Below Deck hit a season high in the ratings this week as Captain Sandy Yawn stepped in for Captain Lee Rosbach after he decided to exit Season 10 prematurely over health concerns.
Episode 5 earned a 0.29 in the demo and 1,181,000 live viewers according to Nielsen, by far the largest audience for Season 10 so far.
While we’re only a few episodes into the season, this is quite a jump for the show week-to-week with Episode 4 earning a 0.19 and 799,000 live viewers on December 12.
Previously, the highest-rated episode of Season 10 was Episode 2 which scored a 0.23 and 917,000 live viewers on November 28. Click Here for episode-by-episode ratings for Below Deck Season 10.
Captain Lee exits Below Deck Season 10
As Below Deck fans are most likely now aware, the episode featured the first time a captain has switched franchises, with Captain Sandy jumping ship from Below Deck Mediterranean (temporarily!) to help out.
Thankfully, Captain Lee is doing much better and has revealed that he will be back on the show before the end of the season.
“That’s something I’ve never done in my life,” the longtime reality TV star told PEOPLE Magazine of his decision to leave the season early. “I’ve never quit. I’ve never had to say I quit. And it was really, really hard to admit, especially to myself, that there’s something out there that kicked my ass. That was a hard pill to swallow.”
When Captain Lee revealed the news that he was leaving the season early, the crew — mainly Fraser Olender and Rachel Hargrove — were almost in tears. “I was very touched by that,” Captain Lee told the magazine. “It was palpable. You could taste it. It was in the air and it was just raw emotion on both sides of that fence. I was close to tears because it just means that much to me. And to be able to instill that in other people, that same sort of caring and see it take place, it’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve done good.’ To have to walk away from that was just harsh.”
Below Deck airs Mondays on Bravo.
