Raise your glasses high, because the cast of Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules is here to tell you whether the show is scripted or if all the drama — including Scandoval — is real.

The show, originally pegged as a spinoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, features former Housewives star Lisa Vanderpump and her various restaurants around Los Angeles. As fans got to know Lisa as a businesswoman during the first season, which premiered in 2013, they were also introduced to the SUR restaurant owner’s eclectic employees. The original VPR cast included Lisa alongside Kristen Doute, Katie Maloney, Tom Sandoval, Stassi Schroeder, Scheana Shay and Jax Taylor as original cast members. While some of these OGs have continued to make an appearance on the show, others have said their goodbyes to their waiter and waitressing days.

Keep reading for details on if Vanderpump Rules is scripted. 

Is ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Scripted?

Since its 2013 premiere, some of the VPR stars have spoken publicly about the format of the show, revealing if it’s actually scripted. Jax, for one, alluded to the show being somewhat scripted when revealing his and wife Brittany Cartwright‘s reason for leaving the series in 2020.

“I was 100 percent checked out at the end,” he explained to Us Weekly in May 2021. “I was just very irritable on the show. It was getting a little bit too scripted for me and I just couldn’t do it anymore. It wasn’t fun.”

That being said, years prior, the “When Reality Hits” podcast host was adamant that the show was “real” while chatting with In Touch.

Vanderpump Rules Scripted
Nicole Weingart/Bravo

“I pride myself on [the fact that] we have a real show and I’m not going to sit there and sugarcoat things,” Jax shared in 2018. “With cameras there or not, this is how I am. Do I regret some things? Yeah, of course. I wish I didn’t talk to Brittany the way I did, and I kind of mistreated her a little bit. I kind of caught myself off-guard and the way I spoke to her was uncalled for.”

He added, “But that’s just real life, though. It’s real. Just because there are cameras I’m not going to be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this and act like this.’ That’s just not how our show works. I think that’s why our show works so well — because we are a real show.”

Similarly, Katie has weighed in on the rumors, hinting that VPR is somewhere in the middle.

“It’s pretty not-scripted,” she told Galore in 2016. “You see, our relationships are real. We all have our history. There are plenty of shows out there that are kind of [cast] in ways where people don’t have any kind of history prior. But it’s also hard when making a show, as they can’t show everything, and they don’t show everything that’s positive but they definitely show everything that’s negative, and that can paint people in certain lights that aren’t true to form, but it still is real.”

Do the Stars Wish ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Was Scripted?

Tom just might, especially after Scandoval broke. The TomTom co-owner reflected on an on-camera fight with now ex-girlfriend Ariana Madix in 2018.

“Obviously, I’m not thrilled, but Vanderpump Rules follows our real lives, and sometimes Ariana and I have fights, like anyone else,” Tom told In Touch at the time. “We’ve been together for almost four years and stuff happens and the cameras are always there.”

Does Production Manipulate Scenes?

The explosive season 10 girl’s trip to Las Vegas and Lake Havasu resulted in Raquel Leviss leaving early after she claimed Lala Kent, Kristina Kelly and Katie “bullied” her after she made out with RHOBH’s Gacelle Beauvais’ son Oliver Saunders.

Kristina did not attend the reunion to discuss the drama-filled vacation, but she claimed production intervened between the group during a June 2023 appearance on Stassi’s podcast, “Straight Up With Stassi.”

“We got word that [Raquel] was shown footage of [us] talking s—t about her. We had a big thing about it with one of the producers and we were really upset and we found out who it was. It’s a new [producer],” she claimed.

After the reality star dropped the bombshell, a source told Us Weekly that there was “no truth” to her accusations.

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