Navigating choppy waters! Below Deck producer Mark Cronin dished to Us Weekly about the Bravo series, its spinoffs and whether Hannah Ferrier could return to the franchise.
“I wouldn’t have any trouble with her back on the show,” the longtime Bravo producer exclusively told Us on Friday, August 5, while promoting Below Deck’s two Emmy nominations. “I don’t think she could work for [Captain] Sandy [Yawn], but yeah, she could work for another captain.”
Ferrier, 35, and Yawn, 57, made headlines in August 2020 after the chief stew was fired for having Valium and a CBD vape pen in her cabin during the season 5 Below Deck Mediterranean charter.
On Friday, Cronin weighed in on the two women’s ongoing drama which first started when Yawn replaced Captain Mark Howard for season 2 of the reality series.
“They’re two very powerful people, very opinionated, both very good at their jobs. It is possible for two very powerful, opinionated, good at the jobs people to not agree and clash and butt heads,” he explained. “Hannah didn’t like a lot of Sandy’s management style. Sandy didn’t like a lot of Hannah’s management style and they tolerated each other for a little while, but eventually it came to its inevitable end.”
Cronin added: “A captain can’t keep a person in the highest service position on the boat, who they don’t completely, you know, buy into. … It doesn’t mean I think Hannah couldn’t step onto any yacht she wants anywhere and be the best chiefs stew that yacht ever had. And likewise with Sandy she could step onto any boat and be the best captain that boat ever had. It really just comes down a personality issue.”
The Emmy-nominated producer explained that a lot happens on the yachts that the TV crew doesn’t control, nor do they want to interfere. That rule includes personnel changes like Ferrier’s firing as well as on-yacht hookups.
While fans have seen many crew members get romantic on the Bravo series, the TV stars are very aware of where to go to get privacy, according to Cronin.
“Their cabins have surveillance cameras in them all the time. And they know that they’re not hidden cameras. They’re sitting there,” he told Us. “So it’s not like there’s a secret that there’s a camera. And that’s why often a lot of the hookups happen in the guest areas where there are no surveillance cameras.”
Scroll down to learn more behind-the-scenes secrets from the Below Deck producer:
