Eddie Lucas Says He Didn’t Get an Invite for ‘Below Deck’ Season 10

If you’re wondering where Eddie Lucas from Below Deck is, the short answer is, he’s no longer on reality TV. The tugboat operator, who worked his way up from deckhand to first officer on Below Deck, said he wasn’t invited back for the Bravo reality show’s 10th season. And given his comments about his Below Deck paychecks, he might be done with the show for good.

Even so, Below Deck’s Captain Lee Rosbach told Us Weekly recently that he’d “work with Eddie in a heartbeat” if the Baltimore resident ever decided to return. “I’ve learned that never say never, because things change. Attitudes change,” Lee said. “I used to [like] Coca-Cola, and now I don’t care for it so much. You’re gonna morph into something different as time goes on. So, never’s a big word. and it’s a very long time.”

According to his LinkedIn profile, Eddie is living in Baltimore, Md, and working with Moran Towing Corporation. He announced on LinkedIn in October that he’d become a captain with the company after more than five and a half years as mate.

Eddie’s Bravo bio, meanwhile, reveals he achieved his 1600-ton license and “learned the importance of diligence and delegation in the commercial industry” in his tugboat work before returning to Below Deck for Season 8.

And in January 2022, Eddie revealed a “major milestone” in his life. “I bought a house!” he wrote in a Instagram post geotagged in Baltimore’s Hampden area.

In that same post, Eddie gave thanks to his loved ones — especially girlfriend, identified by the New York Post as Natalie Inada. “I am so thankful for friends and family who has supported me during this time, especially this wonderful woman who has put up with me and supported me during this stressful time,” he wrote. “Thank you, babe.”

Eddie told the New York Post in May that he had to get “pretty aggressive” in his offer for his new house and that he ended up paying more than the $330,000 asking price. “The goal has always been to settle down, put some roots down, buy a house,” he added. “But it’s been difficult to be able to try and do that and for a lot of people my age and my generation, with housing prices the way they are, student loan debt at an all-time high, it is difficult.”

Putting down roots would have been easier if he had earned more on Below Deck, of course. But Eddie said the stars of the maritime reality show aren’t paid as much as, say, the stars of Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise. “There is somebody monetizing off of the show, but it’s definitely not us,” he told the Post. “Below Deck — regardless of it being the most popular show on Bravo — we are the lowest-paid cast members.”

He added: “While we do get paid better than a normal yachtie, of course, we are still not getting paid what people like the Housewives are making, which is a little frustrating, because they’re not really working — they’re just going out to dinner and fighting.”

But Eddie didn’t even have the option of returning for Season 10, he claimed. “I was not invited back to do another season,” he told the Post. “I actually didn’t even get a phone call from them saying they hired someone else — which kind of goes to show what the production entails. Everyone on Below Deck is expendable.”