Thea de Sousa, the author of The Unofficial Vanderpump Rules Ultimate Trivia Book, recently opened up about the future of Vanderpump Rules and its yet-to-be-named spinoff.
After publishing a book with behind-the-scenes details about the cast and the show’s many scandals, Thea shed some light on the upcoming 12th season of the Bravo reality series, revealing that production has been delayed amid contract negotiations — and confirming that filming on its spinoff is already underway.
“Bravo’s still saying that they for sure plan on doing another season, which will most likely be the last one,” Thea told The U.S. Sun on October 16. “And the reason why is because this show has gotten very expensive for Bravo.”
“Every cast member gets a mandatory salary bump each season. So now we’re up to season 12, so you can imagine how completely just underwater that Bravo is in terms of paying this cast and that’s been the issue since spring,” she continued. “That’s been the reason why they didn’t film over the summer was they couldn’t handle the same contracts. So they had to start negotiating [with] people and trying to move people down from maybe main cast member to ‘friend of,’ which they had tried to do a couple seasons before.”
Although the Pump Rules cast was supposed to begin filming this month, Thea said its start date has been postponed.
She also noted that Bravo was considering a spinoff based out of Tom Schwartz, 42, and Tom Sandoval‘s bar, Schwartz and Sandy’s, before “Scandoval” led the majority of fans to turn against Sandoval.
“It wasn’t going to be Vanderpump anymore, but then Scandoval happened, so they did another season of Vanderpump off of Scandoval,” she said. “They were supposed to be cameras up already and they’re still having [a] problem, not because of the show but because of just the landscape of reality TV and the payoff isn’t as big as it used to be for Bravo. Best case scenario would be November, December worst case scenario, beginning of next year.”
According to Thea, following season 12, Bravo may not be able to afford the series any longer.
“But they are still promising that they are supposed to do a final season. They’ve just postponed it,” she explained.
Meanwhile, in response to Thea’s claims, a Bravo spokesperson told The U.S. Sun, “There is absolutely no truth to this reporting.”
Still, Thea insisted that the cast, despite their issues with one another, was hoping to see the series continue.
“No one has refused to film with anyone else because they all want the show to keep going,” she said. “They all want the paychecks, right? And maybe they love the show. So the desires are from the cast, the problem again is Bravo paying them, that’s it … Even Ariana wants another season of the show.”
Because a number of cast members are pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars per season, Bravo has allegedly been forced to consider demotions.
“Scheana [Shay] might get demoted, and then they can pay them less,” Thea shared. “So this is all the contract stuff they were dealing with all summer. Who do we get to agree to go down?”
As Pump Rules remains in limbo, its spinoff has allegedly begun filming.
“They are developing spinoffs, and they still want to work with the cast a lot. They’re definitely doing a new show set on the new staff of SUR,” Thea told The U.S. Sun in another interview on October 18. “People have been there actually for a couple of years but they’ve now been cast in a show about SUR that really will hopefully, if it takes off, become the new Vanderpump Rules. And that’s really where the focus has to be.”
“They’ve been filming scenes. I mean, this is what happens… So they obviously get a crew together, they go in the restaurant, they cast the show, and then they have to film a little bit, and then you have to send that to Bravo decks, and they have to watch it, see what’s the chemistry, what are the storylines,” she continued. “So we’re only at that point right now where they’ve filmed some scenes. The show is not full force yet.”
As Thea noted, the Pump Rules spinoff is going to be much “cheaper” than its main show.
“These are new contracts, new cast members, so it’s a little bit less of a gamble. But they still have to see that they have something there that can be a whole season,” she stated. “And so we’re at that point right now. Let’s see where these relationships are going before we commit to a full season of filming.”
“Those people are making like the minimum that you can pay because they’re all hoping that the show takes off and then each season they’ll get more,” Thea went on. “It’s really more about establishing the show. And then, you know, again, with these mandatory bumps, eventually you’ll end up making good money on the show, but nobody expects to walk into a show like The Valley, which was completely unproven, [and get paid a lot].”
As for when fans could get their first look at the spinoff, Thea said that it could happen as early as the spring of 2025.
“And then of course we’ll see going from there, what are the ratings, how are people liking it, let’s see if it gets renewed,” she explained, noting that producers have not yet nailed down a title.
“So they are not paid well now, but I’m sure they’ve all landed sponsorship deals off of it. And now they have season two, and it’ll get better and better for them if the show keeps going. I’m interested in it. I’m loving it,” she added.