I think many fans, myself included, are a bit tired and disillusioned by Below Deck at this point. But why is that? I think there are two main reasons:

  1. Oversaturation. At one point, there were 5 BD shows each year. It's just too much. You can't miss something if it's never gone.

  2. Casting has never managed to truly replace Kate or Hannah and what they brought to the franchise.

So now some solutions:

  1. Adventure has already been canceled, so that's a good start. I think they need to limit the franchise to 3 shows at most so they are never showing at the same time and people can miss them in between. Depending on how the next season of SY goes, they should drop either SY or Med. I tend to think Sandy has less goodwill than Glenn, so I would suggest dropping Med and keeping OG, SY, and DU.

While we are at it -- limit seasons to 14 episodes plus a reunion. These 17 and 18 episode seasons just drag on and on.

  1. I hope that Kerry translates well to OG, but it may not be enough if the rest of the cast is obnoxious. The prevailing feeling among fans is that we are tired of the over the top personal drama of the crew. We want to see strange guests, work challenges, and more fun.

I suggest giving some fan service and next season of OG doing a returning favorites season. Only choose unproblematic crew who are decent at their jobs and see what happens. People like Dave, Amy, Connie, and Ashling from OG; Collin and Lloyd from Med; Kelsie and Barnaby from SY. See if the show can refresh fans with a truly feel-good season.

What do you guys think? How can the BD franchise be saved?

Edit: The oversaturation of shows is apparently a devisive topic. Out of curiosity, for those of you who want more content and don't think the franchise is oversaturated, how long have you watched and by what method? When you binge a season, do you watch two different seasons simultaneously?

I have been watching live since the beginning, which amounts to about 10 years of Below Deck. IMO, the premise of the show is similar enough across franchises that I wouldn't want to watch two franchises at the same time.