In April 2010, World of Wonder productions started seeking real estate agents within New York City for a Million Dollar Listing spin-off. The official series debut date was announced on January 27, 2012, with Michael Lorber, Ryan Serhant and Fredrik Eklund as the original cast. Serhant, then the Executive Vice President and Managing Director at Nest Seekers International, was added to the cast last minute replacing another potential cast member Eklund left CORE Group, another broker firm, for Prudential Douglas Elliman in order to be on the series. The first season averaged 1.04 million total viewers. In 2012, Andy Cohen announced on that the series had been renewed for a second season. Bravo officially renewed the series for a second season which debuted on May 8, 2013, with new cast member Luis D. Ortiz replacing Michael Lorber who chose not to return due to the series not improving his business. The same year, Serhant launched his bi-coastal brokerage team, The Serhant Team. Million Dollar Listing New York was renewed for a third season on August 1, 2013. Season 3 premiered on April 2, 2014, with the full second-season cast returning. Season three finale of the show was the highest-rated episode of the season with 1.3 million total viewers. In 2014, the show was nominated for an Emmy award in the Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program category. On July 14, 2014, Million Dollar Listing New York was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on April 15, 2015. The same year, the show was nominated for a second Emmy award in the same category. The fifth season of the series premiered on April 21, 2016. In July 2016, Luis Ortiz announced his departure from the show. On October 27, 2016, the show was renewed for a sixth season. During the show's sixth season, Serhant's 2016 wedding to Emily Bechrakis was chronicled in a four-part mini-series, Million Dollar Listing New York: Ryan’s Wedding. In 2017, MDLNY spun-off its own show, Sell it Like Serhant on Bravo starring Serhant. In April 2018, the show was renewed for a seventh season. The seventh season premiered on June 11,2018 and the finale episode aired on September 4, 2018. On June 10, 2019, the series was renewed for an eighth season which premiered on August 1, 2019.
