Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix: ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Season 9 Is Happening
It’s (almost) all happening! Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix spoke about the future of Vanderpump Rules for the first time since Lisa Vanderpump’s SUR reopened.
Every Bravo Star Who Quit or Was Fired in 2020
“Obviously, they want to do another season and they have every plan and intention of doing that, but it’s just because of the industry that we’re in, they don’t want to see us just like sitting in our houses,” Sandoval, 37, told Page Six on Friday, March 5.
Madix, 35, added that the pair “wants everyone to be safe” when production resumes. “So we’re kind of just waiting and seeing,” she noted.
Us Weekly confirmed last month that SUR restaurant was open after closing its doors for the second time amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“You also have a lot of restrictions when it comes to productions as well and liabilities and things like that,” Sandoval added.
Production on season 9 of Vanderpump Rules, which usually films during the summer months, was put on hold in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis. The future of the series was subsequently up in the air after Stassi Schroeder, Kristen Doute, Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni were fired for their past racially insensitive remarks. In December 2020, Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright, who are expecting their first child, announced that they would not be returning, hinting that Bravo wouldn’t allow them to write their own exit statements.
Vanderpump, for her part, was confident that the series would be back during an interview with Entertainment Tonight in August 2020.
“There are new cast members,” she said at the time before acknowledging the lack of diversity on the show. “It’s really up to people that want to be front and center. I mean, I’m always all about that. Our companies are like the United Nations.”
Vanderpump Rules also stars Scheana Shay and Lala Kent, who are both pregnant with their first child. The Give Them All Beauty CEO was noticeably missing from the “Good As Gold” singer’s baby shower on Sunday, February 28, after the two women had a falling out during the summer of 2020.
Biggest Reality TV Feuds
“I unfollowed [Lala]. I never see a friendship with her again. And I am completely fine with that,” Shay said on the “#NoFilter with Zack Peter” podcast in October 2020. “Because honestly, for the last three years, I felt myself forcing a friendship with her because every time she hurts me, she feels bad, she begs for my forgiveness — but, it’s usually when there’s a camera in her face — and I forgive her! And then she does it again. And I forgive her. And then she does it again. And I’m, like, I haven’t wanted this friendship to continue for years. I just, I keep forgiving you. And at this point, I’m done. I’m checked out. I don’t have room for that type of fakeness in my life anymore.”
While Doute and Cartwright are no longer part of the cast, they were at the outing on Sunday. Katie Maloney and Madix were also in attendance.
Bravo has yet to announce official filming plans for Vanderpump Rules season 9.
