In case you missed the breaking news that had everyone dropping emergency podcast episodes: Vanderpump Rules is coming back...with an all new cast (sorry, a group of "close-knit SUR-vers").
This is obviously an earth-shattering plot twist (I, for, one have listened to the Vanderpump Rules theme song over 10 times to process) and if you need to know what happened...there's new intel. According to People, the original VPR cast learned news that the show had been re-cast just one day prior to it going public.
“They’re understandably upset that it’s all coming to an end, but no one was necessarily surprised,” a source said. “It’s more relief that they finally have an answer.”
Apparently Bravo decided to do a total show overhaul because “there were so many fractions” among the original cast: “There had been a long pause in production, and nothing had really changed among the cast since the reunion,” the source explained. “Everyone was still stuck in their feelings and refusing to bend. The network felt there was no path forward with the group in that capacity.”
On top of that, no one was even working at SUR anymore (as the source put it, “the group ties to SUR and Lisa was practically non-existent”) so “it just didn’t make sense to continue.”
“This is an attempt to recalibrate and bring the show back to the thing that made it such a success to begin with," the insider added. "It’s a fresh start, and the players they have are interested and motivated to participate. Fans will be happy with what they see. It’s going to feel like a return to form.”
As for speculation that high salary asks could have been a driving force behind the overhaul, another source says "It was completely driven by creative. There weren't any negotiations happening between the cast and the network where money was even discussed."
This has been a lot to process, no one talk to me, listening to this some more:
