Raise your glasses high, Vanderpump Rules fans — Andy Cohen thinks the show will go on (and be just fine) without Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute.
“People were really [harping] on what was real and what was maybe a leap about the last season,” the 52-year-old Real Housewives producer said on the “Everything Iconic With Danny Pellegrino” podcast on Thursday, November 5. “I think that what has been so brilliant about Vanderpump Rules and why that show is so hard for all the other people who tried to do it, to replicate it … these people all knew each other for so long and all worked for Lisa [Vanderpump] for so long. … It seemed like people were [focused on], ‘Does [this] person really work there and why are they going to Lisa’s to make Pride signs?’ … I think where it goes is … I think they’re going to have real drama built into her reopening this restaurant after a pandemic.”
Bravo cut ties with Schroeder, 32, and Doute, 37, in June due to racially insensitive comments from their past. While Vanderpump Rules typically films during the summer months, the temporary closure of Vanderpump’s SUR put filming on hold.
“I actually think in an odd way that’s 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. “And they’re both brilliant characters on television. I think it will be interesting to see whose there and whose not and what’s really happening. I think they’ll have a better time doing that and they’ll be a lot of built stuff that’s actually happening.”
The network has yet to officially announce plans for Vanderpump Rules season 9. As of September, Katie Maloney revealed that all she knows is the series hadn’t been canceled.
“There’s hope still. At least there’s not, like, anything definitive in that regard,” the “You’re Gonna Love Me” podcast host, 33, told ET. “I try to picture and think about [the show without Stassi and Kristen], and it’s so weird. … It’s definitely gonna feel different and look different, but it’s not like they’re not a part of my life, you know? So, it’s gonna be weird to have this part of my life that was very much on the show not on the show anymore.”
While Brett Caprioni and Max Boyens were also fired due to their past tweets, Katie, Tom Schwartz, Tom Sandoval, Ariana Madix, Jax Taylor and pregnant wife Brittany Cartwright, pregnant Scheana Shay, pregnant Lala Kent,James Kennedy and Vanderpump have all expressed interest in returning.
SUR, meanwhile, reopened in late September.
“We’re lucky with the fact that when we do decide to open we have really good-sized patios, which is very unusual. Pump is, you know, 90 percent garden. TomTom has two big gardens; we’d be able to put the tables and chairs outside. It has a great big garden in the back, and we’d probably be able to go out on [the] pavement as well,” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum explained on the “Give Them Lala … With Randall” podcast on September 2. “So, we’re very fortunate with that, but we’ve just been waiting for it to be safe. … When I keep seeing the numbers going up, I want every single person — do not let this be political — [to] wear a mask.”
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