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Beyond Jason’s “fake” phone call, that is.
Sometimes, reality TV isn’t quite the reality we might think it is and TV’s new it-villain Christine Quinn recently made this quite clear. Selling Sunset’s Quinn recently claimed the fifth season of Selling Sunset was skewing how real life events played out. To some degree, we expect storylines in our reality TV shows to be embellished and conflict to be amplified for dramatic effect. But what’s not as as common is for the stars themselves to come out and imply whole swathes of the show were entirely fabricated. Taking to Twitter, the realtor and Selling Sunset cast member said, “enjoy the new season and all of its 5,000 fake storylines!”
That doesn’t exactly bode well for the element of suspended belief that’s needed for viewers, even though Quinn’s on-screen persona does have a penchant for making comments that leave chaos and uncertainty behind them. At the same time, viewers have noticed quite a few continuity errors with Selling Sunset’s filming this season, which doesn’t exactly help when it comes to the “reality” aspect of the show. And so, here’s (at least) seven that are currently making the rounds on the internet.
Jason’s "Fake" Business Call
Most notably, while gathering on Twitter to launch their best takes on the fifth season, Selling Sunset viewers spotted Jason Oppenheim’s suspected fake phone call instantly. It was harder to miss this one than to not. In episode seven, holding his phone to his ear, Jason’s camera app was blatantly open as shown when the screen that lit up. Even if he did appear stoic and concentrated in conversation with his “client”.
Jason has since come forward to debunk this theory, claiming he was really on the phone to a client. And he demonstrated that the camera app can remain open during an active call.
Vanessa’s Vanishing TV
During Selling Sunset's penultimate fourth season, a filming inconsistency popped up within the first episode. Jason and Mary Fitzgerald join (then newcomer) Vanessa Villela at a house tour of her listing on the Pacific Coast Highway — to decide if they want her on board as a realtor. During one frame, a chest of drawers has a television sat on top of it. But not long after, in a later frame of the scene, a potted orchid is suddenly on top of the dresser instead.
Initially, this error was unearthed by a fandom Reddit thread.
Christine’s Changing Tea Party Hats
Switching back to the latest season, fans have recently taken to Twitter to raise eyebrows about Christine's shifting hats during Chelsea Lazkani's tea party. Shifting quickly from one frame to the next, Christine's pink church style hat is suddenly a much smaller blue fascinator, per Metro.
Chelsea’s Rubber Band Dress
In episode six of the latest season, new addition to the Oppenheim Group Chelsea was wearing a dress visibly tightened by rubber bands. Heading to dinner with her husband Jeffrey, plus Mary and Jason, the rubber band tied knots at the back of her dress were on display. Typically, this would be edited out, leading some fans to suspect those frames unintentionally made the final cut, per E Online. Or that the dinner was staged.
Chrishell’s Doggy Flap Squeeze
Striking again, the same Reddit fandom picked apart the scene featuring Chrishell Stause squeezing through a doggy flap at her house listing. One comment claimed her clothes were "magically spotless cleaned" a moment after she came out the other end. Alleging just before, there was a small amount of dust visible on her clothes. Others doubted the proportions made sense. Or pointed out that she was dressed (especially) casually for that scene (a far cry from her usual glamour) implying it was "def scripted".
Christine, Amanza & Chelsea’s Magic Drinks
In episode two, we’ve got the case of jumping drinks. When Amanza Smith and Christine meet for drinks, Amanza already has a drink when Christine shows up. She orders the same thing. But before the waitress returns, there's already a second completely different drink on the table. Later, the waitress brings over the drink we heard Christine order. This is followed by the drinks on screen changing, disappearing, and reappearing throughout the scene. While no further drink orders happen during their conversation, per The Tab.
The mystery of the magically appearing (and disappearing) drinks continues in the season five finale. With Chelsea and Christine meeting up for "perfume" drinks, with their cocktails disappearing from the table and then reappearing later on, even though the conversation appears continuous.
Blank Laptop Screens In The Office
Throughout the fifth season laptop screens in the Oppenheim office were often blank, as if on standby or switched off. Failing that, screens display Safari's homepage. Usually, this is visible during scenes where the realtors are apparently "busy" working. One viewer took to Twitter to post a compilation of the team "never doing any work".
Holes in Selling Sunset Storylines
Glaring continuity errors aren't the only details that haven't quite added up on Selling Sunset. While shade queen Christine sewed seeds of doubt with her scathing tweet as the fifth season launched, some keen viewers are calling out "unrealistic" plot points too. Emma Hernan famously claimed she matched with Ben Affleck on dating app Raya. A claim he has since strongly denied, per Complex.
When Christine met her now husband, it was featured on the show. But in 2020, she admitted that "meet" was staged for filming because she'd actually already met him and they'd been dating for three months by that point, per Digital Spy.
And best of all, when a fan asked Christine on Twitter why she (allegedly) bribed Emma's client for $5000, she responded, "Omg bless your heart you actually think the show is real". Maybe next season will clear a few things up..
