When Next Gen NYC cast member Georgia McCann’s romantic relationship with Omar Zaki ended, so did their professional partnership in opening up a bowling alley-themed club together. Post-split, Omar teamed up with Charlie Zakkour on another nightlife venture instead, leaving Georgia feeling “entitled” to monetary “compensation” from her ex-boyfriend.
Having already accused Omar and Charlie of “stealing” her “Club Club” idea during Season 2, Episode 2 (streaming on Peacock beginning July 2), Georgia still had more to get off her chest on the Next Gen NYC After Show. For starters, she claimed that she and Omar never even officially scrapped their business partnership in the first place.Â
“We never decided we weren’t doing it; we just broke up,” Georgia explained on the After Show. “And if you recall, he said on camera, ‘Oh, even if we break up, you know, this is a job. We’ll be professional. We can still do this.'”
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Through “this whole rigmarole,” Georgia noted that she’d learned a thing or two about the laws in New York State. “If you use the word partner … there’s a lot of legal connotations that come with that in New York,” she elaborated. “Technically, anything he does in the events, nightlife, club space, I am entitled to a lot of equity and compensation.”
That’s not to say she’d actually take legal action, however. “Energetically, it probably isn’t something I want to pursue, if it’s not my idea,” Georgia added. “I have to see what they end up doing, if they end up doing anything, let’s be honest.”
Georgia McCann’s “stealing” claim against Omar Zaki and Charlie Zakkour, explained
Elsewhere on the After Show, Georgia doubled down on her “stealing” claim, reiterating that Omar and Charlie were “taking [her] work and pawning it off as their own.”
While Georgia admitted to being unsure if Omar and Charlie’s planned club would even include a bowling alley, she broke down her case for why that was a moot point anyway. “Here’s the thing with the club I need to get straight,” she stated. “The bowling alley is like the cherry on top, if that makes sense. … There’s so much I did — design, creative, like conceptually — besides, like, a bowling alley. It’s like the bottom floor club, the middle floor restaurant, the top floor members club.”
According to Georgia, a friend informed her that Charlie and Omar’s venue plans similarly involved three levels, including a third-floor members club. “Those were my creative ideas,” she emphasized. “Just because you’re not necessarily having a bowling alley, doesn’t mean everything else can’t be the same … and, like, taking concepts I came up with.”
Charlie Zakkour responds to Georgia McCann’s claim about his and Omar Zaki’s club plans
In a separate After Show setup, Charlie declared that Georgia “was incorrectly under the impression” that he and Omar were “copying her bowling alley idea.” Insisting that they were only “floating the idea of opening a club,” he scoffed at the suggestion that they were using Georgia’s “creative vision” in plans for the proposed nightlife venue.
“Her original belief that it was ‘taking her idea’ was fueled by the fact that Omar and his/my friends from Portugal, these designers, had identified a location that she was, like, visualizing for her “Club Club” club,” Charlie said. “And it was going to be the same address. … No leases were signed or anything yet, but Georgia, obviously, didn’t like the fact that, like, the same building was gonna be used.”
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As for the inclusion of a members-only lounge, Charlie clarified that he and Omar had already “pivoted away” from that idea, which he described as being “so overly diluted these days” and, ultimately, “not worth it,” in the long run.
“The irony is, even if we were to go directly down the path that she thinks we were, even still, the intellectual property was owned by Omar’s friends in Portugal, these, like, designers, not her,” he continued. “So, like, if, if we wanted to open a bowling alley, [we could].”
In conclusion, Charlie made a promise: “Any hospitality-related venture that [Omar] and I will end up doing, or may end up doing, is going to be distinctly different from Georgia’s idea of bowling alley Club Club. I don’t know what we’re gonna do or when we’re gonna do it, but it’s not gonna be anything that Georgia spoke about.”
As the drama continues to play out on Next Gen NYC, get even more details on Georgia and Omar’s shocking breakup.
