Where Does 'Vanderpump Rules' Go From Here?

“Well, that’s the most somber ending we’ve ever had to a reunion,” cast member Scheana Shay declared during the three-parter that closed out Vanderpump Rules Wednesday night. The show’s headline-grabbing, franchise-rejuvenating tenth season, which orbited around the affair between Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss known as Scandoval, concluded in an utterly desolate place.

Part three of the eagerly anticipated reunion, the first with Leviss onstage, was predictably vicious. When she attempted to defend her months-long tryst with Sandoval as an act of dropping her people-pleaser mentality, Sandoval’s longtime girlfriend (and Leviss’s former friend) Ariana Madix was unmoved. “So my dog had just died, I cried in your fucking arms, and you thought, I should go fuck her boyfriend?” she asked Leviss. “You are lower than the fucking lowest of low people. You really are…. And I will, after today, never see or speak to you again, and I will be better for it.” At various other points, Madix referred to Leviss as “a fucking moldy piece of fruit” and urged her to “go fuck herself with a fucking cheese grater.”

That vitriol, supported by nearly everyone else in the Vanderpump cast, came even before Leviss’s damning final season interview, which was filmed six days post-reunion and aired in the episode’s remaining 10 minutes. “I’m still finding myself having to lie about specific timeline things,” Leviss said of her and Sandoval’s infidelity, before admitting to meeting his mother over Christmas. She said she also pitched the idea of being in a throuple with Sandoval and Madix (“I love Ariana as a person and then I’m also in love with Tom Sandoval, so it didn’t seem that far-fetched of an idea.”) and said she and Sandoval had sex continuously during filming. 

Then came this absolutely devastating revelation: “I know that the reason Tom wanted to lie about it is because it’s a really bad look to hook up with someone’s boyfriend in their own house when they’ve gone out of town, especially for, like, a funeral of all things.”

Even before Leviss’s confession, series figurehead Lisa Vanderpump called the illicit couple’s on-air deception “the most mind-boggling, gobsmacking, astounding piece of film I have ever seen.” Viewers agreed. Vanderpump’s season 10 finale, which was captured when production extended the season to capitalize on Scandoval, earned series-high ratings. But with both drama and viewership at an all-time high, is there any direction to go next season but down?

In the wake of the scandal, the show’s cast has fractured. Prior to the reunion, Leviss filed a restraining order against Shay, alleging that Shay punched Leviss in the face upon learning of the affair. The order was later dismissed, and Shay maintained her innocence largely by arguing that her claw-like nails prevent her from properly forming a fist. Since the world learned of their affair, Leviss and Sandoval have reportedly split while she seeks mental health counseling. Even Tom Schwartz, Sandoval’s business partner and dogged ally—whom his ex Katie Maloney branded “a serial killer’s wet dream” on the reunion—says he’s taking a break from Sandoval.

The strain was never more clear than when reunion host Andy Cohen asked Sandoval if he had slept with anyone else after becoming intimate with Raquel. When Madix pointed out that she and her then boyfriend continued to have sex after he began his affair, Sandoval replied sarcastically: “She kept her T-shirt on. It was really hot.” It was a moment that seemed to leave the entire stage stunned; Schwartz responded by placing his head in his hands.

But although Madix was able to prevent Leviss and Sandoval from sitting side by side on the reunion stage, she apparently has no say in whether they stay on Vanderpump Rules. “That’s not up to me,” she  said on Today. “I can’t control any of that.” But don’t expect her to participate in scenes with them any time soon. “I have no interest in speaking to either of them,” Madix continued. “I don’t have anything to say.”

Then again, Madix’s bevy of endorsement deals, her upcoming Lifetime movie role, and her forthcoming sandwich shop, Something About Her, all in part stemmed from Vanderpump. So she may have to swallow her pride to keep the brand going. “It can’t be a show with separate islands,” Vanderpump executive producer Alex Baskin told The Hollywood Reporter. “That doesn’t work and it’s not exciting if we have groups who agree with each other but never interact. But the cast does have the full expectation that we intend to make another season of Vanderpump Rules.” He continued, “There still are a ton of ties between people who have incredibly strained relations right now; Tom and Ariana still live together. So even seeing how that resolves is of interest.”

At the reunion, both Vanderpump and Cohen seemed keen on taking a hiatus from filming. “I think right now, looking forward, it’s too much to process. I hope that some of us maybe can find some kind of forgiveness or compassion,” Vanderpump said. Cohen agreed: “Well, I think what everyone needs is a little bit of time.” But how many months can the show afford to take when the reality of these characters’ lives are unfolding in real time? 

Not many, at all, according to Baskin. “Our plan is to launch into season 11 in a few weeks. We’re pinning down the exact timeline. But it is within sight,” Baskin told Variety. “As far as we’re concerned, at this point, the entire group will be back,” he added. “The plan is that we will see how this group picks up the pieces from what everybody’s just seen.”

Meanwhile, other Bravo franchises are rebuilding. The Real Housewives of New Jersey will undoubtedly look different next season, now that sister-in-law cast members Teresa Giudice and Melissa Gorga seem to have permanently severed ties. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is reassembling minus Jen Shah, who is serving time in prison for wire fraud. And after a two-year hiatus (following its least watchable season to date), The Real Housewives of New York City is set to return with a brand-new ensemble next month.

Vanderpump went through its own restructuring in 2020, when the series shed six cast members. SUR stalwarts Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute—an ex-girlfriend of Sandoval’s—were fired from the show after allegedly calling the police on one of the show’s only recurring Black cast members, Faith Stowers. (Doute and Schroeder both apologized for their actions shortly before the news they were fired.) Newer hires Brett Caprioni and Max Boyens were axed after the unearthing of old tweets in which they’d both used the N-word. And original Vanderpump cast member Jax Taylor and his wife, Brittany Cartwright, announced their departure following a season that depicted their controversial decision to hire (then fire) an antigay pastor to officiate their wedding. (Like Schroeder and Doute, People reports, Taylor made false allegations about Stowers, saying that she was wanted by the police. Taylor has not commented on his statement.) 

Rebuilding years can be rocky, and Vanderpump’s ninth season, which aired several months after the cast shake-up, was largely considered one of the show’s worst. But that was because its cast spent that season largely settled into suburban life—less drink tossing and more dinner parties. All that changed with the show’s 10th season, which juggled no less than three major breakups amongst the cast before news of Scandoval even broke.

Strangely enough, shuffling Vanderpump Rules again could mean restoring a few familiar faces. Taylor and Cartwright snagged a brief Peacock “Watch With” show, in which they reacted to and commented on episodes from the season. Doute touted the season-high ratings of her appearance to Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen before her appearance on the season 10 finale. (Doute and Madix developed a bond after early seasons of the show, when Sandoval left Doute to pursue a relationship with Madix.) “This is not a show that you can plug an outsider into,” Baskin previously told Variety of bringing former cast back into the fold. “So we definitely have those conversations. And in real life, they are still all friends.”

Cohen, a man who has seen reality stars forgive even the most heinous of acts, is taking a pragmatic approach to the next season. “One of the secret sauces of a lot of the Bravo shows is that people have been able to kind of get over things,” he told Variety. “Look, Ariana’s one thing but I don’t know that I believe that [the rest of the cast will] have nothing to do with the principals. I also don’t think that a lot of these folks can help themselves from another opportunity at getting to yell at Tom Sandoval or Raquel.”

That air of possibility, an urgent desire to see what happens next, lingers. At the reunion’s end, DJ James Kennedy (once engaged to Leviss) can be heard faintly singing a line from the show’s theme song, “these are the best days of our lives.” For now, it’s unclear whether Vanderpump’s best days are behind us, or still to come.