What does it take to create a reality TV show about buying and selling real estate in New York City? Real estate agent Ryan Serhant, CEO and founder of Serhant Real Estate, says you need beautiful penthouses, high-stakes negotiations and plenty of drama.
“I wanted the first property we came across on the show to be the most expensive penthouse in the world,” Serhant told Yahoo Entertainment about his new series, Owning Manhattan, available on Netflix from June 28. “This is New York. You have to grow up or go home.”
The eight-episode series follows Serhant as he builds his real estate business with a team of twelve ruthless real estate agents – all of whom are hungry to sell the most exclusive luxury homes in the city, at least initially.
While filming the show last year, Serhant said there were certain moments when he fired people “live on camera” at a time when home sales were at their lowest level in 30 years.
“People were ripping off microphones,” he said. “There were people who left me because, first, the world was changing and they couldn’t make money anymore, and second, they were being poached left and right. [by other brokerages]. It was all-out warfare.”
Serhant is no stranger to reality television, having starred in Bravo’s Million dollar listing New York from 2012 to 2022, and in addition to his own show, Sell it as Serhantwhich aired one season in 2018. He followed that up with the 2021 one Million dollar listing: Ryan’s Revolutiona limited series that featured his family as they renovated their Brooklyn home.
owning Manhattan, however, is a different kind of beast. Serhant described the show as an “honest representation” of the industry with cutthroat competition, high-stakes deals and the raw emotions of buyers and sellers.
“I’m the boss. I’m the CEO — and that’s important,” he said of his brokerage, which he founded in September 2020 during an era when real estate professionals were leaving New York City due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Serhant said he took advantage of opportunities to expand his business during that time. “A lot of my competition is gone,” he said. “But I had bet on New York, and everyone said it was completely insane. I thought, ‘I think there are just good deals out there right now.’ I wasn’t in New York City on 9/11, but if the city can come out of 9/11 stronger than ever, I thought it was pretty common sense to say we can come out of COVID stronger than ever. And that’s exactly what happened.”
The show chronicles the highs and lows of Serhant’s business in a changing city.
“We want to show it [viewers] the biggest real estate show people have ever seen,” he added. “I want to show New York as the beautiful, amazing city that it really is. It is built on a ‘get up and go’ mentality. It’s beautiful on the left, it’s got warts on the right, and everything in between.
Serhant said Owning Manhattan is “more documentary than reality” and hopes the show’s ethos can help “redefine” the reality TV landscape.
“I see so many reality shows that are highly watched, but they are simple and can be quite lazy,” he said. “If I take up someone’s time, I want to earn it.”
All eight episodes of Own Manhattan starts streaming on Netflix on June 28.
