Could Vanderpump Rules be in SURious danger? Scheana Shay isn’t feeling as optimistic about the future of the Bravo show as she once was.
“I’m worried that, I mean, ‘cause we don’t know exactly what’s going on. We were just gonna assume that with three cast members all being due in April, they would kind of schedule around that, but nothing has been said for sure,” the 35-year-old reality TV personality, who is pregnant with her and boyfriend Brock Davies’ first child, began on her “Scheananigans” podcast on Friday, November 20. (Costars Brittany Cartwright and Lala Kent are also pregnant.)
Shay continued: “And now with all the counties in the state going back into purple, I don’t know if that’s going to affect what the tentative plan even was. That’s just in my head. Nothing has been confirmed.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced earlier this week that due to the COVID-19 outbreak, 41 of the state’s 58 counties will be under lockdown from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Saturday, November 21. All non-essential work also must stop in the purple-tier counties.
While Vanderpump Rules typically films in the summer months, the temporary closure of Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurants prevented the series from starting production.
“SUR has been back open since mid-September,” Shay noted. “And then Pump just opened back up Halloween weekend. But TomTom hasn’t opened back up.”
The show hit another roadblock in June when the network announced Stassi Schroeder, Kristen Doute, Max Boyens and Brett Caprioniwouldn’t be back for season 9 due to racially insensitive comments from their past. Andy Cohen noted earlier this month that the show needed a refresh.
“I actually think in an odd way [the pandemic closing the restaurants is] going to create a lot of story that is absolutely real, and they’ll be able to lean into it. And frankly, Stassi and Kristen didn’t work there anymore,” Cohen said on “Everything Iconic With Danny Pellegrino” podcast on November 5. “And they’re both brilliant characters on television [but] I think it will be interesting to see whose there and who’s not and what’s really happening.”
Vanderpump Rules also stars Katie Maloney, Tom Schwartz, Tom Sandoval, Ariana Madix, Jax Taylor, Cartwright, Kent and Dayna Kathan.
Madix, for her part, opened up about the possibilities of filming season 9 earlier this week.
“Obviously, we would be seeing the births of Lala, Scheana and Brittany. … It’s a pretty compelling story that half of them are pregnant and having babies,” the bartender said on the “#NoFilter with Zack Peter” podcast on Wednesday, November 18. “I think you probably would see possibly some more new cast members. I don’t have any real information on that, but I can only imagine that given that they’re not going to have a couple of the new ones back that they would probably want to pick that back up with some new new people. And I’m open to all of it … I know people love the drama, but for me, I’m not mentally stable enough for drama sometimes. Especially in the world that we’re living in. So, I might be excited to have a season that’s a little a bit, like, some positive, and super fun, uplifting, like let’s go party and try to be in a better place.”
