Given the absolute fervor that surrounded the so-called Scandoval — the shocking news that Vanderpump Rules star Tom Sandoval was cheating on his nearly decade-long partner Ariana Madix with their friend and fellow castmate Raquel Leviss — it seems only natural that the Bravo powers that be would want to continue filming every juicy moment of drama between these people. However, the network changed its mind, it didn't start immediately filming, and now we know why.
Word dropped at the tail end of Season 10 that Sandoval and Leviss had been "communicating inappropriately for months." So, filming quickly resumed after the season had already wrapped to capture the fallout of the cheating scandal and the dissolution of Tom's relationship with Ariana, a production move that was controversial amongst viewers. (You can catch up on all of the above with a Peacock subscription, FYI.)
Though that decision clearly worked for the reality series — that finale episode drew in a record-breaking 4.1 million viewers — it wasn't one the producers chose to replicate going into Season 11. This time, they decided to give the series and its castmates a minute to breathe before diving back into filming for their episodes on the 2024 TV schedule. Vanderpump Rules executive producer Alex Baskin broke down this choice with THR explaining:
Before the reunion, we were debating internally whether we should just keep shooting the next season out of the reunion and we decided to take a minute. I remember we looked at each other during the reunion and said, ‘Yeah, there’s no question. We need to take a second before we keep going.'
The post-finale cast reunion, which aired in three parts on Bravo, was a particularly intense and emotional showing from the Vanderpump crew. Plus, it was complicated by the fact that Leviss had filed a restraining order against castmate Scheana Shay following an alleged physical altercation between the two women.
Baskin said that the atmosphere at the reunion was too "white hot" to pick up filming directly after. He also noted that the three-month reprieve in between production was necessary both for the show and its stars:
I don’t have any question that it was the right choice to hold just a beat. We were in a very different place just a few months later. Not that everything was resolved or everything had healed, but at least there was an openness to moving forward [when the season opens].
During that three-month break, producers were in negotiations with Raquel Leviss to return to the show. (Both Sandoval and Madix are back as main cast members for Season 11.) Leviss, who sought out mental health treatment following the events of Season 10 and the inevitable public backlash that it prompted, chose not to return to the reality series for its eleventh edition.
Baskin noted that though there was a lot of "waffling and wavering" about Leviss' potential return, the main concern for all involved was "her mental health":
Our first concern was her mental health. We wanted to make sure that if she was going to come back that it was the right thing for her. It seemed like, on her side, there were other concerns. I know that money was at the top end of that, and she felt like she should be rewarded for the previous season. And then she went off and told her story just in a different forum. I think probably based on the counsel of people around her, she just couldn’t wrap her mind around doing the show and so she just went elsewhere.
Baskin is referencing Leviss' tell-all appearance on the podcast of another Bravo-elebrity, former The Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel. Rather than return to the reality series, the Pump Rules star shockingly aired out all of her dirty laundry on Just B with Bethenny Frankel.
Despite the absence of Leviss in the new episodes, Baskin proclaims that Season 11 of Vanderpump Rules is a "worthy successor to last season":
It was the hardest season that we have had to make, because we had challenges all over the place. We had extra attention and scrutiny, we had a cast that was still picking up the pieces. And so we really had to work as hard as we’ve ever had to work for what, I think, is a great season and a worthy successor to last season.
You can see for yourself whether or not that's true when Vanderpump Rules Season 11 airs weekly on Bravo, every Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. Episodes are also available to stream on Peacock the next day.
