‘Selling Sunset’s’ New Realtors Struggle to Fill Christine Quinn’s Versace Heels

Selling Sunset has become one of Netflix’s tentpole series thanks to its addictive mix of extravagant real estate and excessive reality TV infighting. If you want to see real estate agents destroy workplace etiquette while wearing the most impractical 9 to 5 outfits imaginable and occasionally showing off a vanilla billion dollar listing, you really have nowhere else to go. Selling Sunset remains the one — even after launching a number of legit spinoffs and a few imitators.

But the just-released Selling Sunset Season 6 finds the show at the biggest turning point of its 4-year run. After adding realtors every season and ballooning up to a cast of 10 in Season 5, the new batch of episodes picks up after a number of notable exits. Original cast member Maya Vander left the show after switching agencies and suffering a number of family tragedies, and Vanessa Villela left after a two-season stint. Davina Potratz, who was upped to a full cast member in Season 2, also disappeared for the majority of filming for Season 6 so she could attend Burning Man.

None of these departures are more seismic than the exit of original cast member and series breakout Christine Quinn.

And Quinn didn’t just leave the show. She also left the agency following a number of messy AF entanglements with her co-workers. It turns out you can’t accuse a coworker of sleeping with the boss for listings and also try to bribe a client into not working with your coworker without some repercussions. Remember: in addition to being a reality show, Selling Sunset also depicts an actual job that could use an HR department.

For Season 6 of Selling Sunset, or Selling Sunset Sans Christine Season 1, the series adds two new realtors to the cast: ex-model and current life partner(ish?) of Nick Cannon Bre Tiesi and longtime Oppenheim Group realtor Nicole Young. And just so we’re clear: just going off of their looks and attitude, Bre and Nicole were added to replace Christine. Christine’s last-bestie-standing Chelsea Lazkani says as much about Bre during Season 6, adding a salty “Good luck, bitch” to the sentiment. The question is, can these two realtors fill Christine’s Versace heels? SPOILERS ahead.

Can Bre and Nicole really replace Christine? The short answer is, despite their combined efforts, “no” — but for two drastically different reasons. Let’s talk about Bre first, as she’s who the season’s opening montage clearly implied to be the firm’s new villainess. I mean, the dipped-in-blood manicure and fiery glare makes Bre look like Christine’s evil twin. But as the season unfolds, that’s just not Bre’s narrative.

Bre talks a big game, for sure. She says everyone is “guilty until proven innocent” and takes some big swings in the first few episodes. Bre turning Chelsea’s choices of +1s into an orchestrated, personal attack against her character is some A-level reality TV pot-stirring. But after that? Honestly, Bre becomes sympathetic in a way that Christine absolutely never would allow herself to be portrayed. That’s largely in part due to Chelsea’s nonstop (re: exhausting) litigation of Bre’s living arrangement with Nick Cannon. Bre and Nick have an open relationship and that is just a non-starter with Chelsea and her Christian values, and Chelsea makes sure that everyone knows she disapproves at all times. And unlike Christine, who found new ways to attack her coworkers in every episode, Bre mostly stays on the defensive for the rest of the season. Bre has Christine Quinn’s goth realtor fashion queen looks down, but she doesn’t go for the drama.

That’s fine because the other newbie, Nicole Young, lives for the drama. Nicole doesn’t dress like Christine, but she sure does hold a grudge like Christine.

Remember how Christine dredged up old drama with Emma Hernan because they dated the same guy (and Christine may or may not have been engaged to the guy, who truly knows)? Nicole’s main season-long beef is with Chrishell Stause over a listing that they shared (against Nicole’s will) over three years ago. For a while, this provides the show with the kind of petty agitation that Christine so excelled at. Nicole keeps getting digs in on Chrishell and then immediately plays them off as if she meant nothing by it and Chrishell is truly deluded to be hurt — a classic Christine move.

Then Nicole goes too far. Well, first Chrishell goes too far by saying that Nicole is acting like she’s on drugs during one of their arguments and that she won’t argue with Nicole while she’s “cracked out.” As out of line as that is, Nicole then goes and gets a drug test — while they are all on vacation in Palm Springs, mind you! — and then consults with her lawyer and repeatedly threatens to sue Chrishell for defamation of character. And Nicole keeps bringing this up, to Mary, to Chelsea, to Chrishell, to literally everyone, potentially entangling all of her coworkers in a legal battle that she seems very serious about.

Christine would not do this, because repeatedly threatening to lawyer up is horrible reality TV. It’s an uncalled-for escalation with potential, real-world ramifications — and those are not fun because they pressure everyone on-screen to peace the hell out. It’s impossible to make good, juicy reality TV fights when you take actions that cause everyone to need to flee the scene for fear of legal repercussions. Mary literally pulls an IV out of her arm in order to excuse herself after Nicole brings lawyers into the convo again.

At her worst, Christine was a messy mean girl who flagrantly lied onscreen and never once cared about keeping her story straight — and then she would move mountains to avoid any serious face-to-face confrontations. Remember how she maybe used COVID as an excuse to bail on the reunion? Iconic move. Christine mastered the art of tiptoeing up to the line, retreating, and then saying that she never even saw the line and that you’re gaslighting her for claiming that a line existed. Nicole, however, has the cops on speed dial.

All this goes to show that Selling Sunset really struck gold with Christine Quinn, a once-in-a-generation reality TV talent who knew how to steal all the focus, stir all the pots, and push all the buttons while still pushing the show forward. Her absence allows Season 6 to feel more even-handed, more like an ensemble, and allows more realtors to cause more trouble. But as for anyone actually being able to replace Christine and all of the glamour and drama that she contains? That is, predictably, impossible.