Southern Hospitality’s Leva Bonaparte explains why she left Southern Charm for spin-off

Now that Southern Hospitality has a second season, Leva Bonaparte has explained why she felt the show was necessary.

Southern Hospitality is one of the newer spinoffs from Bravo. The show came from Southern Charm, a successful series that just finished its ninth season. Bonaparte spearheads the spinoff as the only person from the Charm cast involved, aside from a few cameos here and there.

Southern Hospitality spotlights the normal days of the employees who work at Leva’s restaurant and bar, Republic Garden & Lounge, in Charleston, South Carolina.

From romance drama to firings, the series has got it all and is already in its second season. Now that it has passed the spin-off test (which means making it past a single season), fans want to know why Leva wanted to pursue it.

Why did Leva want Southern Hospitality?

On December 28, Leva spoke with PEOPLE and detailed exactly why she thought she needed a separate show for her bar instead of just a few scenes in Southern Charm.

She said, “I wanted to show the complexity of a true working space and the real variety of people merging within it night after night. Southern Charm viewers, for so long, were used to seeing one type of person. And from the jump, I wanted them to see a spectrum of stories.”

The reality TV star elaborated on the cast of Season 2 and what they individually bring to the show regarding visibility.

“Like, Maddi [Reese] is sober, Bradley [Carter] is a personal trainer on the side. So I really fought during development to build something unique,” she told the outlet.

To stay updated on Southern Hospitality and the upcoming seasons, make sure to check our page here.