EXCLUSIVE: The Chrisley family, stars of one of USA Network’s most successful shows Chrisley Knows Best, certainly know how to make an entrance that makes great television.
Todd Chrisley and his wife Julie were indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2019 on 12 counts including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion and were found guilty on every count by a jury of their peers.
Then President Donald Trump, the former host of another NBCUniversal reality show in The Apprentice, got involved.
On May 27, 2025, President Trump called Savannah Chrisley, one of their daughters who had spent much of the last few years appealing to Trump to release her parents, from the Oval Office to tell her that he intended to grant the pair full Presidential pardons.
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This would make for television gold, as long as the producers of The Chrisleys: Back to Reality, a series that was already in production for Lifetime when the family got the call, could capture it.
Savannah, who has been on camera for a large portion of her life, then calls Nicole Blais, showrunner of the Bunim/Murray Productions project.
“We got the phone call. We knew it was going to happen within 24 hours but you don’t know when,” Bunim/Murray’s Jesse Daniels told Deadline.
There were two major challenges for the production team. Firstly, they had shut down production as they were coming to the end of filming, with only a week of pick up interviews to do. Secondly, Todd and Julie Chrisley were both in different states, as were the rest of the family.
Todd Chrisley was being released from a minimum-security federal prison camp in Pensacola, FL, Julie Chrisley was being released from the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, KY, and the rest of the family lives near Nashville.
Farnaz Farjam, one of the show’s executive producers, told Deadline that the production hustled to find a way to capture all three elements. “The family divided so Chase [Chrisley] went with some family friends to go get Julie, while Savannah went with friends to get Todd. They slept in their cars. Some of the family friends helped us and got a lot of cell phone footage because it happened so fast,” she said.
“But you don’t know what they’re capturing. You’re explaining to them how to hold the iPhone the best you can. You’re at the edge of your seat until you get all the footage ingested, and then you start going through it, and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, this is really good. Ok, good, they did it,” she added.
The team also hired local shooters to capture extra footage and had cameras waiting for the family for when they got home.
“It’s a true immersive experience, because we’re stitching together shots from our people and the camera crew that we’ve hired on the spot, with cell phone footage that is being shot in real time. It becomes an emotional experience… you feel like you’re there with alongside the family as their parents are getting out,” added Daniels.
It was a wild way to capture the end of the six-year, white-collar saga.
Another phone call that was key to all of this was one from Lifetime to Bunim/Murray. The two companies had worked with each other over the years on a number of projects including Surviving R Kelly and executives at the A+E Networks channel approached the Banijay-owned company after the Chrisleys got in touch with them.
“Lifetime wanted this to be the raw and real lives of who the Chrisleys are now, and how they are coping with mom and dad behind bars. That’s what we were tasked with capturing,” said Farjam.
The eight-part series, which premieres tonight (September 1) as part of a two-night launch event, kicks off with a recap of what’s been going on in the family’s world including Savannah taking custody of her younger siblings, Chloe and Grayson, and Chase addressing some life struggles while building his new business and navigating his relationship with girlfriend Jodi. Todd’s mother Nanny Faye is back and Julie’s parents Harvey and Pam turn up for the first time.
“The family has felt they have nothing to hide. That was their message to us when we first met them, that they want to open up as much as possible to the world about what they’re going through, the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between. We were just there to document it,” added Daniels.
Chrisley Knows Best, which was produced by All3Media’s Maverick Television, ran for ten seasons on USA Network between 2014 and 2023. It was filmed in a more comedic, reality series-style, whereas The Chrisleys: Back To Reality blends together documentary and reality forms.
This explains why Daniels, who worked on Surviving R Kelly and The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and oversees Bunim/Murray’s doc side, was teamed with Farnaz Farjam, who has worked on reality series including Keeping Up With The Kardashians, The Simple Life and Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club.
“From the outside looking in, Chrisley Knows Best was a very successful series that leaned more towards a sitcom-style. For us, we wanted to show more of an authentic look at what they were going through. Part of that is we broke the fourth wall often, you’d hear us talking to them. The texture of the series, the fabric of the series, feels a lot different than what fans are used to,” said Daniels. “We knew that we wanted to document them where they were in their lives today. That’s that reality element. At the same time, we knew we had to catch everybody up to what has happened since they’ve been off the air. That was the more investigative documentary element.”
Farjam, added, “I’ve worked on a lot of reality shows and when the subject is afraid to show who they really are, it makes your job really hard. They’re not afraid to just be who they are on camera.”
The first episode highlights the tension between the family members as Todd and Julie are still in prison. The family goes out to dinner all together for the first time in a while. “Episode one sets sets the table, that the family is divided. With the patriarch and matriarch not there, you have both children and grandparents who are doing their best despite not having Todd and Julie available at all times. Clearly there’s some friction. The arc of the series starts there and they’re trying to figure out their relationship with each other. They don’t know that their parents are getting out. They’re certainly hoping that happens one day, but it’s not on their minds that it’s going to happen anytime soon. Each person is really trying to figure out who they are. Then all of a sudden, that phone call happens,” Daniels said.
Then, there’s the politics.
Savannah Chrisley, often clad in a MAGA hat, spoke at the Republican National Convention in July 2024, claiming that the family was “persecuted by rogue prosecutors” in Fulton County.
“I’ll never forget what the prosecutors said in the most heavily Democrat county in the state, before an Obama-appointed judge,” she said. “He called us the Trumps of the South. He meant it as an insult. But let me tell you, boy do I wear it as a badge of honor.”
After Trump pardoned them, his pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson said the family was unjustly targeted by a “weaponized justice system”.
However, they were found guilty by a jury with prosecutors saying that the case was supported by “years‑long bank‑fraud and tax‑evasion schemes” documented through extensive records.
The duo were found to have conspired to defraud banks out of more than $30M over the course of a decade.
Remember, a pardon does not signify innocence, per the Department of Justice.
“As today’s outcome shows, when you lie, cheat and steal, justice is blind as to your fame, your fortune, and your position,” Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said in June 2022. “In the end, when driven by greed, the verdict of guilty on all counts for these three defendants proves once again that financial crimes do not pay.”
The Chrisleys maintain their innocence and after getting out of prison Todd said, “I would have remorse if it was something I did.”
In the first episode Todd says the “truth will come out”, although any evidence that he did not commit these crimes has failed to materialize.
Asked whether viewers will see anything substantive on this subject, Farjam said, “I think we allowed Todd to say his truth.”
Bunim/Murray carefully walked this tightrope. Farjam said that they didn’t take a “political stance.”
Daniels added, “Our job was to stay neutral and certainly on an emotional level, we can understand no matter where you are politically, on an emotional level, kids who want to see their parents in person and give them a hug.”
There’s a particular focus on Savannah, a 25-year-old who had to “start adulting real quick.” Daniels added, “That’s a very universally emotional storyline that I think everybody’s going to be interested in or can relate to.”
The series also seems to highlight some other challenges that the family has faced. Lindsie Chrisley is their eldest daughter and is largely estranged from the family.
Lindsie, who now goes by Lindsie Landsman, contacted Georgia’s Department of Revenue and the FBI after her father’s indictment, including asking for a restraining order against him. She told the FBI that her father had been attempting to exploit her. She previously claimed that Todd had threatened to leak a sex tape of her if she didn’t lie for him in court.
“The prosecutors read the letter Lindsie wrote to the FBI,” Savannah said in the series. “We’re no longer family.” Chase added, “If your blood will screw you over, then a stranger definitely will.”
It’s not the only bombshell allegation against Todd Chrisley. Mark Braddock, who worked for Todd’s foreclosure management company, Chrisley Asset Management, claimed while testifying in the couple’s fraud trial, Todd cheated on Julie with him and that they were blackmailed to keep it secret. Braddock testified that they were intimate for a year around the early 2000s.
Todd Chrisley has commented on the allegations before. “What insulted me the most is that, out of all these 54 years, for me to finally be accused of being with a man, it would be someone who looked like Mark Braddock,” he said on the Chrisley Confessions podcast.
These allegations appear on screen in the trailer for the show, but it’s not clear whether they are drilled down into further.
What is clear is that there’s plenty more television to be made with the Chrisleys. “I do feel like there’s still more of a story to tell with them. I do feel like they’re very watchable. Not everyone’s watchable, but their dynamic is watchable,” said Farjam.
If Bunim/Murray doesn’t make another season for Lifetime, other networks and production companies will be lining up for the job. In fact, before Bunim/Murray got involved, Scout Productions was working with the family on a series.
“What I find interesting that we definitely touch on in the series, and there’s definitely room to explore, is that Todd and Julie spent a lot of time in prison and you don’t come home from that the same person. That’s something that they themselves have to grapple with, along with family members. We definitely explore that in this series. We certainly see that as something I’d be interested in exploring further,” Daniels added.