Jesse Lally Shot an Unaired Pilot of 'Million Dollar Listing' Before 'The Valley'

You might not have known much about Jesse Lally before he as his soon-to-be-ex-wife Michelle Lally were cast on Bravo's fast hit series The Valley, but he was going to be on television one way or another. In a recent interview with The Society Group on Instagram, Jesse revealed that he was actually almost on Million Dollar Listing. But what went wrong and why was he instead cast on The Valley? There's no denying that Jesse knows what he's doing when it comes to reality TV.

Whether you love Jesse, you're more on the Michelle side of things, or you just love to hate Jesse as an overly confident real estate agent on The Valley, he's back for Season 2. And, as both he and Jax Taylor navigate the murky waters of filming a TV show with their exes while having kids involved in the mess, he seems to be here for the long haul. Still, there was a time when we almost didn't get Jesse on this particular Bravo series.

In the interview, Jesse shared that, despite their split, he and Michelle were both filming Season 2 of The Valley. But he also shared that, before The Valley came to fruition, he had a chance encounter with a producer who saw potential in him.

"I was about this close to getting Mllion Dollar Listing," Jesse said. "I actually went to a dinner in New York City [with] a friend of mine who is now CEO of Douglas [Elliman] in New York." The way Jesse told it, a man at the table asked if he was an actor. When he said he was in real estate, the man got excited and asked Jesse, "Would you ever do Million Dollar Listing?"

Jesse later went for a three-hour interview during which, he admitted in The Society Group interview, he flirted with the casting director the entire time. But apparently, Bravo producers liked that because afterward, he filmed his own pilot for Million Dollar Listing. But in the end, he said, he "lost out to James [Harris] and David [Parnes]."

When Jesse was approached about Million Dollar Listing, he was just three months into his career. Now, he has been in the game for quite some time. And when he isn't making money by arguing on-screen with the number one guy in the group on The Valley, he's still at it as a real estate agent and he has made waves with millions of dollars in sales.

Jesse runs Lally Estates under the larger Beverly Hills Estates firm. According to the firm's website, Jesse specializes in "high-end luxury real estate with multiple record-breaking sales under his belt in Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Malibu and beyond."