Nicole left the table in floods of tears, but she returned the next morning with a full-on drug test result which she had done the night before to prove a point.
Nicole leaving the dinner party on Selling Sunset. Image credit: Netflix
Later on, Nicole had been accused of calling Emma (Chrishell’s best friend) a “social climber”, which Nicole admitted to saying and stuck by her word. Chrishell then came out swinging in defence of Emma and hurled some horrible words at Nicole.
“I make more than you in five minutes than you could ever make in five years,” Chrishell claimed. “You’ve rearranged your whole face. You got everything done.”
Chrishell coming for Nicole’s face and trying to insult her by insinuating that she’d had a heap of plastic surgery was a new level of nasty. I thought that we, as a society, were well and truly done with criticising women’s bodies and the choices they’ve made about their appearance. It feels like a squabble between siblings where they go immediately for the most painful spot, the biggest insecurity, and twist the knife.
Chrishell’s knife-twist moment was this: “And I will continue to say [that] everything I say about you is true.”
Emma and Chrishell on Selling Sunset. Image credit: Netflix
In the reunion episode, Chrishell was questioned about her swipes at Nicolle, and she sort of apologised while claiming that she was just saying that Nicole had “got a lot done” in preparation for going on the TV show – suggesting that it was because she was hoping for her “five minutes” of fame. She backed that up by accusing Nicole of starting a fight with her to get more air time, as Chrishell is one of the lead ‘characters’ in the show.
The accusations are bold, and while some elements may be true, it’s the focussing on the physicals that really irk me. Especially in this context, because if I was about to be on one of the world’s biggest reality TV shows you can bet I’d make sure I was looking my absolute best. For me, that may look more like a better skincare routine and actually brushing my hair for once, but translating that to Hollywood levels I’m sure involves much more intense tweaks.
Another swipe at the look of another Selling Sunset castmate came in the form of Bre lashing out at newcomer Cassandra. While this one wasn’t said to her face, but instead after having a heated exchange at the Oppenheim 10th Birthday party, Bre stormed off and was caught on mic saying, “Get your hair conditioned Cassandra and get your split ends cut, and maybe some fucking eyelashes, you basic bitch”.
Cassandra, Chrishell and Bre on Selling Sunset. Image credit: Netflix
It seems that swiping at the physical features of each other is the new go-to attack. Perhaps this is because so much pressure is on these reality stars to look very polished, very pampered and, let’s be honest, a very specific body type. But to whack someone else with the stick you’re also beating yourself with feels like a new low.
And this catty, cruel manner of undermining your colleagues and costars somehow feels more real than swipes I’ve seen in seasons past. Maybe that’s because some of the real estate dramas could have potentially been fabricated or over-egged for entertainment purposes, but the jabs at people’s faces feels like unscripted brutality.
Whatever the case may be, the version of ‘reality’ presented in this season of Selling Sunset has lost them a fan. I’m making the call to switch off the show for good, and pivoting to Bake Off to inject some wholesome television back into my system.
Image credit: Netflix + Punkee