What It Was Really Like To Be On Bad Girls Club

Unlike other reality shows, Oxygen's "Bad Girls Club" gave viewers all the drama they needed every week — one brawl at a time. The show debuted in 2006, airing 17 seasons of partying, hookups, and brutal beat downs. The format of the show emulates MTV's "The Real World" (which is co-created by BGC's creator, Jonathan Murray): seven girls from different regions of the United States live in a house with one another. Of course, you can expect some drama to go down while filming.

Enjoying the show depends on your tolerance for petty arguments and excessive profanity. However, many people loved it and that's why "Bad Girls Club" became an instant hit. There's a few nooks and crannies behind the scenes that contribute to both the show's rise and fall. From multiple legal battles to unrealistic pay, the ladies of the "Bad Girls Club" endured some serious chaos on- and off-camera.

It may seem quite easy for a girl to join "Bad Girls Club." The formula seems quite simple: be attractive and love to fight as much as you love to party. What we seem to forget is that "Bad Girls Club" is a social experiment, so the casting directors were quite picky with who they chose for each season. The journey to becoming a bad girl is harder than you think, given that the application process is extensive.

Wilmarie Sena, who appeared on season 6, revealed just how specific the application process was for her. In her own tell-all video, Wilmarie revealed that she had to take an IQ and personality test in addition to her application, as well as having to see a shrink. "The IQ test takes forever. It's like more than 300 questions," she said. As far as seeing the shrink, she says the experience was an interesting one. She continued, "He looks at your knuckles too. He wanted to see if you're a fighter."

Although it can take months before being chosen, the application strategically chooses who will be in the house as an "original" cast member or a replacement. In Wilmarie's case, she received a call from the casting director that she will come onto the show as a replacement. The only caveat with being a replacement is that there lies uncertainty whether any of the original Bad Girls will get the boot, which is oftentimes inevitable. Being a bad girl isn't for the weak; if you couldn't endure over 900 questions and hours of interviews, then clearly the show wasn't for you.

Whether the season was set in Los Angeles or Mexico, the Bad Girls were always the life of the party and seemed to be engaged in the nightlife on a regular basis. You may be wondering just how the cast was able to expense their excursions. Unfortunately, their expenses were only partially covered by show execs. The food, alcohol, and toiletries in the house were temporarily covered until it ran out. At that point, the Bad Girls would have to use their own funds to pay for the things they need. Additionally, producers covered most of their getaway and nightclub expenses, but the girls had to leave a mandatory $200 tip for service.

"Bad Girls Club" was extremely popular on television, but the cast didn't reap the benefits of receiving higher pay. According to BGC 12 and 13's Alyssa "Redd" Carswell, the girls of her season didn't get paid "life-changing" amounts of money. "We got paid $500 a week for BGC 12," Redd confessed in a YouTube video. "For BGC 13, we got paid $1200 a week every Friday." Redd further explained that the girls received the money in cash and had to sign their names to confirm they've received their payment. The money comes with several stipulations. In addition to the $500 stipend being taxable, there are rules in place that must be followed in order to receive the full amount. As noted by BGC 6's Wilmarie Sena, if one of the ladies mentioned the reunion during filming, producers automatically deducted from their stipend for the week.

Like any other reality show, the producers of "Bad Girls Club" were a little heavy-handed with editing. Most viewers may notice inconsistencies with the flow of the episode, such as what a person was wearing in one scene or what somebody has said to someone else. Looking back on their respective seasons, many cast members have pointed out that there are scenes edited in and out that change the optics of how things went down in the house.

According to season 15 star Angela Babicz, the producers edited the cast's photo shoot scene to make it seem as if her and sister Kristina were jealous that the Giordano twins were getting more attention from the photographer. "[The producers] kinda twisted our words around to make it seem like we were jealous of them," she said. "We were really just annoyed with them because the photographer kept on telling them, 'You need to switch up your look.'" Because of the producers' heavy editing, the way we view each Bad Girl is based on what we see. Unfortunately, we don't get a chance to see any of the not-so-juicy behind-the-scenes footage.

As mentioned earlier, "Bad Girls Club" was full of heavy editing that changed the perspective of what was actually going on in the house. As much as viewers may criticize some of the Bad Girls, the producers of Bad Girls Club are not that innocent either. Several BGC cast members have come forward about the producers doing shady things behind the scenes in order to increase ratings. The rules the cast also had to follow by were also quite odd.

BGC 15 star Asia Jeudy revealed that the producers made the cast ask permission to do normal things, such as showering. "We had to ask production permission to take a shower," she said in a tell-all video. "Because they had to take the mics off of us." As if that wasn't already weird, she also dished that the girls would get fined if they talked without wearing a microphone, or if they weren't obeying producers' rules.

BGC's producers were also accused of favoritism on several occasions, which makes sense why certain cast members were portrayed in a positive light compared to others. According to BGC Secrets (via Tumblr), "Bad Girls Club: New Orleans" star Angie Castillo allegedly had sexual relations with several of the crew members. As a result, a number of her aggressive scenes were edited out so she could stay on the show. In contrast, BGC 16 star Adryan Jones clashed with producers which ultimately decided her fate. Even the producers were Bad Girls and Bad Boys.

Although "Bad Girls Club" lasted 17 seasons on-air, there were many factors that contributed to its cancellation in May 2017. For one, the show's execs faced several legal issues over the years. The most notable legal drama is the infamous BGC 14 fight where the rest of the cast completely destroyed Jelaminah Lanier, Shannon and Shannade Clermont's personal items. Upon arrival back to the house, chaos ensued as Jelaminah and the twins lashed out on both the cast and production. Unfortunately, the three were unfairly sent home. In 2015, the three former cast members filed a lawsuit against Bunim/Murray Productions for over $200,000 worth of damages. The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount.

Jelaminah opened up about her experience in a 2020 interview. "We were just going through, trying to salvage whatever we could. They had us digging in pissy water, we didn't know that these b****es pissed in that water that our stuff was in," she said.

Aside from the legal issues, the Oxygen network rebranded to a true crime programming format in July 2017, per The Hollywood Reporter. The rebrand not only meant the show would focus on crime, but it marked the end of the "Bad Girls Club" era when the show ended in May 2017. Although the show ended, a few bad girls came together for the "Baddies: ATL" spinoff on Zeus Network in May 2021. Being a bad girl came with more cons than pros, but it goes down in history as one of the top reality shows of all time.