‘We weren’t given a 2nd choice because what we represent as minority women’: ‘Selling Tampa’ Cast Cries Racism After Show Cancellation, Says People Wanted To See Black Women Fight
Selling Tampa will not return for a second season. The Netflix real estate-based reality tv show, a spinoff of Selling Sunset, was canceled on Friday (November 11).
Selling Tampa is set in Florida’s Suncoast and follows Allure Realty, an all-Black, all-female real estate agency run by Military vet Sharelle Rosado that is out to dominate the Tampa market. Along with Tennille Moore, the cast also included Alexis Williams, Anne-Sophie Petit, Colony Reeves, Juawana Williams, Karla Giorgio, and Rena Frazier.
Selling Tampa calls out to racism for the cancellation of the show
According to Page Six, numerous cast members believe their show was not given a fair chance in comparison to Selling Sunset, and they believe racism played a role in the termination. Notably, the principal cast members are all women of color.
”When they show us [black women] in a different light — when we’re bickering, fighting and name-calling — they get a Season two and Season three, but that’s not what we were displaying,” star Juawana Colbert told the publication on Friday. ”I feel like we weren’t given a second chance, possibly because of what we represented as minority women,”
Juawana Colbert went on to explain that Adam DiVello, the creator of the Selling series, which includes Selling Sunset and Selling the OC, and producer Skyler Wakil invited the cast to join them on a Zoom call where they announced the termination.
Selling Tampa’s cancellation was done on a zoom call
For over a year, all of the key cast members were left wondering whether the show would be renewed for a second season, and a source claims they were given the “runaround.” The cast was then asked to join a Zoom session last week, where the creator, Adam DiVello, broke the news.
“Adam specifically said [the decision] was related to numbers but never gave any additional information,” Colbert claimed. “I don’t know if he was talking about rating numbers or budget numbers. He just said numbers.”
The statistics argument, according to Colbert, does not make sense, and she and the rest of the cast are certain that they are being held to an unreasonable standard or ratings expectation. “When it comes to a minority show of all minority cast members, we’re going to naturally have lower numbers because we are a minority in numbers [of the population] in general,” Juawana Colbert said.
A source reportedly claimed that the cast members would receive ‘hundreds’ of social media direct messages on a ‘daily’ basis, but this might simply reflect the show’s most committed fans and not an accurate measure of real viewership.
Selling Tampa premiered on Netflix in December 2021. Netflix has not yet publicly revealed the reason behind Selling Tampa‘s cancellation.
Source: Page Six
