NBCUniversal Captain Sandy Yawn
Captain Sandy Yawn responded to former chief stew Hannah Ferrier’s recent criticism about “Below Deck Mediterranean” season 8 and said she agreed with part of her assessment.
Ferrier, who was a chief stew for several seasons until she was fired by Yawn in season 5, commented on a “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” clip of current stews Kyle Viljoen and Jessika Asai. Ferrier seemed to hint that the two were boring in their responses as she commented on the clip posted to the Instagram account Below Deck Above Average, “Augh. I get why you try to replace me every season.” She added the sleepy emoji to the post.
Yawn addressed Ferrier’s comments in an interview with Us Weekly at BravoCon 2023 and said, “Well, she’s accurate on the Below Deck Med [side of things]. She knows that’s not my decision. So I don’t know what to do about that.”
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Captain Sandy Yawn Said She Really Liked Working With Tumi Mhlongo & Hopes She Comes Back
Although Yawn agreed the franchise hadn’t been able to replace Ferrier with a return chief stew, she shared her support for the current chief stew Tumi Mhlongo. “Honestly, I would take Tumi back any day,” Yawn told the publication. “She’s an incredible chief stew, and I love that I had no idea what was going on below deck. She never brought it on deck. She never did. I never knew. She’s great at that. She’s the consummate professional.”
As for Mhlongo, she revealed that watching the season gave her a different impression of Viljoen. According to the publication, she accused Viljoen of being an “instigator” and stirring the pot on a lot of drama in the interior.
“I’m also seeing things for the first time, which is also new for me,” Mhlongo said. “I’m watching back and I’m like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t pick that up.’ But it’s very obvious now what was happening.”
There Has Been a Lot of Drama in the Interior Team So Far in ‘Below Deck Mediterranean’
The first few episodes of “Below Deck Mediterranean” season 8 saw Mhlongo clash with Natalya Scudder on a few occasions. Scudder began the season as the temporary chief stew but once Mhlongo was able to join the boat, they didn’t see eye-to-eye. However, the two women eventually decided to try for peace between them for the sake of the interior.
In the 7th episode of the series, viewers saw cracks get more pronounced between all the members of the interior as Viljoen and Scudder told Asai that they didn’t like that Mhlongo laughed about putting her on service. Asai confronted Mhlongo about her laughter and the chief stew clarified she wasn’t laughing at her. Asai said Viljoen’s comments made her feel like a green stew and when word got back to him about it, he confronted his co-star.
The episode ended as he criticized Asai for making those comments to Mhlongo, and the preview for the 8th episode showed that Viljoen and Scudder will finally go head-to-head against each other in a major argument as well. Since Mhlongo and Scudder have already been warned by Yawn about arguing, viewers will have to wait and see if the interior is able to survive the season without any changes in staff.
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