Is Brooks Marks the Vicki Gunvalson of Next Gen NYC? According to the series creator, yes! He’s the person responsible for organically bringing the cast together. That gives him some pretty serious bragging rights, considering that the show is breaking viewership records for Bravo.
To celebrate the end of Season 1, series creator Michaline Babich sat down for an in-depth interview. She chatted about how the show overcame early skepticism, and how a son of a Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star helped pull it together.
Next Gen NYC creator Michaline Babich says Brooks Marks is the reason the show came together
Michaline spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about Next Gen NYC and its major success. She admitted that she wasn’t the first person to have the idea of a show about the kids of Housewives.
“I think many production companies will say that they’ve pitched, ‘We should do something with the housewives’ kids,’” Michaline explained. “But that’s a concept, not a cast.”
Michaline also serves as the executive producer of RHOSLC, so she already knew Brooks from there. When she found out that he had a friend group in NYC, she realized that she had the concept and the cast.
“It really did come out of Brooks, and he had a group of friends in New York,” Michaline explained. “I will also say, in your 20s, friendships are different. The Real Housewives of OC, it started because they lived in the same gated community.”
She continued, “When you’re friends in your 20s, you have people coming in and out of friends’ circles, so Brooks was very close with Riley [Burruss] and very close with Gia [Giudice], and Gia connected Brooks to Ariana [Biermann]. That’s how friendships happen in your 20s. It’s more like circles of friends sometimes colliding with each other.”
Michaline noted that Brooks and the “original cast” of RHOSLC are “naturally generous people,” which helped Brooks have organic relationships before filming started. He’s a connector, and every show needs one. The fact that the friend group wound up having chemistry is just part of the reality TV magic.
Next Gen NYC is streaming on Peacock. It’s available on Hayu in the UK and Ireland.
TELL US – ARE YOU SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT BROOKS PLAYED SUCH A BIG ROLE IN ASSEMBLING THE NEXT GEN NYC CAST? WHO DO YOU WANT TO RETURN FOR SEASON 2?
