Heavy/Getty/NBCUniversal Cast members from 'Vanderpump Rules."
Lisa Vanderpump has a plan for the 11th season of “Vanderpump Rules.”
Months after co-stars Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss’ cheating scandal rocked the foundation of the Bravo reality show, the SUR owner admitted that she never sees Sandoval’s ex, Ariana Madix, having any type of relationship with him ever again.
And while that could put a wrench in filming at group events, Vanderpump is prepared for a role as a peacemaker of sorts.
Here’s what you need to know:
Lisa Vanderpump Said The Show Must Go on Following Scandoval
Tommy Garcia/Bravo“Vanderpump Rules” season 10 cast photos.
The cast for the 11th season of “Vanderpump Rules” has not been confirmed by Bravo, but in a June 2023 roundtable discussion for The Hollywood Reporter, Vanderpump hinted that key players, such as Sandoval and Madix, will be back.
“These people have existing relationships that go on regardless of whether we’re filming, so I think it’d be foolish if we didn’t pick it up now,” she said. “Yes, it’s going to be difficult and there are bridges that are going to be crossed, or maybe they won’t be.”
The “Vanderpump Rules” matriarch admitted she doesn’t see Sandoval and Madix ever being able to have any type of a “mutually respectful relationship. “I think that is done,” she said. “Now, Tom has had existing relationships with these people for longer than they’ve been on the show. So, I hope to facilitate some type of cohesion somewhere along the line.”
Vanderpump admitted that she doesn’t think the rest of the friend group should forgive Sandoval for his actions, but she added, “Everybody at some point has to move forward. ..So that’s what I’m going to have to do. It’s not going to be easy. But I guess that’s again the ingredient.”
Vanderpump, who serves as an executive producer on the show, added that another key ingredient to the success of the Bravo reality show is the producers who are able to make the cast members comfortable enough to be vulnerable on camera.
Some “Vanderpump Rules” Stars Have Said They Won’t Film With Tom Sandoval or Raquel Leviss
GettyRaquel Leviss and Tom Sandoval in October 2022.
While Sandoval has been out in the public eye touring with his cover band, Tom Sandoval and the Most Extras, Leviss has not been seen in public since shooting the “Vanderpump Rules” finale in March 2023. She has since checked into a treatment center to focus on her mental health.
Should she decide to return to “Vanderpump Rules,” it’s unclear who she would film with because she is no longer friends with co-stars Madix or Scheana Shay, who were the two women who stood by her side before her affair with Sandoval was discovered.
Shay has already admitted she’s not sure how filming will work with Sandoval and Leviss, who have now been ostracized by the rest of the cast.
“I can picture [us filming together] because I’ve had to picture it,” Shay told Us Weekly in May 2023. “That’s the name of the game. But I can’t envision what type of event that would be at. It would have to be something Lisa Vanderpump hosts. [Because] they’re not getting invited to any birthday parties, that’s for sure.”
But even if Vanderpump hosts an event, Madix could take issue with filming with her former boyfriend and/or his mistress.
“No, [I will not film with them]. I have nothing to say to either of them,” Madix told The New York Times in May 2023. “Our show is very real and follows a real group of friends, and neither of them are in the group of friends, so, good luck.”
During the “Vanderpump Rules” season 10 reunion, Leviss, 28, said she wasn’t sure if she will be back for season 11, noting, “It’s in question right now. I want to.”
But while speaking with Variety in June 2023, Shay cast doubt on the probability of Leviss returning to “Vanderpump Rules.” “I don’t speak to Sandoval or Rachel so I don’t know what their plan is,” she said. “I would assume when you have an offer with a paycheck you come back and you work… I personally don’t see [Raquel’s] family allowing her to come back.”
Shay did speculate that Leviss’ family could decide to use her time in the treatment center as leverage for a comeback. The “Good as Gold” singer also claimed that long before Scandoval, Leviss’ dad said “the second the show didn’t work in her favor he would pull her.”