Southern Charm wouldn't be as successful without two key players, say Craig Conover and Austen Kroll.
The show, which streams on Hayu in the UK, burst onto screens in 2014. It chronicles the lives of a group of friends in Charleston, South Carolina.
Now entering its 10th season, only a handful of the original stars are part of the cast, including Craig Conover. And Daily Star sat down with Craig and co-star Austen Kroll, who joined in season 4, to get the lowdown.
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According to the boys, there are two key players behind Southern Charm's success – and it all boils down to its roots.
Craig told us: "Charleston is a really important cast member. Anyone who has visited or lives there, or wants to visit, we do such a great job of showing the city. The places we film, we choose and are places that we spend a lot of our life off-camera. Charleston's just amazing, so having that has been really great."
He continued: "We didn't know what we were doing when we started to film this show. I don't think there was an aspect of wanting to be on TV. Some of us saw it as a job or a chance to make some money, or a fun experience to party with friends.
"With that comes that transparency. Everyone is so honest, sometimes to a fault, but I think that's what keeps people coming back. I just don't think fake sells, and I don't think it's sustainable. You've found these crazy people in this crazy town that are just trying to figure their stuff out."
Austen added: "We also have to really give Whitney [Sudler-Smith] his flowers for finding this cast of people that he found.
"Initially, Whitney wanted to make a show about men but when it got to Bravo it added people like his mother [Patricia Altschul] and Cam [Eubanks], beloved other characters that have come along. Whitney put together this crazy cast of people and it has worked really well.
"Lightning in a bottle. Just the fact that it's gone on as long as it has."
Austen told us: "It's crazy to me that we just filmed season 10. I always say that I love the fact that we have an ensemble cast because I know I'll end up filming with Craig and Shep and my friends, but I don't know what they're doing on their own when I'm not there and I love that aspect.
"We're obviously not the only show that does that, but there's just a magic that happens in the season. I don't think that season 10 is any different."
While Craig added: "You get this sliver of our life that we really do enjoy sharing with everyone. I started filming when I was 24, I'm 36 now. It's not always fun to share parts of our lives with people, but the more we share, the more we can connect.
"Everyone's trauma is different but the emotion is still the same. We get to meet so many people and it's like, 'I used to drink too much,' or, 'I'm going through a break-up'. I feel like there's some positivity that comes from it where they get to watch us be these hooligans on television, like, 'Hey, if they can get through it maybe we can!'"
Captain Sandy, Sutton, Lisa, Ashley, Jessel, Craig and Austen are in London for the first-ever Hayu FanFest, taking place on Saturday 26 October.
Catch up on all seasons of Southern Charm on Hayu.
English (US) ·