Below Deck’s Caroline Bedol Reveals if the Show Is Fake or Real

Caroline Bedol from Below Deck Season 6 said that the series is very real but then added that it is also “largely edited and manufactured” too. She addressed Below Deck fan questions on a recent Reddit thread, tapping into her brief experience as a third stew on the show. Bedol was one of the more controversial cast members, quitting suddenly and then sobbing to Captain Lee Rosback after chief stew Kate Chastain and second stew Josiah Carter taunted her outside her locked cabin door.

Caroline Bedol says her ‘Below Deck’ experience was very real

Bedol replied to a fan comment that reflected on her season. The fan recalled how intense the situation was when she quit, which is when she was asked if the show was scripted or real. “Real,” she replied in the thread. That’s when the fan remembered how some of Carter and Chastain’s harassment was not shown. Bedol begged the network to play the footage, especially when Chastain joked that Bedol had herpes. Reunion host Andy Cohen ultimately played the cut footage.

“Aw thank you but I must tell you I fought to get that footage played,” Bedol replied. “I felt it was my responsibility to, with an eye to exposing the toxicity. It was my hope it would make production rethink what their responsibilities were, to protect crew from psychologically dangerous situations (physical danger of course also being a factor but not here so much). Maybe this could prevent a future cast member from the experience.”

But ‘Below Deck’ can be ‘edited and manufactured,’ Caroline Bedol added

“It was never about revenge,” she added. “And while I had [ill] feelings toward Kate and Lee and production and Bravo, they have long dissipated. And then the Hannah termination happened, and it broke my heart.”

Bedol added that while the show is real, it is still edited. Another fan asked if what happened was edited and manufactured. ” I don’t know how the condense this answer! It’s largely both edited and manufactured,” she replied.

‘Below Deck’ charter guest insisted his appearance was very edited

While Bedol said the show is very real, a charter guest during her season insisted the majority of his appearance was manufactured. Charles Michael Yim, the Breathometer creator, said production enhanced scenes with his group in order to create a better storyline. He complained that producers thought his group was too boring so they did things like planting a used condom in his room. Chastain mocked Yim’s group for being obsessed with their phones.

“If you look closely at the footage, my fiancé and I were merely cuddling in the Crow’s nest, as for the condom Carolyn happened to have ‘found it’ and water was gushed all over it before to showed it to Ashton [Pienaar],” he shared to social media in 2018. “This might be too much info but my fiancé and I don’t use condoms. So where did it come from? As for social media, sure we took pics and videos. Not sure what’s wrong with that.”

He added, “Yeah but you can patch and splice footage and audio together to make a scene up completely from thin air and with added narration, you couldn’t even tell what’s what. In this case, narration was heavy.”