Captain Lee Rosbach on ‘Unique’ Return to TV After ‘Below Deck’ Exit and If ‘The Traitors’ Is Next (Exclusive)
Written by Rtradio on May 30, 2024
It’s been a little over a year since Captain Lee Rosbach signed off from Below Deck, but Bravo fans have a new place to find him on their screens starting this weekend: Oxygen True Crime.
“I do miss being on TV, and I’m glad I’m going back,” Capt. Lee tells ET, speaking over video chat to promote his new hosting gig on Deadly Waters, an eight-episode true-crime series focused around crimes committed at sea. Each week, Lee helps tell untold stories about everything from fatal vacations to ghost ships, woven together with expert, witness and law enforcement commentary.
“It’s unique, it’s different, but it’s still in my wheelhouse– no pun intended,” he adds. “They’re talking about things that I know about, and some of the stories that we’re covering, I’ve heard about them, because the boating community is a small community, and word travels really, really fast when something bad like that happens.”
Lee says the average person doesn’t “realize how much crime happens” out in the ocean.
“Using me, they have an expert on the water that can give a different different perspective as to how it alters things, that most people may or may not think about,” he notes. “When you finally see the final outcome, normal people don’t think like that and they don’t think along those lines.”
While Lee wouldn’t describe himself as a true-crime devotee prior to signing onto Deadly Waters, he’s now fully immersed in the fandom.
“I think it’s ideal for the armchair sleuth,” he says of Deadly Waters. “When you think you’ve got it figured out, something right out of nowhere comes and goes, what do you mean?! You didn’t see that coming? OK?! And there’s a lot of that, and all the stories– and the sad part about it is, they all affect somebody’s life, and not in a positive way. Somebody’s mother, somebody’s brother, somebody’s sister, somebody’s father, and they paid the ultimate price, and everybody wants to see justice done.”
Lee’s hopeful some of the stories shared on Deadly Waters deliver on that promise of justice.
“It may be an unsolved crime where somebody remembers something that seemed so insignificant at that point in time, and then all of a sudden, they just bring it to the authorities’ attention,” he points out, “and that’s the one little thing that was missing.”
Deadly Waters hits TV just after season 11 of Below Deck wrapped its run on Monday night; it was the first season without Lee at the helm. In his place was Captain Kerry Titheradge.
“He seems to be doing a a good job,” Lee offers as a review. “I haven’t been watching this series on a regular basis, and as to why I haven’t, I couldn’t tell you. I mean, maybe it’s that I’m not there anymore, and there’s a little bit of me that just like wishes I was. And then, when I see some of the crew that he has to deal with, there’s maybe a bigger part of me that goes, ‘Oh, boy, am I glad it’s you and not me!'”
Same goes for some of the charter guests. Lee tuned in for The Real Housewives of New York City OG Jill Zarin‘s headline-making appearance.
“She lit it up, didn’t she?” he cracks. “I mean, ‘I don’t like the shape of your ice cubes?’ OK… I don’t know, let’s get out the chainsaw and see if we can make it a different shape for you…”
Their personalities could clash IRL, too, on a future season of The Traitors. The Peacock competition series is known to cast Bravo-lebs, including Lee’s longtime chief stewardess, Kate Chastain, who appeared on both season 1 and 2. He’s game to play if the offer comes his way.
“I kicked that idea around a little bit,” he admits. “It sounds like it’d be a lot of fun. I like the theory behind the show, where you’re tying to figure out who’s who. Who’s the person? Who’s that guy? Or, who’s that girl? And how good are they at that? And there seems to be a lot of twists and turns.”
Deadly Waters premieres on Saturday, June 1, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Oxygen. Episodes stream next day on Peacock.
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