While most other Bravo staples managed to return for new seasons during the pandemic, Vanderpump Rules laid dormant. Its focus on Lisa Vanderpump’s waitstaff forced production on a hiatus because her restaurants were closed down and employees couldn’t work. With things slowly returning to some kind of normalcy, however, the show has now confirmed the cast for the highly anticipated Season 9 with assurances that filming will begin soon.
Bravo reps confirmed the news to E! Online that filming for Season 9 will officially start in early May, but some castmates “filmed here and there on their own.” In other words, it sounds like we will get a more personal look at how the current Vanderpump Rules stars fared during lockdown. Furthermore, they confirmed the list of names for the main cast this season:
Lisa VanderpumpTom SchwartzTom SandovalKatie MaloneyAriana MadixScheana ShayLala KentJames KennedyRaquel Leviss
The Vanderpump Rules cast looks different than ever before, considering almost half of last season’s stars either quit or were fired. Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute were fired because of previous insensitive behavior toward a former black castmate of the show. TomTom manager Max Boyens and server Brett Caprioni were also fired after their controversial social media activity came to light.
In December, longtime Vanderpump Rules alum Jax Taylor and wife Brittany Cartwright left the show of their own volition. Taylor recently revealed that he was “happy” that he was no longer part of the cast because "there's no pressure to put on a good show." Still, Taylor’s arrogant persona was the key to a lot of the drama last season, which was most definitely not resolved at the reunion. It will be interesting to see how the show’s current cast will attempt to address or hide the absence of so many notorious castmates.
I mean, are Tom Sandoval and Jax Taylor friends again? Why wasn’t newcomer Dayna Kathan brought back as part of the main cast? Will Katie Maloney be addressing the behavior of her two best friends, Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute, in Season 9?
There are so many questions that, I have a sneaking suspicion, answers will be left in the dust of Vanderpump Rules’ next season in an effort to charge forward. E! Online’s source indicated that while filming takes place, any additional cast members “will be determined.” Another source added:
Everyone is happy to finally get back to work, but it will be much different experience with many people not returning to the series. Lisa Vanderpump has expressed a strong interest to have a larger presence this season and become more of a focal point than in years past.
It’s a sad state of affairs to say that if Bravo lost Scheana Shay or Lala Kent for Vanderpump Rules’ ninth season, then there wouldn’t be too much to look forward to. Kent gave birth to her daughter Ocean with fiancée Randall Emmett in March, while Shay also had her first child, named Summer Moon Honey Davies, this past Monday. So, at the least, we’ll get to see how the two clapback princesses of Bravo fare with motherhood.
There’s no doubt about it, times are a’changin’. And so, too, it seems is Vanderpump Rules.
