Chrishell Stause shocked Selling Sunset fans on Friday after quitting the hit Netflix series after nine seasons.
However, producers aren’t wasting any time finding a replacement for the 44-year-old.
Daily Mail can confirm that producers were already looking for new celebrity cast members long before Stause even announced her exit from the show.
The series has had success in recent years casting ‘celeb-adjacent’ realtors on the series, including Nick Cannon’s baby mama Bre Tiesi and Sofia Vergara’s little sister Sandra.
They also cast Mexican-American actress Vanessa Villela in seasons four and five, and Stause herself was a successful soap star on All My Children and Days of Our Lives before joining Selling Sunset.
‘They’re looking high and low for a big celebrity to join next season,’ an insider told Daily Mail.
Selling Sunset producers are looking to replace Chrishell Stause with a celebrity realtor after the star sensationally quit the series
‘Producers don’t even care if they’ve worked in real estate or not. If the person is a big enough name, they’ll put you on the show without any real estate experience.’
They added, ‘They just have to be willing to go for their real estate licence on the show and be able to show a few homes.’
A number of Hollywood managers have also been contacted to see if they have any super famous clients who would do the show, but so far no A-listers are biting.
‘Selling Sunset has become pretty trashy with all the crazy drama between the cast, so it’s not like huge stars are clamouring to get on it,’ the source explained.
As a result, producers are open to casting relatives of big celebrities, like they did with Sandra Vergara.
It comes as Stause, who has been on Selling Sunset since it premiered in 2019, revealed that she was exiting the Netflix show in a candid chat with Bustle, admitting the pressure of filming had taken a toll on her mental health.
‘I’ve gotten to a place where I don’t need the show financially. I’m lucky to have other forms of employment, because it’s no longer good for my mental health,’ she said.
The series has had success in recent years casting ‘celeb-adjacent’ realtors on the series, including Nick Cannon ‘s baby mama Bre Tiesi and Sofia Vergara ‘s little sister Sandra
Sandra is pictured with her A-list sister in a rare photo together
‘The show has given me so many opportunities, and I don’t want to be bitter about it, even though I’m leaving not in the way that I would’ve loved.’
Stause added that the departure from the show was very much on her own terms – and claimed creator Adam DiVello had been calling and texting ‘100 times a day’ in a bid to get her back.
‘I’ve vacillated back and forth with this decision in the past… I have to be honest, having come from nothing, it’s really hard to turn something like this down,’ she admitted.
Behind the scenes, tensions on Selling Sunset were reportedly far more intense than what fans saw on screen.
Stause says this season, in particular, she struggled with the way editors chose to portray conflicts.
‘I get it, they want to make a light show,’ she told Bustle. ‘And if I was doing a show with less problematic people, I can totally see their point.’
Stause dramatically quit the hit Netflix series after she came across poorly during the latest season
Among her biggest clashes this season was with Emma Hernan, specifically over her boyfriend Blake Davis, whom Stause openly disapproves of.
‘He compared being nonbinary to having a mental illness,’ Stause alleges.
Her partner, musician G-Flip, is nonbinary; Davis has previously denied using derogatory language toward Stause.
She added: ‘He constantly posts anti-trans stuff… He thinks it’s too woke if you don’t sing the N word in songs.
‘He posted something the other day, with a gun in view, saying he wants to “sue my d**k off.’”
Hernan disputed some of these claims on the Season 9 reunion.
Stause also says the editing left her looking like the ‘overbearing friend’.
‘But there are so many things that would’ve completely vindicated me and my opinion, and they left all of it out,’ she complained.
