‘Vanderpump Rules’ Veteran Reveals Why Reboot Could Be ‘Very Different’ From Original Show

Tom Sandoval thinks the reboot of “Vanderpump Rules” could be “very different” than the original series he starred in from 2013 to 2024.

Months after Bravo announced the decision to recast the long-running reality show with a completely new group of  SUR employees for season 12, Sandoval pointed out that the OGs were a real friend group and the newcomers may not be.

In an interview with People magazine in March 2025, Sandoval said, “What I feel like made our show so successful is that we were a real group of friends. And it’s tough to recreate that now because so many people come on reality TV wanting to be famous.”

Sandoval noted that the original cast members worked at the West Hollywood restaurant SUR as a way to finance their dreams of making it as models, actors, or musicians. “None of us thought, ‘Oh, I’ll do this show’ as endgame,” he shared. “And because of that, the cameras were able to capture something fully real, which was the bonds we had all built together.”

The Bravo veteran pointed out that amid the success of “Vanderpump Rules,“ people “work at SUR because they want to get on the show.” “It’s a totally different situation,” he said. “There’s very different intentions there.”

Lisa Vanderpump Said New People Are Always Looking to Work at  SUR

The cast for “Vanderpump Rules” season 12 has not yet been announced by Bravo, but SUR owner Lisa Vanderpump hinted that she already has the core group for the reboot lined up.

In a December 2024 interview with Entertainment Tonight,  Vanderpump said she has “an existing group” of staffers for the new incarnation of the show, but added, “There’s always room for people because, you know, it’s West Hollywood. It’s people are always coming through the door, ‘Can I have a job?’”

Vanderpump noted that many people come to Hollywood for fame. “When you have a restaurant, especially in Hollywood, with a revolving door of beautiful people who are all kinds of normally rather large personalities because they come to Hollywood for a reason, it’s always complicated,” she told Us Weekly in an interview. “I am sure it’s gonna be very different with these young minxes when they get to work, but we shall see. I got some very interesting characters for sure.”

Katie Maloney Said the Original Friend Group Became Broken

Bravo

The original “Vanderpump Rules” cast included Sandoval, Kristen Doute, Tom Schwartz, Katie Maloney, Jax Taylor, Stassi Schroeder, and Scheana Shay, who were all friends and co-workers before cameras came into play. The group became fractured in the aftermath of  Sandoval’s “Scandoval” cheating scandal with former co-star Raquel Leviss.

Speaking on her “Disrespectfully” podcast in December 2024, original cast member Maloney said the cast became extremely divided following the friendship-ending scandal. “I think the group dynamic, what makes the show that show, would be hard to do because it was so fractured at the end there,” she explained. “And many of us don’t hang out. As far as it being a cohesive unit, it just doesn’t exist anymore,” she said

In a February 2025 interview on Harry Jowsey’s “Boyfriend Material” podcast, Maloney said that by the end of the original show’s run, many friendships “were damaged beyond repair.” “It would be so fake and phony,” she said of an attempt to continue on with the original cast. “And the whole premise of the show is like a group of friends that travels together and hangs out and fight sometimes, but like, it just got so dark. But then they decided not to bring us back anyway, so it worked out for everybody.”