“Summer House” Producers Reveal Biggest ‘Red Flag’ When Casting New Reality Stars

NEED TO KNOW

• Summer House producers Trish Gold and Jamie Jakimo opened up about what they look for — and avoid — when casting new reality stars during a Televerse panel on Friday, Aug. 14

• Gold explained that a major “red flag” is someone who comes in with a plan for how they want to portray themselves rather than being willing to share their authentic life

• In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Gold and Jakimo also teased the “fresh start” of season 11, which features an entirely single cast for the first time

After 10 seasons of Summer House, producers Trish Gold and Jamie Jakimo know what makes a great reality star — and what can immediately raise a red flag.

During a Televerse panel on Friday, Aug. 14, the showrunner and executive producer opened up about the authenticity required from the Bravo series’ cast and why anyone hoping to control how they appear on camera may have a difficult time inside the Summer House.

For Gold, one of the biggest red flags when bringing someone new into the group is a lack of openness.

“If we get a sense that somebody is hiding something or being cagey… that’s a really that’s a red flag. It’s just not gonna work for this show because also to put someone on a show where the cast members are being so open and honest and vulnerable,” she explained. “It’s not respectful to, you know, the ones who were there before, so that’s you know a big thing.”

That philosophy makes sense given the uniquely exposed way Summer House is filmed. In addition to a traditional camera crew following the cast, surveillance cameras throughout the house can capture the roommates when producers aren’t immediately present — including in their bedrooms and even the pantry.

“I think people who come onto the show as new cast members don’t really understand,” Gold said during the panel. “They’re like, ‘Oh, this is like really, truly what’s happening. This is my real life.’ “

“And I think that’s what’s special about Summer House,” she continued, pointing to the candid surveillance footage that can catch everything from potentially bad behavior to lighter moments like “eating muffins in the middle of the night or dancing in front of your mirror while you’re getting ready.”

Those unscripted moments, Gold said, “bring the humor and, like, the personality to the show that I think some other shows don’t have.”

Carl Radke, who appeared alongside Lindsay Hubbard and the producers on the panel, agreed that the format leaves cast members with few places to hide.

“I think another part of our show too that’s a little bit unique is the fact that we have cameras in our bedrooms, in our house, inside the kitchen, pantry,” he said. “So, like it, it invites and it requires you to be authentic. You can’t hide.”

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“You have to be yourself,” he continued. “Or I think the audience can kind of tell when you’re, you know, maybe not acting truthful or acting your total self.”

For Radke, that has meant allowing viewers to witness both the highs and lows of his life over the years.

“You’ve seen us hungover. You’ve seen us, you know, drunk. You’ve seen us act crazy. You’ve seen all the different ups and downs,” he said. “And I think over the years, being able to watch that and reflect on it, to grow from it, to learn from it, is a huge thing and really powerful that we get to do that.”

Jakimo similarly credited the cast’s willingness to put their real lives on screen with the show’s longevity.

“These two and amongst the rest of our cast have been so open about everything that they’re going through in their lives, and everything that we capture on the show is real,” she said of Radke and Hubbard.

That commitment has now earned Summer House its first-ever Emmy nomination — a milestone Gold and Jakimo reflected on during an exclusive interview with PEOPLE following the panel.

“It was, you know, of course it’s an honor, but it’s kind of like an overwhelming source of pride for the whole team — our showrunner, her team, the cast,” Jakimo told PEOPLE. “It’s a really gratifying milestone after 10 years of really hard work and commitment.”

For Gold, the recognition was a “hell yeah” moment.

“We work our asses off on this show,” she said. “And we’re very grateful to be able to do what we do and obviously tell people’s stories that we truly care about and we invest in. And it’s nice to see other people appreciate that and invest in the stories as well.”

The producers are already deep into filming season 11, and after years of evolving relationships, they say the upcoming installment has something the show has never had before — an entirely single group of roommates.

“I think having an entire cast of single roommates for the first time ever is, like, the energy we needed coming into this season,” Gold told PEOPLE. “I think everyone was ready to move on and see what’s next and, like, bring that really fun summer energy.”

Jakimo agreed, saying the cast is “ready to let off some steam.”

“It is a blast to see them experience summer kind of in a new lens,” she said. “Like, oh gosh, it’s just like a refreshing, brand-new energy coming in.”

For Gold, the shift is significant enough that the long-running series feels almost new again.

“Yeah, where as much as it’s season 11, in a way it feels like a reset, a fresh start, where you have a lot of the same faces, but there’s still new story and people relating to each other in different ways,” she said.

One of those familiar faces entering particularly unfamiliar territory is Kyle Cooke, who Gold noted is “single for the first time ever in the Hamptons.”

“So, you know, season 11, you think sometimes things can get stale, as we’ve seen in other places,” she added. “It is still — things are still surprising me, and I think viewers are going to love it.”

All 10 seasons of Summer House are available to stream on Peacock. Season 11 is currently in production.