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Kate Chastain Talks Co-Hosting (And Producing!) New Talk Show ‘Bravo’s Chat Room’

By Lea Palmieri @littleleap
Published Sep. 22, 2020, 9:55 a.m. ET

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“The new show is basically a dream come true,” Kate Chastain told me last week on the day her new show was announced, Bravo’s Chat Room. Finally, some good news for us all! Maybe we should’ve known that 2020 would be a disaster back in February when she announced (via a tongue-in-cheek nod to Megan Markle) that she would be departing the Bravo boat show where she spent six seasons serving as chief stew. But after doing her best to dodge the pandemic with her doggie Halo in Florida, where she kept busy with a show on Andy Cohen’s Radio Andy channel on SiriusXM and providing her one-of-a-kind commentary on Below Deck Sailing Yacht and Below Deck Mediterranean episodes, she’s now back on a brand new talk show any Bravo fan is sure to love.

Kate will join The Real Housewives of Potomac’s Gizelle Bryant, Summer House’s Hannah Berner, and The Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Porsha Williams on Bravo’s Chat Room to discuss the latest happenings in the world, in pop culture, and of course, on Bravo shows. “We have a dream team of ladies,” Kate said. “I have always been a Bravo superfan. Finally, I get to talk about my true passion, which is just Bravo shows and pop culture. It’s so exciting.” And while she admits, “I don’t think the other ladies are on my level of superfandom,” they match her where it counts. “They’re definitely on my level or above my level in wit and humor. I’m a little bit nervous.”

When it comes to her co-hosts Kate said, “I think Gizelle is a lady, an icon, a great mother. I think she’s my favorite of all Housewives all of a sudden. I just really got into Potomac. She is gorgeous but she has got grace under pressure, strong. I just love her.” Kate’s been watching a lot of RHOP lately, saying, “I think it’s must-watch viewing for everybody in the world. It shows all the different family dynamics. I laugh. I cry. They’re all so strong in their vulnerability. It’s really quite impressive.”

Of her other co-hosts, she said, “Hannah Berner is hilarious. She is, literally, the comedian of the room. She does stand-up. She’s also the millennial.” We did the math and settled on the fact that Kate is also technically a millennial but just on the cusp and as she declared, “I’m cuspy.” And finally, there’s Porsha who has been making important headlines of her own this year as she has remained super involved with the Black Lives Matter movement. “Porsha is a spit-fire,” Kate said. “She is dynamic. She’s so intelligent, so gorgeous, so fierce, so inspiring — we’ve got quite the group.”

When asked about a topic she’s excited to explore with these women, Kate offered up, “I would like to know from these women how they feel about fashion these days. I am clueless. I just bought two pairs of gorgeous, work-of-art high heels. And when they arrived, I was like: now what? I wore them around the house. I just think I scared my dog. I was so excited, I miss going outside so much. I was like, I’m going to get myself high heels! I thought maybe if I just had them, I’d wear them. I’d like to know: are we athleisuring? Does anybody else like to put on a sequin dress now and then? No? I heard someone was wearing high heels in public. I was like, are we doing that now? I kind of felt like, with masks came no heels. But I feel like a heels/mask combo is a good one.”

And she would know how to dress up, even in 2020, as she experimented with quite a look back in the spring when she invested in a rhinestone covered mask to add a little pizzaz to the pandemic. “That was early days so I got a little excited,” she explained. “I wore it one time into a grocery store, and I just felt a little too extra. I was blinging down the produce aisle, they’re like, ‘Woah! Calm down, lady! Calm down.'” She has since swapped that one out with a care package of masks from none other than former RHONY star Jill Zarin. “I got so many from Jill Zarin. I love her. I met her at BravoCon, and Jill Zarin is an icon. I was intimated, I felt like I was meeting Bravo royalty. She was so sweet.” After the two exchanged compliments on Instagram, Jill got Kate’s address and sent her several of her new favorite accessories. “They’re all I wear,” Kate said. “They’re so comfortable, so cute. Love them.”

And with this week’s arrival of the Below Deck Season 8 trailer, I asked Kate if the new season feels like seeing an ex. “Yes, Lea,” she said with only half faked exasperation. “It does feel like seeing my ex. And it feels like talking about my ex, so thank you for bringing that up!” she laughed. “But it’s like, even when you break up with somebody, even if you don’t want to be with them anymore — you still don’t want them to like their new girlfriend better. You want them to always be like, the one that got away! But of course I’m excited to see the new season. I only wish the best. I can’t wait to see how Captain Lee handled it in my absence. I need to know who brought him his Cheerios and how his pants were ironed.” Though it’s likely she already knows as the two have remained good pals and phone buddies.

In the meantime, Kate confirms that she is also serving as an executive producer on Bravo’s Chat Room, along with Porsha as well as Andy Cohen, and takes pride in the fact that she “traded in the stripes for producer credits.”

“I just really love the creative process,” she said of the behind-the-scenes work. “I love Bravo so much that I feel like a producer credit makes it feel very official. Years of training have led me to this moment. I’ve been watching Bravo from before I even stepped foot on a yacht, so I feel like it’s come full circle.” Though that doesn’t mean that she’s left her nautical life completely behind, as I point out how entertaining her exchanges with past yachties on social media is to this day. “The really funny friendship is between Courtney [Skippon], myself, and then Rhylee [Gerber] thrown in there,” she said, referring to the former stew and deckhand respectively. “I feel like I’m the happy medium between the two opposites: Rhylee and Courtney.” And of the latter she admitted, “I don’t like to repeat it a lot but I think she’s way funnier than I am, honestly. And she’s so gorgeous that you don’t see it coming. She’s a sneak attack.” I mention that even I’ve learned a thing or two about modern feminism from some of Courtney’s articulate points that are even more impressive considering she’s making them on social media, and Kate agreed, saying, “Courtney’s pretty darn perfect. Her moral compass is so on-point. She’s the sanest person ever. It’s refreshing. It’s not something I’m used to finding in Below Deck cast members. I don’t know how she snuck in there, but we’re glad she did.”

I also brought up the fact that Courtney’s recent dive into binge-watching Summer House gave her the realization that the cast doesn’t have to live with each other and asked Kate if she shared in that frustration. “I’ve been feeling that way about Summer House — and for that matter, Vanderpump and all Housewives, basically every show but Below Deck on Bravo, I’m not gonna lie. I’m pretty sure we worked the hardest.” And now that Kate is contemplating returning to New York City soon, would she ever sign up for the Hamptons house and join a show like Summer House? “I don’t know that I would like to do a show like Summer House. Would I like to basically do what I did on Below Deck without the work and the blue poly-blend polo? Yes! I would love to just drink and go to pools and talk shit about my castmates. That sounds great.” Viewers have also suggested her for The Real Housewives of New York cast, but Kate has another dream in mind. “I would love to be a New York Housewife because of Sonja alone. Sonja is a national treasure to be protected at all costs. I want to just be Sonja’s intern for a day. That is on my bucket list. I need the full experience. I love her so much, I would do that.”

But for now she’s soaking up all that the Bravo’s Chat Room experience has to offer, including advice from Andy himself. “Andy has always been very generous with advice, and I’m so thankful for that. I think we had a good laugh about the fact that just because all the ladies are so lovely doesn’t mean we’re going to agree about everything. And I can see it. I know it’s not going to be just a tea party. We’re going to be spilling tea, but not sipping tea.”

“I’m just excited because it feels like a girl session, especially at a time when we’re not hanging out with our friends as much,” she continued. “I’m excited to have three other amazing, iconic, dynamic Bravo personalities discuss all things Bravo. And also, I’m not doing the nautical puns thing as much anymore, but we’re all in the same boat. Except actually, I like to remind Hannah Berner constantly, I’m like, at least you didn’t have to work or wear polo shirts. She’s younger than me, she’s the only one I can give a little shit to. The other two, I’m like, ‘Whatever you say, tell me how it goes!'”

Bravo’s Chat Room airs Sunday, September 27 at 10:30pm ET/PT on Bravo. 

Where to stream Bravo's Chat Room