Just a month after the Vanderpump Rules season 10 reunion became the most-watched Bravo telecast in nearly a decade, production began on No. 11. Executive producer and showrunner Alex Baskin is used to this kind of grind. In March, when news broke that original castmember Tom Sandoval had been cheating on longtime partner Ariana Madix with fellow castmate Raquel Leviss, cameras were back rolling on a wrapped season in mere hours. With interest in “Scandoval” still strong, the showrunner spoke to THR about returning cast, contracts and the perks of a long drought between episodes.
Was the plan always to resume filming this soon?
We’re sticking to our normal, pretty aggressive timeline as opposed to rushing back. The challenge is that there’s always a lot of business to be done before you get into production. Contractual negotiations. Things are still unsettled within the group whose lives we’re following. I’ve never headed into a season having less of a sense of where we’re going to be when we wrap in a few months.
I’d imagine that those negotiations involved some discussion of who’s willing to film with whom. Did anybody ask for assurances before signing?
We always deal with pushback if different parties don’t want to shoot with each other because of strained relations. Obviously, this is more extreme. But Ariana and Tom Sandoval, I would hasten to point out, they still live together. The idea that they wouldn’t shoot together is a little bit hard to digest. They’re in the same home.
Any update on Raquel? I’ve heard that she’s not currently signed on for this season.
Those are ongoing conversations. I imagine there will be an update fairly soon. But, for now, we’re still in dialogue with her.
Paparazzi now follow this cast on a level you’ve not dealt with before. Does that pose a problem?
There are a ton of outside influences and coverage of what we’re doing. The cast needs to focus and let all of that go because we don’t want to get to a place where we are covering the coverage of the show. We’d hoped that it would have died down, but there’s still a hysteria surrounding it.
There have been reports of former castmembers either returning to the main series or getting a spinoff. Where are you with that?
Look, the past castmembers are still a part of the group. It isn’t like they went away. So, we’re really excited to develop out what that will mean. There are other opportunities to see the extended friend group beyond just Vanderpump Rules.
Because of your shooting schedule, the show likely won’t be back on the air until 2024. Does it pain you to not be striking while the iron is hot?
I have mixed feelings. I’d love to take advantage of the moment, but it’s really intense to make these shows. The people involved, both in front of and behind the camera, need a little bit of time. You just can’t be making and airing the show all the time. In six months, we’ll drop a new season. It’s good to make the audience miss you a little bit.
How are you holding up? This has been a busy year.
I’m still standing. (Laughs.) It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been wild. It’s been an adventure that keeps unfolding. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s the reason that I got into this business in the first place — to be able to make programming that people were passionate about. Being in the center of this and trying to hold it all together has been a challenge and a thrill.
I realize you’d locked most of the 10th season when the affair came to light — but, looking back, are you shocked at just how much foreshadowing made it in the final edit?
Well, first, I felt like a complete moron. It looks so obvious after the fact. I can’t believe the brazenness in some cases. This affair was happening right there in front of us. It’s our job to be skeptical, to document and to ask the questions and probe. And then we have to let it play out in front of us, without our judgment. That really is what happened. We really didn’t know until Ariana knew. But looking back, everything really was obvious.
Do you think that you’ve unraveled the extent of the deceit?
I’m sure we don’t know everything — clearly, that’s why the reunion ended with a twist — but I think that we have to move on from it. This show’s never been static, and we’d disappoint the audience if we started just sleuthing. Everyone is trying to move on with their lives. If that creeps back in, then it creeps back in.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
This story first appeared in the July 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Source: Hollywood
