<\/p>\n
Who knew Salt Lake City and Down Under would make for the perfect television crossover?<\/p>\n
For the first time in Real Housewives<\/em> history, the women of Salt Lake City<\/a> merged with the crew of Below Deck Down Under<\/a> <\/em>for a highly anticipated three-episode crossover event.\u00a0To intersect the casts, Bravo\u2019s cameras filmed both shows at the same time for two separate episodes that will play out on both The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City<\/em> and Below Deck Down Under<\/em>.<\/p>\n More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Housewives have graced the decks of the yachting franchise in the past, but never has a full cast chartered their own superyacht \u2014 and had their trip documented for both franchises. It\u2019s a moment that was years in the making for Bravo, one Noah Samton says couldn\u2019t have hold off any longer.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is something we discussed at Bravo for many years,\u201d the svp of unscripted production for NBCUniversal (who was on deck for filming) tells The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> of the Real Housewives<\/em>\u2013Below Deck<\/em> crossover. \u201cIt felt like, finally, okay, we can\u2019t wait anymore. We got to make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n And make it happen Bravo did, but not without a myriad of bumps in the road. One of the greatest obstacles they ran into was the capacity of people allowed on the boat. Because two separate shows were being filmed at the same time, Samton says members of each production crew had to take turns being on deck.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are very specific specifications of how many people can be on that boat, so we cannot have a full crew for both shows. That was a constant issue from the very beginning of when we first started discussing the idea to film. It was the biggest challenge,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s actually what stopped us from doing it previous years with other Housewives<\/em> or other Below Deck<\/em>s.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, they acquired \u201ca special dispensation\u201d from the flag state that regulates the boat that allowed more people to be on board, but that didn\u2019t stop a constant filter of crew members.\u00a0\u201cEvery minute of the charter, it was like, \u2018Who\u2019s getting on? Who\u2019s getting off? Can we borrow your cameraman here?\u2019\u201d Samton adds.<\/p>\n