Is ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Over After Season 11? What to Know About Series Finale Rumors and Season 12
With the season 11 finale of Vanderpump Rules on May 7, 2024, flashing back to old footage, many fans felt like it may have been Bravo’s way of saying goodbye to the beloved series. Is the show over?
Is ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Over After Season 11?
The show will go on! Despite fan fears that season 11 may have been the series finale of Vanderpump Rules, the show is not ending, according to Entertainment Tonight.
“There’s always a possibility of a cast shakeup, or having the legacy cast members move to The Valley, but no decisions have been made yet,” a source told the outlet.
Bravo has not commented on the situation. However, Watch What Happens Live! host Andy Cohen addressed the finale at an event at Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., on May 8, 2024. “People say that the VPR finale felt like a series finale. It’s not,” he said.
‘Vanderpump Rules’ Taking Production Pause Before Season 12
While Vanderpump Rules generally films during the summer months, reports surfaced in April 2024 that there would be a pause in production before cameras picked back up for season 12. The decision reportedly came in order to give producers and cast members “a moment to decompress after two very rough, intense seasons,” according to Page Six.
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Season 10 of Vanderpump Rules concluded with the shocking news that Tom Sandoval had cheated on Ariana Madix with Raquel Leviss. Filming had wrapped months before the March 2023 scandal, but cameras picked back up to film the finale episode in the heat of the moment. After the reunion that spring, the cast began filming again during summer 2023, with season 11 heavily focusing on the aftermath of the scandal.
Although Andy is not a producer on Vanderpump Rules, he weighed in on the rumors of a production pause. “People do forget, especially as it relates to Ariana – who was the one cheated on – people forget that we picked up cameras, like, three months after she found out about the affair. So that’s why she’s still in the violently angry stage and you can understand that, so I always think it’s great [to step away].”
He also pointed out that there used to be production breaks in The Real Housewives franchise “all the time,” adding, “We would say, ‘You know what, let’s put cameras down for four or five months and come back to them.’ And they will have lived life and things will be different.”
Cast member Lala Kent addressed the rumors during a May 2024 appearance on Amazon Live. “Is this confirmed?” she asked. “I’m gonna say this, if we don’t film this summer, I’m going to have a peaceful pregnancy, because I will not allow it to be any other way. This is my real life.” She also admitted, “If we don’t film this summer, I will be on cloud 59.”
Sandoval was down for the schedule shift too. “They just wanna give it some time to breathe, take a break, maybe,” he explained. “I’m really excited about it. Because it’s like, every year, we film my birthday, we film Scheana [Shay]’s birthday at times, or whatever. To kind of have a different time of the year, it might bring a fresh sort of feeling to our show.”
Many fans have also pointed out that Ariana is very busy during summer 2024, as she’s been named the host of Love Island USA and will be returning to Broadway to reprise her role as Roxie Hart in Chicago. It’s been speculated that producers did not want to begin a new season without her or were looking to revamp the cast in general amid fears that she wouldn’t return. She has not commented on her plans for her future on Bravo.
“I can’t or I won’t say [if I’m returning] but I think that, ultimately, it would have to make sense for me,” she said at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 21, 2024. “Our show has always thrived, it’s always at its best when it is at its most authentic and its most real. And I have to be able to show up and be real and be authentic in order for it to make sense for me.”
What Happened During the ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Season 11 Finale?
Season 11 concluded with Ariana walking away from the cameras after being asked to have a conversation with Tom during a group event. Although the Dancing With the Stars finalist filmed at the same time as her ex and was even living in the same home as him throughout the season, they rarely interacted. She was pushed to her limit as producers and some cast members tried to urge her to speak to him on camera.
During the episode, Ariana broke the fourth wall by addressing a producer in the middle of the cast event after Sandoval tried to apologize to her. “He doesn’t give a f--k if I died in a ditch, or got a f--king deadly STD, the way he was f--king around behind my back,” she insisted. “That is non-informed consent. He does not deserve to speak to me. He does not get access to me.”
She also accused Sandoval of putting on a “performance” for viewers by saying he wanted to apologize. He clapped back by ranting to Scheana, “Ariana’s f--king performative. She doesn’t like any of these motherf--kers. So she can f--k off saying I’m performative.”
Meanwhile, Lala went on a rant about Ariana, slamming her for her decision. “It’s bulls--t that she can’t film with someone [who] she stays under the same roof [with],” Lala claimed. “It’s a lot. It’s a lot that she’s saying, ‘Don’t f--k with Sandoval,’ but I’m gonna sleep down the hall from Sandoval. I get it. He f--king cheated. You did a really f--king s--tty thing. It was weird how you looked us all in the eye and said a lot of s--t. But he did not kill somebody. I never in my life experienced someone who gets cheated on and suddenly she becomes God.”
Scheana agreed with Lala’s take, but Ariana stood her ground, pointing out that Tom never tried to apologize to her when the cameras weren’t rolling. “He could have written something in a f--king letter and left it on the kitchen counter and I could have read it at my leisure,” she said. “But if you would only do it on camera, to me, you just showed your true colors.”
