Lindsay Hubbard Reveals She Wanted to Do Summer House to Pay Off *This* Much in Student Loans
Lindsay told Bravo producer Alex Baskin that when Summer House auditions began, she was already contracted with a separate TV series about the hospitality industry.
Lindsay Hubbard wasn’t sure if Summer House would continue after its premiere season, but she did hope it would be enough to pay off her student loans, she said in a recent interview on Bravo’s Hot Mic Podcast.
The new mother of one chatted it up with Alex Baskin for Season 3, Episode 4 of the podcast, detailing how she became the last woman to be cast for Season 1. Lindsay said she had a particular “mindset going into” the series as executives and others worked to “manage expectations.”
“I just wanted to pay the student loans off,” she said. “It was so simple for me.”
How much did Lindsay Hubbard own in student loans?
Lindsay told Baskin she still had $30,000 to $35,000 left to pay for her student loans when first signing up for Summer House.
“I was like, ‘The girl math is, ‘OK, great! If I can just do one season — who knows how long it’s gonna last — at least get the student loans out the door and not have to worry about them.’”
Nine seasons later, Summer House is still going strong.
“Here we are,” she continued. “It’s like, ‘Whoa, how the f-ck did we get here?’”
Why Lindsay was a "natural" fit for Summer House
Lindsay, who lives in Manhattan, said that before the creation of the show, going to the Hamptons was part of her New Yorker “lifestyle.” She started partying at the Eastern Long Island destination spot in 2007, when she was still an intern in the big city, “well before” casting began.
The budding hospitality publicist said she’d already known the guys of Season 1, which included current cast members Kyle Cooke and Lindsay’s former fiancé Carl Radke, plus twin sisters Lauren Wirkus and Ashley Wirkus, among others. Lindsay said they’d work on the weekdays of peak season before letting loose, returning in time for the work week “super hungover.”
“It was natural. Like, ‘Sure, we already do this; this is how we live our summer lives. Throw a camera in there, it’ll be fine,’” she said. “For me, personally, I just wanted to pay off my student loans … I was like, ‘Great! If I can just supplement my income from being a publicist with being on Summer House, and pay off my student loans, have no more debt, I would be in a really good place.’”
She added she agreed to film Summer House because her incentive was “purely financial.”
Lindsay on auditioning for Summer House
Lindsay said Summer House began with her and Kyle’s already-established group of friends. Kyle — referred to by his buddies as the “King of the Hamptons,” according to Lindsay — reportedly attended an open casting call upon the urging of a friend.
“So, Kyle goes to this casting call, he looks around, he’s like, ‘What is going on? This is not the demographic,’” Lindsay told Baskin. “It was just a bunch of young, young, young people who had never been to the Hamptons before, almost like they were going on a modeling casting call for a scripted show.”
Lindsay said Kyle, ever the “Alpha Leo,” requested to see the show creators, telling them what life looked like for the real-life weekend warriors, where those heading east typically joined a group of friends and shared a home. He told them about the area’s annual Back-to-Campus party, where about 200 people “raged,” and producers began “plucking people left and right.”
At the time, Lindsay was contracted to another series about people in New York City’s hospitality industry, though the pilot episode fell through. Enter twins Lauren and Ashley, who insisted Lindsay meet Summer House creators, ultimately filling the final spot for the women, she said.
Looking back nine years later, Lindsay said it would be “an understatement” to say Summer House changed her life.
Hear Lindsay’s full interview on Bravo’s Hot Mic Podcast on Bravo and anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts — and see past episodes of Summer House on Bravo and Peacock.
