Season 8 of Below Deck kicked off last night, but it will take some time for viewers to get used to the new faces.
One being chief stew Francesca Rubi, who’s replacing Kate Chastain on the popular Bravo show.
Last season, the former cast member announced to the world that she was officially retiring from yachting.
So after six years on the show, the network had to find a replacement for the witty and sarcastic chief stew.
Now, we’ve officially met the woman who will be running the interior of My Seanna, as the cast sets sail for the Caribbean.
Francesca has years of experience in the world of yachting, but now she has to tackle reality TV and all the drama that comes with it.
However, if Captain Lee’s opinion is anything to go by– and it certainly is–then Francesca is going do just fine!
Captain Lee wants fans to give Francesca a fair chance
Viewers aren’t the only ones who have to get acquainted with the new Below Deck crew.
The captain of My Seanna, Captain Lee Rosbach is the one who should really be concerned about working with a new chief stew.
However, the captain is giving Francesca a fair chance and he wants viewers to do the same.
During a recent video chat with Entertainment Tonight, the 70-year-old dished about the newbie saying, “Francesca’s gonna do just fine.”
He also talked about fans and how they’ve been comparing Francesca to Kate.
“People are different,” says the reality TV personality. “Give them a chance to prove themselves. Don’t come into the season pre-judging. I think that would be a mistake on everyone’s part.”
Captain Lee says it’s unfair to compare Francesca to Kate
It seems Captain Lee is also taking his own advice about prejudging the new chief stew before she even has a chance to show what she can do.
He admits, “That’s one of the things I had to look at in the mirror and go ‘okay, here we go. New season, new crew, suck it up.'”
Although Lee already confessed to feeling sad about Chastain’s departure from the series, he wants fans to allow the new Bravo alum to settle into her new role.
The captain says, “You really can’t measure somebody by the vacancy left by somebody else, it’s totally unfair to do that.”
He continued, “And so that’s the one takeaway that I have for the fans, it’s do not judge Francesca by the vacancy left by Kate.”
Below Deck airs Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.