Andy Cohen Reveals Vanderpump Rules Secrets Amid Scandal

Andy Cohen is Vander-Pumped. In the past few weeks, news broke of a scandal amongst the cast of the reality series Vanderpump Rules, as Tom Sandoval cheated on longtime partner Ariana Madix with castmate Raquel Leviss. Since then, the cheating news has taken over social media and online discourse to the point that explainers are even appearing in the likes of The New York Times. At Adweek's Convergent TV Summit on Tuesday, Cohen, who's hosting the Vanderpump Rules reunion show that's filming on Thursday, addressed the scandal, revealing behind-the-scenes secrets. DirecTV’s Latest Mash-Up Ad Gets a Few Real Housewives Ready for Some Football According to Cohen, the season had already wrapped shooting before news of the scandal broke, and though it's not uncommon to resume filming after a season wraps, the magnitude of the topic is unprecedented. "This news came out and cameras were called, cast was called and we have been shooting in real-time all of the fallout from what happened," he told Adweek's Jason Lynch. Though the cameras were brought in for additional footage, Cohen said what's "surprising" is that the episodes currently airing haven't been recut, and any supposed foreshadowing to the cheating scandal was there all along. "They are just that prescient to what is going on right now. So the last couple of episodes that have aired, I think have been stunning for people." Cohen continued, saying people are "going to be held accountable for their words" on Thursday's reunion, noting that under the cheating scandal context, conversations that originally meant something different are being shown in a whole new light. Building a Real franchise Besides commenting on the Vanderpump Rules drama, Cohen talked about building out TV universes. The former Bravo exec is an executive producer on The Real Housewives franchise, which started in 2006 with The Real Housewives of Orange County and has since expanded to include eleven U.S. installments and a dozen international ones. "It was a big deal years ago when we got to the point where there were going to be two different Housewives series airing on two different nights," Cohen said. "Are viewers going to accept this? Are they going to be OK with this? Now we're up to about three running at the same time, and now, of course, we have Peacock. There's a whole other ecosystem happening down the way." For Cohen, going "gingerly" into expanding The Real Housewives franchise was key. And if it was rejected along the way, the show would've pulled back. The executive producer also said Peacock has been vital to fans looking to catch up on shows, get into the franchise and move into other Bravo content as well. "What you're seeing now, you've got The Real Housewives of New Jersey, the current season, was the number one streamed cable entertainment show on Peacock, period," Cohen. "So that's huge. That means that people are going to Peacock to stream the shows." And, yes, the cheating news also gave a boost to Vanderpump Rules. "Vanderpump Rules right now is a top 10 show. They have a whole library on Peacock, and it's worth a rewatch, certainly on any day of the week," Cohen said. "But given what's happening now, there are chestnuts all over it."

Programming & Performance

Andy Cohen Reveals Vanderpump Rules Secrets Amid Show's Cheating Scandal

The host opened up about the Sandoval drama and building out series universes

Bill Bradley

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