There are two significant issues at play when it comes to potentially renewing Vanderpump Rules for another season. First, a significant number of cast members have parted ways with the show. Second, fans and critics alike have expressed concern that the show is losing steam. As of June 26, VPR has not been renewed for another season, nor has it been canceled, but with both of these issues top of mind for fans, it's no surprise many are wondering if Vanderpump Rules Season 9 will happen, or if the show's most recent season marked an unexpected end of an era.
ICYMI, here's what has gone down with the cast in recent weeks: Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute — staples of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills offshoot since Season 1 — were fired on June 9. The announcement came one week after ex-cast member Faith Stowers revealed on an Instagram Live that Schroeder and Doute made racist comments toward her while she was on the show. Additionally, Stowers recounted when the pair called the cops on Stowers for crimes she did not commit, which Schroeder admitted to doing in a now-deleted Bitch Bible podcast episode in 2018.
Bravo's statement about Schroeder and Doute revealed the show was also letting go of Season 8 newbies Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni, which fans concluded was due to backlash that happened when old, racist tweets were discovered on Boyens and Caprioni's Twitter profiles in January 2020.
Further, there are calls from fans for Jax Taylor — another original cast member — to be fired as well due to his reported bigotry in the past. Taylor publicly accused Stowers of criminal activity around the same time as Schroeder and Doute did, and made biphobic comments about co-star Ariana Madix's sexuality. There is a petition calling for Taylor's firing, and Lance Bass (yep, that Lance Bass, who is a friend of Taylor and Lisa Vanderpump) revealed on his June 15 Daily Popcast episode that he did "not see Bravo keeping" Taylor for further seasons.
Whether Taylor is kept or booted, a good chunk of the cast would still be missing from future episodes. In normal circumstances, this could be overcome by adding new people to the mix, but there's another issue at hand: Many fans believe Vanderpump Rules just isn't as good as it used to be.
A lot of the criticism of the show started with the most recent batch of episodes. For example, Season 8 brought on a handful of new cast members, including Dayna Kathan, Danica Dow, Charli Burnett, Caprioni, and Boyens. Since the original VPR cast were friends before the show began filming, fans feel their dynamics seemed much more genuine before the new cast members joined.
Many fans have also criticized the editing of the recent season. In fact, one of the VPR editors Bri Dellinger reportedly said on a now-deleted episode of the Twisted Plot Podcast that she tried to make Scheana Shay look bad while Schroeder and her S.O. Beau Clark got "hero" edits. There are a lot of other criticisms out there pointing out even more aspects of the show fans are not, well, fans of, such as the cast's lack of diversity, James Kennedy's isolation from the rest of the cast, and the focus on all the freakin' weddings.
With all of the cast changes and fan gripes, some viewers think it might be time for the show to end, or at least be repurposed. There are a few ideas floating around on how that could be done:
- VPR could switch up its cast. Stowers already said she would "love to go back on Vanderpump Rules," and Lisa Vanderpump said she was "excited to give [audiences] deeper looks into the multi-faceted fabric" of her companies moving forward.
- Brittany, Katie, Lala, and Ariana could star in a spinoff that's basically a Real Housewives Jr. type of show.
- Separate shows centered around specific cast members could emerge. For example, there could be a show about Shay's career in Vegas; one about Lala Kent, her longtime S.O. Randall Emitt, and their glamorous life living on "PJs" (aka private jets); something around Kennedy's career and love life with Raquel Levis; or a series about Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix's careers in the cocktail world.
- Vanderpump Rules could evolve into a show about the Tom Tom employees, so remaining VPR cast members — Kathan, Dow, Burnett, Kennedy, Leviss, Shay, Sandoval, Madix, Tom Schwartz, and Katie Maloney-Schwartz — could still have their time on screen. Vanderpump told E! News in 2019 that she didn't think a Tom Tom spin-off would happen, but at this point, fans aren't convinced.
Even the cast of VPR doesn't seem to have a grasp of what's in store for the series' the future. "It's crazy," Sandoval said in a radio interview with St. Louis's KMOV4 about the recent firings. "It definitely changes things, and honestly we're just going to have to wait and see what happens." Until there are official announcements, it seems like everyone's in that same boat there.
