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Things You Might Not Know About MTV’s “Siesta Key”

Cate

February 1, 2018

©MTV / Courtesy: Everett Collection

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Siesta Key is MTV’s hottest new reality show. Featuring a young hot cast — which includes Alex Kompothecras, Brandon Gomes, Chloe Trautman, Garrett Miller, Juliette Porter, Kelsey Owens, and Madisson Hausburg — the show is a lot like Laguna Beach, which makes sense given that producers of Siesta Key were responsible for that show too. Even though it is only on its first season, its already a cultural phenomenon, which is why we’ve rounded up these 12 things most people don’t know about the new series:

12. Alex’s Father Paid for the Pilot

Alex’s father Gary is the one who came up with the idea that his son and his friends should get their own reality show. It was two years before the show premiered and he was with Alex and the gang as they were boating, fishing and going to the beach and partying, and he thought this would make for great reality TV. “I go, ‘You guys are really having a hell of a lifestyle,’” Gary said. “I said this would be a good reality show. Plus they’re good kids, so that was the main thing, they weren’t bad kids. I said this would be a good story because when I was growing up, you had ‘Father Knows Best,’ you had ‘My Three Sons,’ you had people with values and I didn’t see that in the TV of late.” Gary paid for a production company to film the pilot and then sent it to various networks. No one responded until a year later when MTV contacted Gary out of the blue and told him that this is what they had been looking for.

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11. There’s Nothing Like It on TV Right Now

When the show was pitched to MTV, producers Mark Ford and Kevin Lopez quickly realized that this was the type of show that had been missing from TV and that with Siesta Key they clearly had a hit on their hands. “We’ve actually thought that this type of show has been missing from TV for a while,” Ford told Us Weekly. “We feel like the landscape of television has kind of left it wide open, especially in the unscripted space.” The big realization came when they saw the first episode. “The big event that is in the first episode with Alex’s birthday. And he has a huge party and emotions came out so organically where the relationships became so clear to us and so relatable. That was probably day three of filming and I think we knew right there that we had a cast that could carry this. That were comfortable in their skins, were very open emotionally about their feelings and they are also incredibly gorgeous,” Ford said. “That combination doesn’t come along very often and I think we all producers felt from the beginning that we had lightning in a bottle.”

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10. Chloe Has Absolutely No Interest in Alex

While most of the cast has hooked up with Alex at one point or another, Chloe hasn’t and she has absolutely no interest in doing so. “Honestly, Alex is my best friend. I don’t view him that way. He’s slept with every single of my friends so obviously at some point in time, if I wanted to sleep with him, I could have,” she told Cosmopolitan. “We just don’t have that relationship. Our relationship has kinda just always been this brother-sister vibe. When I need advice I go to him. On the show, you see me talking to him about all the girls, but that’s not all Alex and I talk about. For instance, I got in a car accident a while ago and I was dealing with that and he’s the first person I called to talk to about it because of his dad’s business and him going to law school. He’s honestly like a big brother to me and I know all his dirty little tactics.”

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9. Lauren Conrad Is Madisson’s Idol

Madisson is considered the LC (Lauren Conrad) of Siesta Key, which is great because Madisson considers Lauren to be her idol, so she’s completely flattered by the comparison. “I think it’s lovely. [Conrad] is a wonderful woman, and I mean, god, she’s so successful, she’s beautiful, she seems always, from what I’ve seen, very kind. So absolutely, I love that comparison,” Madisson said.

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8. The Cast Is Asked to Hold Off on Significant Conversations until Cameras Are Present

When producers arrange for filming with the cast, they make sure to include events, but to ensure they get the good stuff on camera, they ask the cast to hold off on important conversations and other activities until cameras are present. When they are at parties, producers will tell cast members to go talk to other cast members about stuff that has happened. “If it’s like we’re throwing a party, they’ll say, ‘All right, remember that your cast is here, and if there’s an opportunity to go talk to them, talk to them,’’’ Ford said. “And then they’ll give you stuff to go off, like, ‘Hey talk about this that happened yesterday.’”

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7. Controversy

Before the show premiered, Alex found himself in hot water after a video of his friend’s boat dragging a hammerhead shark behind it at high speeds surfaced online and went viral. Although he had nothing to do with the incident, he was linked to the guy doing it, so he began receiving death threats on his social media accounts, and MTV had to cancel the premiere party as a result.

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6. Madisson’s Relationship with Juliette

In the pilot, viewers learn that Alex cheated on Juliette with Madisson, but what we didn’t hear was that Madisson had no idea that Alex was with Juliette when they hooked up. “I had met Juliette the summer before, when I had come home from college and hooked up with Alex not knowing she and Alex were together,” she explained. “Neither of us were happy about it. Of course I felt terrible about it, but I then knew that she did not like me. So when she came up to me at Alex’s birthday party I thought that was incredibly mature of her. Rather than, you know, punch me like Amanda might to Chloe.”

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5. Fast Turnaround

The first 10 episodes of Siesta Key were filmed from April to July in 2017, five days a week, which was a rapid turnaround for MTV considering that the show began airing that July. “MTV had an airdate in mind and they challenged us to hit it and we did,” Ford said.

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4. Pauly’s Rap Sheet

As mentioned on the show, Pauly has his fair share of legal problems, but never went into details about his past. According to the Herald Tribune, the aspiring musician was charged in 2017 for contempt of court for failing to appear on a previous marijuana possession charge and in 2015 he was arrested for possession and fraudulent display of a handicap parking permit.

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3. The Show Is a Good Opportunity for the Cast

Some of the cast members have said they took part in the series because it was a great opportunity and would benefit them professionally. Garrett is hoping the show will help him expand his clientele as a personal trainer while Chloe and Brandon have said they’ve learned a lot about the entertainment industry because of the show that will help her in the makeup industry and him in the music world.

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2. How Canvas Was Cast

Canvas was cast on the show after moving from Atlanta to Siesta Key. She literally decided to move Sarasota on a whim and then got a job at the Tiki Bar, which is how she met Chloe and then got on the show. “I was living in Atlanta and I was like, ‘You know what? I want to move.’ I wanted to be completely on my own and kind of prove to myself that with no friends, knowing no one, I could just do it. New friends, new job, new everything,” she told Cosmopolitan. “Sarasota just seemed kind of nice. I needed something a little bit smaller so that I could work more on my personal growth. I started working at the tiki bar [with Chloe and Kelsey] and being on the show was an opportunity that was presented to me since I was friends with Chloe.”

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1. Residents Don’t Like the Show

While some local business owners in Siesta Key were excited about the publicity from the show being good for business, there are others who were worried that theå show would tarnish the town’s reputation and bring in an influx of college-aged vacationers. “I think ever since Siesta Key got voted the No. 1 beach, it’s not like this hidden gem anymore,” Chloe said. “I feel like some people think we’re exploiting Sarasota and Siesta Key, but really we’re just beautifying the city.”

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Cate

Cate has a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature and has been the Managing Editor of Fame10 for more than 6 years. Despite having a love for the works of Thomas Hardy, Leo Tolstoy and Lord Byron, she also has an intense fascination with pop culture. When she isn’t writing for Fame10, she’s planning her next big adventure in Southeast Asia.