Vanderpump Redux

Yesterday, Bravo announced that after 11 seasons with a legacy cast, Vanderpump Rules would feature an entirely new cast for season 12, save for Lisa Vanderpump, her husband Ken Todd, and of course, Peter Madrigal, who, throughout the years, has always maintained his post at SUR. And while we have no insight into who the new cast will feature, the network is promising viewers a group of hospitality staff with intimate and chaotic involvement that will be reminiscent of the first few seasons of the show that we all came to know and love. 

Naturally, the rumor mill has been nonstop since the news broke, and a few OG cast members are adamant that they only had the news confirmed to them one day prior to the rest of the world finding out. But if we’re being honest, we all knew some sort of shakeup was coming. Between that theatrical montage at the end of the last season and the fallout from Scandoval, what other direction could the show have possibly gone in for season 12?

As for the reason for the cast recalibration, it’s still undetermined, but one of the theories is that it was a creative decision. This idea definitely has legs, considering the fact that originally, this show was intended to be about Lisa Vanderpump’s employees. With the show becoming so wildly popular, the servers didn’t have to wait tables anymore. They snagged brand deals, partnerships, podcast hosting gigs, and as a result, they were able to leave their jobs in the hospitality industry, or at least move on from being employees in the hospitality industry. A few moved on to owning their own establishments, at least in the case of the Toms as well as Ariana and Katie. With such loose ties, not only to the restaurant but to Lisa herself, it did at times feel like the plot had been lost – though not for long-time viewers who were just so invested in the journeys of the cast members.

The other thing that gives the “creative” theory legs is the gridlock that the cast was in after Scandoval. Ariana had a hard time filming with Tom – well, perhaps not necessarily filming with him, but pretending that he existed. Scenes that featured the both of them often resulted in her storming off, refusing to engage with him at all, or a huge verbal altercation. While understandable, it didn’t always make for the best TV, except in the cases that it made great TV.

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Ariana Madix was not playing around with Tom Sandoval on this episode of "Vanderpump Rules."

♬ original sound - Page Six

And with Lala refusing to stop talking about Ariana and Katie after the reunion, to the point that it kind of became her schtick, plus Ariana making her stance very pointed in her series of photos marking the end of an era with Lala deliberately being cropped out of every single photo, it’s fair to expect that the sandwich shop owners would not be willing to move forward with her. 

Last season it became clear that most people just wanted to fulfill their contractual obligations and get their paycheck, which leads me to the other theory floating around – that perhaps all of this had to do with money. 

When it comes to reality TV, money will always be a topic of conversation. And while some exclusive sources are swearing that the idea for a reboot came long before discussions of money even took place, it doesn’t mean that the network didn’t know that a younger, newer cast would be the way more affordable option, but the juicier option. They need groups with nothing to lose. That’s how producers struck gold the first time. Every time, really. 

We saw it with the early seasons of the show. There has always been something inherently exploitative about approaching a group of minimum-wage earning restaurant staff and having cameras follow them while they were on the job. Many of them were aspiring actors and musicians who were really only waiting tables because the tips were decent and it allowed them to attend auditions during the day. 

But reality TV, this kind, specifically, where the audience got to be flies on the wall of some truly pivotal moments in their lives, has blown up. And with that came the opportunity to make a lot of money. But with almost no regulations in place as to how to implement proper workplace policies in perhaps one of the most unconventional workplaces, calls for greater mental health support and concerns over substance abuse became too loud to ignore.

With the amount of stories over the last year pertaining to the working conditions of reality TV stars, Bethenny Frankel’s calls for unionization and the legacy cast getting older, becoming parents and homeowners, all of this padded the case for the OG cast to seek out some serious bank. But nothing contributed more than the mere success of the show, which generated record viewership, and therefore, record earnings for the network. 

According to PEOPLE, the news didn’t come as a surprise for people like Scheana Shay, Ariana Madix, James Kennedy, Lala Kent, and Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz, the latter of whom are now dealing with their second big announcement after revealing they were closing the doors to their business after two years, which I wrote about here. 

Luckily for some of the cast, they’ve already been rehomed. VPR alums Lala Kent, Scheana Shay, Brock Davies and, oddly enough, Tom Schwartz will be featured on the next season of The Valley, the Vanderpump Rules spinoff that most were doubtful about at first but became pleasantly surprised in the end as it chronicled the daily drama of married, parent life. While we certainly saw this coming for Scheana and Lala, who are both moms, it’s a wonder how Tom, who will be one of the only single, childless cast members, ended up snagging a contract.

All of this leads me to believe that the producers are out for blood. New blood. They didn’t want to run the risk of having another boring or disappointing season, particularly after widespread calls for a cast revamp when fans realized the post-Scandoval hype was not nearly what we imagined it might be, much thanks to Ariana being a grey rock whenever it came to Tom Sandoval. 

And with Raquel being off the show, all of the dynamics fans were hoping to explore simply didn’t materialize. So they did whatever they needed to do to get the current cast out of the picture so they can clear the way for a new one.

The other consideration, here, though, is what the production strategy will be going into this new generation of the show. It’s been made clear that revamps do not always fare the best for the network. I mean, you know it’s bad when people are pleading to get the racist, aloof white women of Upper East Side back on Real Housewives of New York because the revamp is just unbearable. 

But if producers are smart, they’ll be careful to not overinflate the egos of these new, incoming stars too much. Because eventually, they’ll get too big for the show, like we saw with Ariana. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out, but fans are already writing their wish list for what they’d like in the new season – which is the same TV gold we had in the early days of Vanderpump Rules. If you ask me, that only comes once in a lifetime.