‘Vanderpump Rules’ Cast Pours One Out for Their 11-Season Run: “End of an Era”
In case you haven’t heard, Vanderpump Rules is getting a reboot after an 11-season run on Bravo, and people have feelings about it.
For anyone who has watched the popular, chaotic and candid ensemble that began as employees of Lisa Vanderpump’s Los Angeles restaurants before skyrocketing to becoming stars in their own right over the past 11 years, your social media feed is likely filled with bittersweet messages toasting, roasting and mourning the news that the Evolution Media-produced reality series is rebooting with an all-new cast when it returns with season 12.
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And among those messages are tribute posts from the outgoing cast: Scheana Shay, Lala Kent, Ariana Madix, Katie Maloney, Tom Schwartz, James Kennedy and Tom Sandoval.
“The end of an era, and the start of something new,” began Shay in her Vanderpump Rules goodbye post. “We had one hell of a run! I never could have imagined while shooting the pilot for VPR that it would become what it has, nor go on for as long as it did.”
Shay, Maloney and Sandoval, with Schwartz and Madix recurring, were among the original cast when Vanderpump Rules, a spinoff of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, first launched in 2013. Kennedy would join the group in season two, with Kent entering not long after. Through years of rotating SUR-vers, this group remained the core ensemble until the season 10 arrival of “Scandoval” — the cheating scandal that would both launch the show into becoming one of Bravo’s top performing series but also ultimately usher in the current castmembers’ exits.
Following a divisive season 11 reunion that left the ensemble fractured in the aftermath of “Scandoval” — when Sandoval’s affair with former castmember Rachel Leviss was exposed, betraying his long-term partner Madix — Bravo put the series on pause, and then on a hiatus. There were a few avenues the series could go if it returned, with executive producer and showrunner Alex Baskin telling The Hollywood Reporter at the time that anything was on the table amid fan calls for a cast shake-up. “There’s still a strong core there. So I could totally see some version of the bulk of the cast returning and then some notable additions. I think there’s plenty of life. What form that takes, I don’t exactly know,” he said after the reunion.
But on Tuesday news broke that the series would return with an entirely new cast. Some of the outgoing stars — Kent, Schwartz, Shay and husband Brock Davies — will make appearances on the next season of Vanderpump Rules spinoff The Valley. But Vanderpump Rules as fans have known it will be totally refreshed; the names of the new cast will be announced at a later date, with the show going into production next year.
“The last 12 years of filming have been an extraordinary run full of laughter, tears and everything in between,” boss and star Vanderpump said as part of the reboot announcement. “I can’t thank enough those who have shared their lives. How I love you all. In the restaurant business, one shift always gives way to another. Cheers to the next generation of Vanderpump Rules.” Baskin added, ““What a thrill it is to build on the legacy of this series by doing it all over again. With profound appreciation for the original group and their iconic run, we can’t wait for the audience to see a dynamic new group of co-workers and friends make their way through life together.”
Shortly after, the cast took to their respective social media feeds to post their goodbyes, thanking fans for sticking with them all of these years. Sandoval and Schwartz, who just announced the closure of their Los Angeles bar Schwartz & Sandy’s — citing negativity post-Scandoval as being among the reasons for the shut down — shared tribute posts to both the bar and their time on the series in their Instagram Stories. Schwartz also shared a clip video created by a fan, set to the tune of the Friends theme song, writing, “How the last 12 years replays in my mind.” Maloney took to her Stories to say, “It’s a mixed bag. But I wouldn’t change a thing. Thank you for the memories and the love the last 11 years.”
Shay, Kent, Madix and Kennedy were more effusive in their goodbye posts, which you can read below. In the comments section, their former castmembers, celebrity fans and Bravo boss/host Andy Cohen chimed in. “These were the best days of our lives….” wrote Cohen on his account, referring to the theme song and earworm, Memoir’s “Raise Your Glass.” Madix ending her post saying, “I don’t know that these were the best days of our lives, but they were definitely something special.”
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