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The finale of “Vanderpump Rules” season 10 was explosive, capturing the immediate aftermath of the so-called Scandoval, and executive producer Alex Baskin has teased that season 11 will be just as intense viewing.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Los Angeles Times, Baskin said producers did “less storyboarding or anticipating” than in past seasons because they weren’t sure “how the pieces would assemble back together — or even if they would in the first place.”
“I will say that we were grateful for every day that we weren’t shooting because we think the group needed time to recover,” he added. “I thought that if the feelings were that heated that I didn’t know how that would ultimately land. On the one hand, a couple of months [gap in shooting] is a long time, but it’s also not. As you see [in the first two episodes], we aren’t in a terribly different place. There’s very little we could do here.”
He said because producers had no idea how Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval would interact when filming together, if at all, and whether Raquel Leviss would return, they couldn’t plan anything. “We are documenting a group of people,” he shared. “We follow the story as it develops. I will tell you, it doesn’t get any less intense going forward.”
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Alex Baskin Spoke About the Difficulty Filming Season 11 Given the Show’s New Popularity
Baskin also dove into how the newfound fame and success of “Vanderpump Rules” in the wake of the affair scandal had an impact on filming and breaking the fourth wall. “We have to [break the fourth wall] because we wouldn’t be able to tell the real story,” he told the publication.
“If we were to frame this season just as Tom and Ariana are a couple that had the messiest breakup of all time, I don’t think that’s quite accurate,” he continued. “The truth is, Tom and Ariana are a couple that had the messiest breakup times a million and the magnitude was because of the public reaction [to it]. And Ariana’s star was on the rise, and Tom’s went in a different direction. We have to acknowledge that.”
Baskin also said it was harder to film because “everywhere we went was a zoo,” he spilled. He explained that they tried to filter out that aspect but they still need to acknowledge that the group of friends has a lot of eyes on them.
The First Episode of ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Season 11 Showed Ariana Madix Moving on With Her Life a Few Months After the Affair
“Vanderpump Rules” season 11 premiered on January 31 and picked up almost where season 10 ended, in the aftermath of Madix and Sandoval’s breakup following his affair with Leviss.
Viewers learned that Madix and Sandoval were still living together, but were avoiding each other within the house and communicating via a third party. Sandoval didn’t really feature in the season premiere due to his absence while filming “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.”
As for Madix, she returned to TomTom for the first time since the night she found out about the affair. It was an emotional night for Madix, though she was surrounded and supported by her friends and co-stars.
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