Is This the End of 'Selling Sunset' as We Know It?

This post contains spoilers for Selling Sunset season eight.

Season eight can be a death knell for even the best TV shows, and early into the latest installment of Selling Sunset—all 11 episodes of which debuted September 6—I worried that the Netflix series had reached its expiration date. After dozens of episodes in which realtors at the Oppenheim Group flounce around in increasingly outlandish fashion, one agent has the audacity to question the ultra-mini skirt another wears for an open house. Some low-stakes drama over the dress code would’ve been fitting of this show’s first or second season, but that time has long passed. Nevertheless, I armed myself for hours of fighting over hemlines when something miraculous happened: the show’s most shocking storyline in years.

In the third episode, cast member Bre Tiesi agrees to meet with an agent from another brokerage, Amanda Lynn, and hears a bit of gossip about Chelsea Lazkani, who joined the show in season five. Tiesi learns that Lazkani’s husband Jeff, with whom she shares two young children, was allegedly seen making out with another woman at the W Hotel “multiple times.” Tiesi, who made an enemy of Lazkani after boarding the series in season six, sits on this information until episode five, when she relays the allegation over a glass of red wine.

“I just wanted to come to you woman to woman, because I’ve been here. I was married. My husband was doing the same thing with multiple women,” says Tiesi, referring to Johnny Manziel, a former NFL star who appears in this season as a potential client for his former wife. “I know you don’t necessarily care for me, but I wouldn’t wish this on you or anyone ever,” she continues. “Like, I’ve seriously been there, and it’s awful. But regardless, it was brought up, and I feel like you have the right to know.”

Though Lazkani previously criticized Tiesi’s family on the show—calling her unconventional relationship with Nick Cannon, with whom Tiesi shares a two-year-old son, “rather off-putting”—the revelation about her own personal life is handled delicately. When Lazkani asks if she trusts Lynn, Tiesi responds that she does, but she wouldn’t consider her a “best friend.” By episode’s end, Lazkani confides to costar Chrishell Stause: “I’m in my most vulnerable state that I’ve ever been in my whole life.”

The scene feels achingly familiar. As Stause’s marriage to This Is Us star Justin Hartley imploded in the middle of filming Selling Sunset’s second season, she tearfully came to terms with the split across from castmate Mary Fitzgerald. Three seasons later, a similar scenario played out after Stause’s breakup with boss Jason Oppenheim. The show got some needed juice out of Heather Rae El Moussa’s romance with HGTV’s Tarek El Moussa following his divorce from his Flip or Flop cohost Christina Hall. And after Tyler Stanaland of Selling the O.C. split from actor Brittany Snow, Rolling Stone hypothesized that the cast’s relationships may be afflicted with a “Selling Sunset curse.”

The show has never really been about luxury real estate. When asked about the series on a recent episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Josh Flagg of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing snarked: “No, I only like to watch licensed real estate brokers.” Instead—as macabre as it sounds—breakups have become this franchise’s bread and butter.

Still, season eight of Selling Sunset gamely melds drama from both real life and real estate. Fitzgerald and Oppenheim mourn the loss of Niko, the dog they shared even years after their split, while visiting their splashy new listing: selling the family home of TikTok stars Charli and Dixi D’Amelio. During the season finale, Oppenheim tells the brokerage he plans to list Kanye West’s Malibu mansion—a property designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando—for a cool $53 million. The only snag? West has gutted the home of all its basic functions, removing plumbing, heating, and air conditioning, as well as most of the doors. “It’s like a Picasso,” Oppenheim tells his dumbstruck employees. “Maybe an abstract parking garage,” quips agent Amanza Smith. (Last month, Business Insider reported that house-flipping firm Belwood Investments was set to purchase West’s house for $21 million—less than half the original asking price.)

As Lazkani mourns her marriage alongside Stause and fellow castmate Emma Hernan, she becomes wary about Tiesi discussing the alleged cheating on camera. Lazkani then breaks the fourth wall by questioning Tiesi over who initiated the scene between her and Lynn—and whether she knew what the bombshell would be prior to filming. Enter fellow agent Nicole Young, who after making up in her bitter feud with Stause perpetuates a rumor about Hernan romancing a married man. Young delivers that gossip to Tiesi in hopes that she’ll use it against Hernan in a future fight.

In the season finale, non-Oppenheim agent Michelle Lally of Vanderpump Rules spinoff The Valley (whoever made this cross-show cameo happen, I’d like to send them a fruit basket), shows Lazkani a home that she contemplates living in as a single woman with her children. Across town, Tiesi goes scorched-earth on the situation, bringing Lynn by the office as a potential new hire. Lazkani is seen removing her wedding ring mid-confessional, but there is little resolution regarding her marriage—in fact, most of the office hasn’t even found out about the alleged infidelity. In March, Lazkani filed for divorce after nearly seven years of marriage, People magazine reported, allegedly citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their split.

But the very storylines that made this season soar now threaten the show’s longevity. Before the latest season had even aired, off-screen drama among the cast members was already percolating. Over Labor Day weekend, and presumably after the cast had finally got a hold of screeners for the new season, some began to air their grievances with production—and each other—on social media.

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

“Someone needs to take my phone,” Stause warned on her Instagram Story, writing, “Are we really still giving air time to LIARS that just want air time??” and declaring that she’d “NEVER” work on a show with Young again. “Just know she spews a disgusting lie about a bestie that is categorically FALSE and SUPER damaging. It is NOT TRUE,” Stause wrote, tagging Done and Done Productions and calling them “disgusting for blindsiding” Hernan “instead of letting her at LEAST defend herself with the TRUTH.”