‘Bad Girls Club’ was an American reality television series, originally created for Oxygen Network in the US, but aired on various channels across the globe. The show debuted in December of 2006 and enjoyed eleven years of success until the end of the final season in 2017, providing millions of fans and followers with priceless entertainment.
The intriguing concept of the show followed the lives of volunteers, all women who consider themselves deserving of the title of ‘bad girl’, as they spend three months living in affluent mansions and enjoying free-for-all luxury, as well as attending the wildest parties. However, the producers pose strict rules for the girls, and any violations could lead to the offender’s eviction and replacement.
Filming of the show took place in several locations throughout ‘Bad Girls Club’s’ seventeen seasons, which included Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Atlanta, New Orleans, Chicago, and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.
With every season, new girls were chosen from the hundreds of auditions sent to the producers, so viewers could expect spectacular all-new drama to unfold.
Fans of the show met countless women entering and leaving each season’s mansion. As should be expected, with so many women confined together, conflict could arise from the simplest things, especially as they all considered themselves ‘the baddest thing in town’.
With a dedicated camera crew there to capture every moment, viewers remained glued to the screen to see what happened next. The show’s popularity grew almost instantly, and it soon inspired several spin-offs, which include ‘Bad Girls Road Trip’ and ‘Bad Girls All-Star Battle’.
However, despite ‘Bad Girls Club’s’ well-received popularity, several critics openly called the show a disgrace, with one even saying that it was the biggest mistake to make it to air.
The greatest concern for most of the critics suggested that the show posed as a bad influence on all the young women so fascinated by the show, that they wanted to copy everything the girls on screen did.
The show also received negative criticism from women in the African-American community, who claimed that the African-American stars of the show were a disgrace to their culture. However… although so much happened on camera, yet there are several secrets kept from the public, a great deal of which obviously never made it onto film.
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Lengthy Auditions
One of the key features of the show often used to introduce the chosen candidates to the audience, were snippets taken from the girls’ audition tapes, which usually contained information about each of them.
During the auditions, the girls would usually answer questions mostly concerned with personal information and preferences, as well as background summaries, and about their likes and dislikes.
However, the viewers don’t get to see all of the content. According to the confessions of several candidates, the questionnaires compiled by the producers could be very lengthy, and many of the interviews could range to up to six-hours of footage.
On top of that, the entire auditioning process could last for up to three months, during which time the producers assess every aspect of the girls’ lives – some girls even confessed that the show would probably know them better than their family. Among the questions asked, the producers would inquire in to details such as things the girls find annoying, as well as which typical kind of person they could never have a healthy relationship with.
The wait is over! You can now watch seasons 16 and 17 of Bad Girls Club for free! 😈 Download the @Oxygen app on your iPhone or Android. #BGC pic.twitter.com/950qzua4OX
— Bad Girls Club (@BGConOxygen) March 24, 2020
Since the prime attraction of the show centres around the conflict between house members, it is therefore rather obvious that these questions are important for the sole purpose of providing the producers with the perfect information to create conflicting circumstances, pairing girls wouldn’t get along, at least initially fabricating perfect conditions to aggravate the candidates.
Isolation
Once the producers chose the candidates for each season, the girls’ were taken to the pre-determined city where they’d be staying, but instead of a royal welcome, the girls’ have to isolate, and stay in hotel rooms for an undisclosed amount of time.
Since the producers never provide them with a specific date for moving into the mansion, their isolation period could last as long as three months. During this time they couldn’t leave the hotel or socialise at all, including in the hotel bar and lounge.
However, some of the girls confessed that they didn’t stay within the rules, often leaving their hotel to meet with friends. When this happened, the producers sometimes enforced their isolation through drastic measures.
To date, the producers have never given any reason for their motivations in isolating the candidates. It might be because they hope the growing anticipation might cause the girls to suffer social anxiety, increasing the tension at the mansion during the first couple of days, and creating an increased opportunity for immediate conflict.
They may also perhaps hope to prevent the girls from meeting each other beforehand, yet whichever the case, it certainly seems that the producers wanted to stack the favour in hopes of creating drama.
Brand Sensitivity
Since ‘Bad Girls Club’ became a popular show, especially among teenage viewers, it and the girls gained the interest of numerous brands hoping to gain screen time on the show. Of course, this provides the producers with lucrative opportunities for advertising campaigns, but it presents one small problem.
Naturally, many of the girls would prefer one brand over another, whether it comes to such things as cosmetics, beverages or clothing lines. The producers certainly couldn’t dictate or control what the girls bring onto the show, but leading them to try their best to enforce a means to prevent unendorsed brands from appearing on camera.
Firstly, the girls receive instructions to be careful about what they bring into the mansion, but if they happen to support the wrong brand, they have to tape over the logos or hide the products from the cameras.
Nearly all of the products featured on the show, especially the beverages and food stocked in the refrigerator and cabinets, as well as other parts of the mansion, were supplied by endorsed brands.
It’s no coincidence that these products make appearances, since the show made a hefty profit from the advertising exposure the brands obtain. Of course, maintaining a full house of divas will stack up the costs, forcing production to find the necessary funds somewhere.
Limited Freebies
Although the girls received a lot for free on the show, ranging from consumables, sanitary products, and above all else the expensive drink tabs they consumed at clubs and during parties, they didn’t necessarily live the most luxurious lives while staying at the mansion.
Normally, the producers provided the girls with a limited budget to spend on necessities. If they want anything else, such as random lunches or takeaways, and all other additional luxuries, they had to pay for it with their own funds. Naturally, this often caused conflict.
During one season of the show, the girls picked up food at a takeaway drive-thru and paid for their order with one of the other girl’s card. This caused a lot of drama to unfold, and resulted in a heated argument between the girls. The budgetary limitations may just have been another means by which the producers created tension in the mansion, which certainly worked.
As they say, money is the root of all evil, and the bad girls proved it by the great number of times conflict led to open clashes in the mansion because of money related arguments.
Dirty Confessions
Another luxury the girls weren’t allowed was housekeeping services. For the duration of their stay at the various mansions, cooking and keeping the house clean became their responsibility.
Unfortunately, few, if any, of the girls make housekeeping a priority, being more concerned with the next weekend getaway, party, or night out.
As such, many of the resident bad girls confessed about how dirty the place could become. Sometimes this embarrassing factor makes it onto the show, yet the clever editing of each episode often led the attention away from the girls’ slothful behaviour.
Yet again, this seemed to be a ploy used by the producers to cause tension, since not only does a filthy environment influence ones mood negatively, but the residents argue about who is responsible for cleaning up the mess.
Thus, any women thinking it would be a joyride to appear on the show might want to reconsider, unless they would be willing to live with a bunch of divas in a filthy home.
Premature Departures
Throughout the eleven years and 17 seasons of ‘Bad Girls Club’, several participants left the show early, often getting kicked out or because of some other excuse. However, some of the girls who left the show departed for different reasons than those the producers wanted the audience to believe.
In some cases, the producers would cover up the real reason behind a candidate’s departure. During season 5, the producers kicked Catya Washington out of the house, making viewers believe that she left out of her own free will, with a letter that suggested she considered herself too classy to remain in the show. Unfortunately, this was far from the truth. According to a Tumblr blog dedicated to digging up ‘Bad Girls Club’ secrets, the real reason Catya left was because of an off-camera altercation she had with an unknown gentleman.
The same blog also revealed that Sydney Steinfeldt, who appeared in season 6, didn’t leave the house because of a family emergency, as the producers stated. Instead, the blog uncovered that Sydney suffered from narcotic addiction withdrawal during her stay, and for medical reasons had to leave the house.
During the following season 7 of the show, it was made to look as if one girl, Tiara, drove out another, Cheyenne, but it was actually the producers who were behind her eviction.
During season 15, the Hepperle twins, Amanda and Victoria, left the show after appearing in one episode as replacements of evicted residents. They left because of certain mistreatment from the other girls, and went as far as to file a lawsuit against the show.
House of Trouble
Of all the houses featured on the show, the one located in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, would perhaps be the girls’ favourite. Not only is it a luxurious mansion, but it also features decoration that makes the residents feel like true Hollywood stars.
Even the producers prefer using the Sherman Oaks mansion – it featured in no less than ten of the seventeen seasons. Inside the house, the producers decorated one of the walls to Bad Girls creed, and covered it with all the positive comments the show and residents had received over the years.
The garden also features a life-size version of the iconic Hollywood sign, which instead reads ‘Bad Girls’. For the neighbours, however, the house became more of a problem. The residents of Sherman Oaks filed numerous complaints against the production company and the girls who stayed at the mansion, especially during the filming of the sixth season.
WHERE TF ARE MY BAD GIRLS CLUB FANS AT?!? HELLLLOOOOO?!! IM TRYNA SERVE YOU BREAKFAST IN BEDDDDD🥛🤣😈 #BGC #badgirlsclub pic.twitter.com/DHEr7l1IJR
— Bigg Kiaa💔🦍 (@biggkiaa_) February 7, 2021
Their concerns included loud late-night activity, excessive swearing and disturbing the peace. The locals even called the police on five occasions to deal with the noisy disturbances. One of the local residents, Clarissa Keller, attempted to draw up a petition seeking to ban any further production.
Sadly, the locals’ attempts at recovering their neighbourhood failed, but did cause the producers to enforce stricter house rules, which didn’t really help the situation.
Criminal Tendencies
Following their appearance on the show, several of the bad girl stars were arrested, convicted of felonies and sentenced to imprisonment. It seems these girls certainly lived up to being actual bad girls.
At the end of her appearance in the fifth season, police arrested Catya Washington on charges of possession of a concealed weapon, and the illegal use of narcotics.
This followed the previously mentioned altercation with a certain unnamed gentleman, which also led to her subsequent eviction from the mansion.
In 2018, one of the stars of the fourteenth season, Shannade Clermont, received a sentence of one-year imprisonment following her conviction on three felony charges of identity theft, wire fraud, and access device fraud. Her arrest came after police discovered that she attempted to use a deceased man’s credit card to purchase goods worth about $20,000.
Luckily she received a lighter sentence, as she faced a minimum of twenty years, but the judge reduced her time after taking pity on the bad girl.
To further confirm the girls’ reputations as bad girls, during the seventh season the conflict and fighting got so out of hand that the producers had to call upon the local law to break the girls up, although the show hires a team of security guards, who usually step in if things get out of hand.
After Show Opportunity
Despite the reputation which the show acquired with critics, and the neighbours, the girls who featured in ‘Bad Girls Club’ sometimes gained positive exposure. Lauren Lewis, one of the star features of the fourteenth season, used her exposure to land opportunities to represent brands from the show.
Lauren later moved to Los Angeles, where she now works as a casting agent for NBC Universal. Other stars also gained lucrative opportunities, such as Tanisha Thomas from the second season, who now works as the hostess of the ‘Bad Girls Club’ spin-off, ‘Love Games: Even Bad Girls Need Love Too’.
Gabrielle ‘Gabi’ Victor, who appeared in the eighth season, gained further exposure after appearing on ‘Marriage Bootcamp’, and Natalie Nunn appeared with her mother on ‘The Mother-Daughter Experiment’.
True Conflict
Despite many suggestions, all the conflict caught on camera was as real as it seemed. However, despite the many behind the scenes instigations done of the producers, they didn’t actually want the girls to get into fights. In fact, one of the house rules clearly stated that if any of the girls was caught fighting, they would stand the chance of being evicted.
Regardless of their rule, the producers didn’t prevent conflict, and in some cases, they even informed members of the house of another member’s mischievous plans, hoping it would lead to some sort of confrontation.
With these facts now out in the open, ‘Bad Girls Club’ might never seem the same again, yet, if you are watching any re-runs of the show, we hope you keep enjoying every dramatic moment of it.
