Todd Chrisley and his family first debuted on reality TV a decade ago. Now, Todd and his wife, Julie Chrisley, sit behind bars after beginning their combined 19-year prison sentence for their role in defrauding the government.
Some might say Todd’s desire to “keep up with the Joneses” and flaunt his flashy lifestyle on camera landed him that gaudy orange jumpsuit. However, his daughter, Savannah Chrisley, recently revealed her dad was against the idea of fame in the first place — mainly because of their family issues.
“My oldest half-brother [Kyle] from my dad’s first marriage, he struggles with mental health, drugs, you know, all of it,” Savannah said on the Adversity Advantage Podcast. “And my dad was like, ‘I’m not putting that on TV for everyone to see.’ Obviously, when you grow up in the South, you’re perfect, and nobody ever sees what goes on behind closed doors.”
How did Chrisley Knows Best come about?
Even though he was initially against the idea, the Chrisley patriarch gave in. Todd began working with his family on developing their project. “He just said, ‘No, no, no.’ But finally, we did, and we filmed a sizzle reel, and they pitched it to networks,” Savannah revealed. “They pitched it to 10 different networks, and out of the 10 networks, nine of them wanted it [and] wanted to go straight into series.”
Later, Savannah revealed that Oprah’s network, OWN, wanted the series the most. Despite such a massive offer, they went in a different direction for business purposes.
“The highest bidder at the time was actually Oprah’s network. She wanted hour-long episodes. I want to say it was, like, 12 or 15 episodes, which is crazy for a first-time show. But then we ended up with USA [Network], just because for us, at the time, it was the best fit. It was going to be on USA, E!, and Bravo. So, it aired on USA, and then it re-ran on all three networks, which I don’t think has ever really been done.”
Although Todd and Julie are still in the slammer, Savannah revealed in August 2023 that she and her siblings snagged a production deal that will bring them back to our TV screens sooner than we think. Bring on the chaos!
TELL US — DID YOU WATCH CHRISLEY KNOWS BEST? ARE YOU SURPRISED TO HEAR THIS?
