Selling Tampa is canceled at Netflix after just one season

2022-11-13

Selling Tampa is canceled at Netflix after one season… but the cast says series didn’t get the same advantage as Selling Sunset due to racism

Selling Tampa was a spinoff series of Netflix’s popular Selling Sunset
The real estate series was cancelled after a single season
Juawana Colbert told Page Six that the cast wasn’t given clear reasons for cancellation
An insider noted that the creator never visited the set, unlike for his other shows
After canceling Tampa, Netflix allegedly filmed a pilot with a mix of Latin and Black stars, instead of exclusively Black women

The Selling Sunset spinoff series Selling Tampa has gotten the ax at Netflix after only one season.

But several cast members think their series didn’t get a fair shake compared to Selling Sunset, and they’re suggesting racism played a part in the cancellation, according to Page Six.

Notably, the main cast — Allure Realty head broker Sharelle Rosado, along with Juawana Colbert, Rena Frazier, Karla Giorgo, Tennille Moore, Anne-Sophie Petit, Colony Reeves and Alexis Williams — are all women of color.

Concerns: Selling Tampa has been canceled after one season by Netflix, but star Juawana Colbert and an anonymous insider claimed to Page Six that the cancellation was fueled by racism; the cast of Selling Tampa

‘When they show us [black women] in a different light — when we’re bickering, fighting and name-calling — they get a Season two and Season three, but that’s not what we were displaying,’ star Juawana Colbert claimed to the publication on Friday.

‘I feel like we weren’t given a second chance, possibly because of what we represented as minority women,’ she added.

One source claimed that Netflix gave the cast the ‘runaround’ for almost a year when they tried to find out if Selling Tampa would get a second-season renewal.

The anonymous insider also claimed that the cast members would receive ‘hundreds’ of social media DMs on a ‘daily’ basis, although that could just represent the show’s most devoted fans and not be an accurate representation of actual viewership.

Expectations: Colbert claimed the show didn’t feature the kind of bickering among Black women that other shows cater to — and Netflix may have expected; still from Selling Sunset

Doesn’t add up: The insider took issue with claims that she show didn’t do well enough in viewership, as the cast allegedly received ‘hundreds’ of social media DMs on a ‘daily’ basis from fans; still from Selling Tampa

Streaming services like Netflix are also concerned about how many people subscribe to the service to watch a new show or movie, so viewership alone may not determine whether a show if renewed.

Last week, Adam DiVello, who created Selling Tampa and its sister shows Selling Sunset and Selling The OC, announced via Zoom with producer Skyler Wakil that the show would not be back for a second season.

‘Adam specifically said [the decision] was related to numbers but never gave any additional information,’ Colbert said. ‘I don’t know if he was talking about rating numbers or budget numbers. He just said numbers.’

The anonymous source confirmed that the cast members were given little in the way of an explanation, and DiVello and Wakil told them to tell any fans that reached out for information on the show that, ‘There aren’t any plans right now for more Selling Tampa, but luckily the first season is still on Netflix for fans to rewatch or discover.

‘We know that [Selling Tampa] was number one in multiple countries, and it did fairly well,’ the source added. ‘Obviously, it’s not going to be a Selling Sunset Season five.… It’s just weird. All of a sudden this all-Black cast doesn’t even get a chance for a Season two.’

Netflix and DiVello did not immediately respond to the publication’s request for comment, though a source close to production claimed that the ‘decision was made solely on performance, and we hope to tap into various members of the cast for future projects.’

Bad news: Adam DiVello, who created the show as well as Selling Sunset and Selling The OC, announced the cancellation but reportedly didn’t provide specifics about the ‘numbers’; seen in September in LA

Back in December 2021, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Selling Tampa was number one on Netflix after less than 24 hours on the platform, suggesting that there was at least strong initial interest in the show.

However, Netflix is traditionally opaque about its viewership numbers, and the platform often does little to publicize its original films and shows after their initial release, which can leave them buried on the service.

Colbert seemed to suggest that whether or not Netflix was being truthful about the viewership figures, Selling Tampa should have been able to get renewed with fewer viewers than other less-diverse reality shows.

‘When it comes to a minority show of all minority cast members, we’re going to naturally have lower numbers because we are a minority in numbers [of the population] in general,’ she said.

According to her, the cast also had issues with producers during filming, and not just Netflix.

Colbert claimed the producers were ‘out of touch’ with the all-Black talent, and they didn’t understand that just an hour to get ready prior to confessional tapings wasn’t enough time for many of the women.

She noted that the ‘sew-ins’ or ‘extensions’ that many of the cast used wouldn’t ‘work on that same time frame.’

‘It’s not a wash-and-go,’ she continued. ‘Women that are minorities, it’s not that easy. Our hair, just in general, takes longer.’

Clueless: Colbert claimed the producers were ‘out of touch’ with the all-Black talent, and they didn’t understand that just an hour to get ready prior to confessional tapings wasn’t enough time for many of the women; still from Selling Tampa

On their own: The insider suggested that Selling Tampa was never as big of a priority for DiVello, as he apparently didn’t visit the set of the series, which he did for Selling Sunset and its Orange County spin-off

Although producers didn’t give the cast much pushback when they raised their concerns, they allegedly didn’t alter the schedule much in response to help the women.

‘I don’t recall it being like, “OK, we understand. We’re going to make a conscious effort to do something different,”‘ Colbert said. ‘It was almost like it wasn’t said.’

She noted that there were some people of color in the crew, but the higher-ups who made most of the decisions were white.

‘Whoever they had on the ground is out of touch a little bit with working with a cast of all-minority women,’ she claimed.

The insider suggested that Selling Tampa was never as big of a priority for DiVello, as he apparently didn’t visit the set of the series, which he did for Selling Sunset and its Orange County spin-off.

‘[The cast] didn’t meet Adam until a month or two after the premiere,’ they claimed. ‘Adam is on set with all his other shows, except this,’ though they admitted that the coronavirus pandemic may have impacted his travels and time on set.

Colbert had her own disagreements with how Selling Tampa was initially marketed, as Jason Oppenheim was seen in the show’s first teaser with his mostly white cast as he handed a set of keys to the all-Black cast.

Colbert thought the clip was a ‘misrepresentation’ of what her show would be about, which gave the audience the impression that it was some kind of ‘competition,’ rather than a separate spinoff.

Wrong image: Colbert had her own disagreements with how Selling Tampa was initially marketed, as Jason Oppenheim was seen in the show’s first teaser with his mostly white cast as he handed a set of keys to the all-Black cast, which made it seem like a ‘competition’

‘I think from the get-go, we were set up a little bit at a disadvantage,’ she said.

Some viewers had also criticized the show for not having enough of the adrenaline rush of high-profile sales, but Colbert said that was merely due to how the behind-the-scenes crew opted to edit the show.

‘We are all active agents. When we were filming, there were deals that were done, but that’s now how it was edited,’ she claimed.

The source claimed that after Selling Tampa was canceled, producers considered doing another spinoff filmed in Miami, which is a majority Latin city.

The insider said that a pilot was even filmed, which featured a mix of Black and Latin men and women, as opposed to the all-Black female cast of Selling Tampa. However, the pilot was not picked up.

The source wondered if the show would need ‘four Black cast members’ who could equal Selling Sunset villain Christin Quinn’s star power before their show could get off the ground.

The source claimed the streamer is now searching for ‘model-like people’ who are ‘wealthy,’ ‘young’ and ‘fit’ to populate its next real estate series.

Different races: The source noted that Netflix explored a Miami spinoff after canceling Tampa, which had a cast of Latin and Black men and women, instead of only Black women, though the pilot wasn’t picked up; still from Selling Tampa

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