It’s been a difficult season for Vanderpump Rules fans and cast members in light of the Scandoval fallout, often leaving everyone pondering the same question: Where do we go from here? The third part of the show’s largely uneventful reunion aired on Tuesday night, and despite some of the cast exhibiting conflicting perspectives, one through-line is clearer than ever before: Vanderpump Rules, as we currently know it, is over.
All three reunion episodes took on a similar tone as the entire Season 11 — mostly solemn and sometimes confrontational. In this third part of the reunion, all of the cast members watch the last scene of the finale together in which they, like usual, break the fourth wall. Most of the group also criticizes Ariana Madix for walking out of the scene and not filming with her ex, Tom Sandoval.
“I could’ve done it for the show, but I don’t think our show thrives when things aren’t fully real, and that would not have been real on my part,” she explains.
In a tear-filled and emotional moment, Sandoval apologizes to Madix and says he regrets the affair “every fucking day.” Lala Kent also notably opines that she feels she was treated differently when her ex-fiancé Randall Emmett was caught cheating on her. She also expresses her frustrations about how Madix wouldn’t film with Sandoval, fearing the future of the show would be in jeopardy if she didn’t do what producers wanted. When everyone walks off the stage, their relationships appear well beyond fractured, some of which are seemingly irreparable.
This isn’t a secret to production, and executives behind the scenes made the decision to put filming on pause this summer, a first for the 11-season series. It also shouldn’t be a surprise to fans and viewers who have been observing the on-screen dynamics since cameras recorded the fallout of Scandoval in March 2023: After Madix found out that Sandoval was cheating on her for months with Rachel Leviss, nothing between the group has been or could ever be the same again.
From its very inception, what always made Vanderpump Rules work was the fact that these cast members were more than just a collection of people randomly selected to film together with highly produced storylines. This ever-evolving group of young people were actual, real-life friends who were deeply entrenched in each other’s lives, from working together to dating each other, calling each other best friends and sisters, and then sometimes hooking up with their best friends’ boyfriends and girlfriends — there just happened to be cameras around to capture their messy, complicated dynamics.
But now, that’s no longer the reality for VPR’s cast. The depths of Sandoval’s betrayal extended beyond lying to just Madix; the impact of the affair was felt by every cast member because of their friendships and proximity to each other. Plus, news of the scandal skyrocketed the cast members’ popularity to new heights, and this newfound level of fame brought more attention, money, and differing feelings around those changing landscapes. These dramatic shifts have forever altered the show’s DNA, and if Season 11 has taught us anything, it’s that the magic is gone if these exes and former friends are forced to get together to film solely for the sake of making a TV show. It’s no longer the Vanderpump Rules we once knew and loved.
“There’s been a lot of talk about ‘the show,’ and a job,’ and that’s valid, but you guys are my fucking family, and I love you guys,” Tom Schwartz points out at the end of the reunion. While he may be the only person who feels like the others are a family at this moment in time, Schwartz’s sentiment is poignant; during the reunion, there are lengthy discussions and frustrations about what happened between the cast on- and off-camera, specifically Kent focusing on the importance of the show. But Vanderpump is at its best when they don’t focus on making a show but rather prioritize their genuine relationships as friends.
If VPR’s intention is to film a group of disjointed cast members who once fit into each other’s lives but are no longer friends or lovers, they can make another season like the one they just aired on television. But if Bravo wants to put out an authentic series about a complicated group of friends like the show has historically been portrayed, then the highly successful show needs a complete revamp.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t hope for a future iteration of the show. In a world that prioritizes audiences’ and customers’ needs and desires, it’s hard to imagine that VPR is actually going anywhere. People want to watch this chaotic and beloved group on television, especially now. Plus, there’s too much money on the table to leave the Vanderpump Rules brand behind. Yes, The Valley spinoff has been excitingly successful, and Lisa Vanderpump also launched a separate Hulu reality series in April called Vanderpump Villa, but nothing compares to the ratings, ad dollars, and fan loyalty that comes with the OG series that started them all.
In the past, the show has made attempts to pivot. In Season Eight, the show cast Charli Burnett and Dayna Kathan, which didn’t feel organic because they weren’t actually servers at any of Vanderpump’s restaurants. They also added Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni, who fell flat with the audience because they also weren’t genuinely close with cast members at the time. Seasons Nine and 10 were on life support after Stassi Schroeder, Jax Taylor, Brittany Cartwright, and Kirsten Doute exited in 2020, leaving even less room to demonstrate the authenticity of their relationships. (Although the irony is that Burnett, Boyens, and Kathan are all closer to current cast members now than they were back then. Would any of them be down to come back to the show and film with their friends?)
Even executive producer Alex Baskin has said that bringing in new, random people doesn’t work for Vanderpump Rules because it’s based on an organic group of messy friends who really are navigating life together on and off camera.
So now what? The third part of the finale shows that more than ever, it’s unclear where the show can go from here. This group of people at large are no longer friends, dating, or working together; some of them interact individually or in smaller groups, but the only thing binding this current cast together is the fact that they are cast mates.
If this is going to truly be a show that depicts cast members’ real lives then there’s no denying changes need to be made in order to reflect that, and any future seasons of Vanderpump Rules will require significant shake ups and developments in order to reflect reality.
Perhaps the wise words from Vanderpump in the third part of the reunion sum up the show’s conundrum: “I don’t know how to make it better now,” she says to host Andy Cohen after an emotional, tumultuous back and forth about the state of the show. “Does anybody know how to make it better?”
