Francesca Reveals Why She Didn't Promote Ashling to Second Stew After Elizabeth's Demotion

Francesca Rubi hasn't been too happy with Elizabeth Frankini's work as second stew this season of Below Deck. So, when Captain Lee Rosbach didn't take Francesca's recommendation to let Elizabeth go, she decided the best course of action would be to take away her second stew stripes in the December 28 episode of Below Deck.

The chief stew opened up more about her decision in the Below Deck After Show, which you can view, above. "Well, I can't fire her, and I need to do something about this because she's got this entitled situation going on, and I can't have this," Francesca explained. "I have an expectation of how [second stews] work, and when I took those two stripes away from Elizabeth, all of a sudden the expectation was like nil, which relieved a lot of the weight off my shoulders, because I wasn't then now expecting Elizabeth to think like a stewardess or think ahead or do the things I need her to do as a second stew, because she wasn't second stew anymore." 

"So it actually was a relief for me to do that," Francesca continued. "I was happy with my decision because it definitely made me lower my expectations of her."

Elizabeth said in the Below Deck After Show that she saw things this way: "As long as I wasn't second, it doesn't matter. [Francesca] would have had me [be] 10th stew."

Below Deck's Francesca on Captain Lee Not Letting Elizabeth Go: "It Was Pretty Annoying"

When it came to getting demoted, Elizabeth said that she was just "so happy I wasn't fired." "I took a lot of responsibility as a second stew, but in the end that's just a stripe, it's just a name for something. Being demoted didn't matter to me. I was gonna work just as hard, obviously harder, like never-ending, of course, to prove myself," Elizabeth said. "Throw a dog a bone. If that's what makes her feel better about me and more confident in her job, she needs to demote me, that's fine, demote me. I'm still here."

Elizabeth said that she "100 percent" thought that Francesca would then promote Ashling Lorger to second stew. But Francesca actually didn't think that's what would have been best for her team. "Some people thought maybe I would have switched them, like put Ash straight up into second [stew] and put Elizabeth down [into third stew]," Francesca said. "But it was such a small interior team, I didn't want to create any more tension or drama."

Deckhands Izzy Wouters and James Hough shared in the Below Deck After Show that they disagreed with Francesca's decision to demote Elizabeth. Izzy even offered up her own suggestion for how Francesca should have handled the situation. Check it out in the above video.

Want more Below Deck? New episodes air every Monday at 9/8c or catch up on every episode ever through the Bravo app.

Watch a sneak peek, below.

Ashling Lorger Says No More "Fun and Games" For Elizabeth Frankini