‘Vanderpump Rules’ Refresh: Bravo Hit Series Renewed With All-New Cast
It’s official: Vanderpump Rules is getting a refresh.
Bravo announced on Tuesday that its hit reality series will be returning for season 12 — but with an all-new cast. The news comes as the series, which was born as a spinoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, has been on hiatus following the aftermath of “Scandoval,” the scandal that catapulted the original cast into the zeitgeist and played out over the last two seasons to both eye-popping ratings and mixed audience results.
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Season 12 will feature Lisa Vanderpump — Vanderpump Rules executive producer and the boss of SUR, the Los Angeles restaurant around which the show orbits — with a new group of “close-knit SUR-vers who are as complicatedly involved with one another as their iconic predecessors,” according to the announcement. “Under Lisa Vanderpump’s watchful eye, the West Hollywood mainstay SUR — and now TomTom — welcomes the next batch of servers, hosts and bartenders rife with plenty of drama, situationships and frenemies.”
The new season is set to begin production next year. The premiere date and names of the new cast will be announced at a later date.
Original castmembers Lala Kent, Scheana Shay, Brock Davies and Tom Schwartz will all make appearances on the next season of Vanderpump Rules spinoff The Valley, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. A source close to the show leaves the door open for the entire cast — which also includes Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval, James Kennedy and Katie Maloney — within The Valley, Vanderpump Rules and the larger Bravoverse.
There will also be a retrospective special highlighting the past 11 seasons that will “celebrate the past decade of heartbreaks, friendship rifts and scandals.”
“What a thrill it is to build on the legacy of this series by doing it all over again,” said Alex Baskin, executive producer of Vanderpump Rules via 32 Flavors. “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.”
Vanderpump herself added, “The last 12 years of filming have been an extraordinary run full of laughter, tears and everything in between. 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.”
Vanderpump Rules has become one of Bravo’s biggest shows — the season 11 premiere had 3.2 million viewers over three days, and the season 10 reunion had 4.6 million after three days.
The 11th season of Vanderpump Rules, however, proved to be a divisive one following the aftermath of Scandoval; at the end of season nine, Sandoval’s secret affair with former castmember Rachel Leviss was exposed and the betrayal that became known as “Scandoval” catapulted Sandoval’s partner, Madix, into becoming a breakout star, led to Leviss’ exit from the series and turned Sandoval into a group-exiled villain. The 10th season explored the aftermath for the ensemble but, after a fractured finale and divided reunion, some fans were asking the network for a cast shake-up.
“It was the hardest season that we’ve had to make,” Baskin told THR after that May 2024 reunion, which played the end of the finale in real time for the group, sparking an even deeper fissure. “The group was really divided. We went back into production not too long after the reunion, so you saw where the group really was. I think it’s a super powerful end of the reunion and there are a lot of unanswered questions that are playing out in real time.”
The show had been put on pause shortly before the reunion and went on hiatus after, with Baskin at the time weighing in on the uncertainty. “Everyone needs time to reset,” he said. “We cannot force group harmony, or even group interaction.” Still he remained hopeful that, whatever happens, the show would continue. “People have written the show’s final chapter many times, and the show has continued. … All things are possible. 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.”
News of the cast reboot follows Sandoval and Schwartz announcing the closure of their Los Angeles bar, Schwartz & Sandy’s, after two years of operation, citing negativity post-Scandoval, as well as slimmer margins in the aftermath of COVID. Their respective exes, Maloney and Madix, meanwhile, are operating their L.A. sandwich shop Something About Her, while Madix has pursued other roles outside of the Bravoverse, including in Broadway’s Chicago and hosting another reality hit, Love Island USA.
Former Pump castmember Stassi Schroeder is also joining Vanderpump on the next season of her Hulu series, Vanderpump Villa.
Vanderpump Rules is produced by 32 Flavors and Evolution Media. Baskin, Barry Poznick, Jenn Levy, Joe Kingsley, Vanderpump and Ken Todd executive produce.
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