Ryan Serhant Breaks Down the Difference Between Filming for Bravo and Netflix

Transcript

00:00Ryan, it's good to see you. It's been a while, but I'm so excited to have you back talking

00:05about this brand new show that I absolutely love.

00:07Oh, thank you.

00:08What was it like getting back in the swing of things in front of the camera?

00:11Well, to be honest, I never felt like I stopped. We started Million Dollar Listing New York

00:16on Bravo. We started filming that show in 2010. It premiered in 2012, and for the most

00:25part, we only ever had a couple months of no camera time, because the cameras on a Bravo

00:30reality show are up. For that type of show, we had one season where we filmed for one

00:36year, because it takes a long time for properties to move and all that. We filmed until 2022,

00:42because it was 10 years. Then I did Sell It Like Sir Hint. I did my wedding show. I did

00:47my renovation show right there at the end. That came out in 2022. Then I started my own

00:52company, and that didn't make sense for Million Dollar Listing anymore, so it was kind of

00:56this limbo period. I created a presentation about what a new show could look like. I took

01:01it everywhere, and then went with Netflix in the spring of 2022. We took a year to kind

01:08of create what is now Owning Manhattan on Netflix. Then we shot all through 2023, and

01:14now here we are. It came out, so it's just been like this train, but it's fun. The process

01:20of creating a Netflix show is so different.

01:21Is it?

01:22It is wildly different.

01:23How so?

01:27I love Bravo. I wouldn't be here without that.

01:29Sure, of course.

01:30But there was structure. I think just given the nature of the beast, right? It's cable

01:36television. You have streaming now, but cable TV. You have advertisers. You have commercial

01:42breaks, right? You have, okay, we've got to make an episode that people will tune in next

01:47week to, which is a different vibe than watching now. All that structure meant that there were

01:56certain things we couldn't really play with. Netflix really allowed us to play. I'm a producer

02:02on it as well, and really said, if you want to go and create something no one's seen before,

02:07in as much as reality TV goes, if you've watched it, the voiceover and the orchestra and the

02:14story and the way all eight episodes almost play out like one documentary, you can't do

02:23on cable. That whole thing, plus the crew was insane. Everything was just wild. It was

02:28just bigger.

02:29It was bigger, yeah.

02:30It was just...

02:31Even the shots of everything is beautiful.

02:32It was just crazy.

02:33No, but you make a good point. It is more like a documentary style that flows like an

02:39eight-hour documentary, which I think is so fun.