The explosive season finale of Vanderpump Rules aired this week and for me, there were a few main takeaways. The first is that the reunion left Ariana completely vindicated about the choices she made all season long. The second is that Ariana exercising boundaries to the extent she did this season challenges one of reality TV’s main functions, which is to exploit and capitalize on access. And the third is that the show being put on hiatus is an indication that the future for unscripted TV is truly going to be impacted by larger shifts happening in the industry.
This season, and even before it, there was a lot of discussion about Tom and Ariana functioning together in a filming environment post-Scandoval. Production made every effort to capture as much of their interactions as possible on screen, knowing that’s what fans wanted, and what was required for “good TV”. But their plans were thwarted when Ariana refused to be cordial with Tom and give them the conversations that we all so desperately wanted to witness.
While Lala took issue with Ariana’s refusal all season, during the reunion, we really understood more about why, beyond the obvious infidelity, Ariana was in utter refusal to engage with Tom in any way, shape or form. And ironically, it’s because Ariana wanted honesty in the form of a sincere apology from Tom, which she says she never received, and pointed out that if it was important enough to him, he would’ve offered it off-camera.
“We live these difficult parts of our lives on camera. But if its something that actually really mattered to you regardless, you would do it anyway. He’s never tried to talk to me off camera. He could’ve written something in a f---ing letter and left it on the kitchen counter and I could’ve read it at my leisure. But if you would only do it on camera, to me, you just showed your true colours,” Ariana said in a confessional that was aired in front of the group at the reunion.
The reason it’s ironic is because Lala, who I’ve been very supportive of in recent months, harped all season long on the importance of being honest and showing up and living your authentic life on camera. But fans and castmates alike quickly pointed out that in previous seasons, it was Lala who was dishonest and tight-lipped about her relationships, and she also demanded that her castmates cease friendships with her ex, Randall, upon their split. And this entire time, Ariana was just asking that Tom be real, and not just for the cameras.
To Ariana’s point about wanting a sincere apology, had Tom given her that, maybe she would’ve been more open to filming with him. But on the heels of finding out your partner of 10 years was having an affair with your best friend, I don’t think anyone can blame her for not wanting any part in making him look good on TV when he gave her nothing outside of it.
That leads me to my next point. The expectation was that because she is a reality TV star, she was going to play that part. She was going to have the conversations with him, she was going to film with him, she was going to do her job and give us “good TV”. She was going to give us access, because that is what you’re being paid for.
But if we’re being honest, she did do her job. She filmed. She gave producers access. She discussed Scandoval in confessionals, she discussed Scandoval with the group. But what she refused to do was make herself a pawn in Tom’s attempt to appear like a wholesome, apologetic man when that’s not who he was in the absence of cameras. And I think that’s fair.
There’s been theories that production’s reaction to Ariana’s refusal to be complicit in what’s being referred to on social media as ‘Tom’s redemption arc’ is what pushed Lala and Scheana to play the roles they did this season. Fans (and other reality stars) think that production was applying pressure to Lala and Scheana to help facilitate conversations between Ariana and Tom, threatening them with a cancellation if they didn’t get something. While it hasn’t been confirmed, it’s not too far-fetched, and it would explain a lot.
In terms of the access in exchange for payment thing, it also came up during the conversation about Dan joining the group on their trip to San Francisco. Andy asked Ariana what the point of him coming was, considering he didn’t attend all the group activities. She reminded Andy that unlike the rest of the cast, Dan wasn’t getting paid. In addition to that, he doesn’t care to be on the show.
This exchange really highlighted the business side of filming. Reality stars give production, and by extension, fans, access to their lives in exchange for payment. And visibility, clout, if you will. There are people who recognize and value the visibility that comes from being on a show, sure, and how that can be turned into money, which makes not being paid at first less damning. But then you have people like Dan, who can’t really be bothered and is primarily there to support his partner.
I think what we’re starting to see is more of this divide. Historically, reality TV stars have been grouped together and have long been thought of as people willing to do whatever production or fans asked of them in order to earn a paycheck. But now, there are two camps, one in which people like Scheana depend on the money they earn from being on the show to facilitate their lifestyles, and one in which people are starting to leverage their time in the spotlight for their own independent opportunities, like we’ve seen with Ariana and Stassi, who, because of her success with leveraging her time on TV, was able to turn down a role on The Valley.
All of this led to a sense of pressure and responsibility, both on Lala and Scheana and on Ariana to do what the fans wanted, to do what production wanted, in order to keep the paychecks coming in. Production was applying pressure to Lala and Scheana, and they were applying pressure on Ariana.
But where is that pressure coming from? It’s always from the top down. And that makes total sense based on what’s happening in the production industry right now in the wake of the WGA strikes.
At first, the expectation was that it might be a lift for unscripted TV, considering it's cheaper and faster to produce and mostly non-union. This is what we saw during the 2007-2008 strikes – reality TV production really took off. However, this time around, the exact opposite is happening, and veteran producers are speaking out, saying even they have had a hard time finding work.
Fiscal pressure that we’re seeing with scripted shows is being mirrored in the world of unscripted TV. So producers are busting their ass to find the best storylines, despite taking noticeable pay cuts, spelled out nicely in this THR article, to produce what fans are essentially saying is sh-ttier television, knowing the fight is even more vicious to get renewed.
This THR article poses an important and timely question:
“Buyers are risk-averse and relying on bets that are considered to be safe. What is working right now?”
I think that’s the question the cast and crew have to ask themselves before they can chart a way forward. Is the cost of production and the salaries they pay not only the show’s stars, but the people producing it, worth the awful reviews we saw from fans this season, annoyed (rightfully so) at the anticlimactic nature of the entire season? Can they continue to make the quality of reality TV they did in previous years when stars weren’t so selective about what they would and would not film?
The other day, someone tweeted that the golden era of Real Housewives is over. While the tweet picked up a lot of traction, I don’t think it’s just the end of a golden era of one franchise. It’s the end of a golden era of an entire genre of television that has profited off of the exploitation of access, a lack of boundaries, and a savage audience that are complicit in maintaining the status quo, partially because the content is changing, with stars exercising more control in their portrayal and participation. But also because of the sad, loss-filled collapsing of the industry surrounding the production of it.
