Season 4 of Southern Charm starts on April 3, but this season will bring a big change. Whitney Sidler-Smith will embrace his executive producer job and spend less time on screen, so a new guy, Austen Kroll, will be introduced to the cast. Kroll is not originally from Charleston, but after graduating from the University of Alabama, he relocated there recently, and became fast friends with Shep.
As a younger single guy, Austen Kroll is likely a better fit for Southern Charm than 48-year-old Whitney in terms of bar hopping and hitting on girls in undergrad. Whitney allegedly has been spending some of his time living in Europe and developing Southern Charm of other locations, including Savannah and New Orleans, says the Inquisitr. Whitney recently broke up with girlfriend Larissa Marolt and is now dating London-based model Eliza Cummings.
Bravo explains that Austen Kroll is originally from Washington, D.C., (like Whitney), but came to Charleston by way of Charlotte, North Carolina. Austen loves to travel, and he has spent time in Europe, New Zealand, and at his family’s second home in Hawaii.
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But unlike some of his Southern Charm friends, Austen has a job, working for a regional craft beer company out of Atlanta.
It is unclear how Austen Kroll was recruited to be the new guy on Southern Charm, but word is that he met Shep before Bravo gave him the thumbs up, says Reality Tea. And fans are thinking that Austen might be the new Craig, meaning the Craig before Craig was with Naomie. If you remember back to Season 2, Shep and Craig competed for every single woman in sight. If Craig seemed interested in someone, Shep was on the trail, and if Shep was interested in someone, Craig started sniffing around.
Craig tells the story about when Whitney first approached him to see if he was interested in being on Southern Charm.
“I was in my third year of law school, everything was fine, I had a great job. Then, I met Whitney, we all started hanging out and he told me about this project he was doing. I was very supportive of him, but I had no idea eventually he’d try to get me to do it.”
But then one day Whitney asked Craig if he would be willing to allow Bravo to screen test him. This was after Bravo told Whitney that his original pitch for a show about “Southern Gentlemen” was scrapped, because they needed some female cast members and some guys younger than Whitney and Thomas.
“I knew what he was doing, and then one day, he kind of cornered me and said, ‘Hey, you know, the network and I’d like to get you on camera and see what will happen.’ You know, I didn’t think it was real so I did it. They were kind of pursuing me, but I said no for like the first five months. I think Cameran was the first to sign up after six or five months.”
Several sources have suggested that Season 4 might be the final season for the original Southern Charm, but time will tell. For now, it is less than a month until fans get to meet Austen and welcome back the rest of the crew.
Do you think Austen will be a good addition to the cast of Southern Charm?
[Featured Image by Bravo]