As the future of “Vanderpump Rules” remains unclear, Scheana Shay claimed executive producer Alex Baskin warned the cast that the show would be canceled.
“I know Alex Baskin has said that midseason, the show was not in a good place,” the reality star, 39, said on Friday’s episode of her “Scheananigans” podcast.
“It was, you know, ‘X, Y and Z needs to happen. Or we’re going to have a short season and the show’s going to be canceled and that’s it. Go live your lives.'”
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Shay noted that the grim outlook put “a lot of pressure” on her and Lala Kent to deliver quality content.
“Well, we don’t want the show to get canceled,'” she explained. “Not just for ourselves and our families, but there’s a crew of 80 to 100 people who work on this show.”
“And I said this at the reunion — which you didn’t see — but I was like, ‘I feel like we’re doing our jobs also for all of these people. We want to keep this going.'”
The former SURver criticized Ariana Madix for leaving a group event during the season finale because she didn’t want to film with her ex, Tom Sandoval.
“And so when someone does just walk away, they don’t care if the show ends, it’s not just about us,” Shay commented. “There’s so many more people that do rely on this, and that’s where it just got really hard because I’m like, I do understand and respect your boundaries, but it just made it really difficult.”
Shay and Kent, 38, were heavily criticized by fans for pressuring Madix, 39, to film with Sandoval, 41, months after he broke her heart by cheating on her with their former co-star, Raquel Leviss.
At the Season 11 reunion, which aired earlier this month, the new “Love Island USA” host defended herself for walking away. “Was that not a better ending to your season to give you another season for another paycheck?” she argued to Kent.
She doubled down during the “‘Vanderpump Rules’ Season 11 After Show” when a producer asked her, “What would you say to those who might criticize you for walking away in that moment?”
“I would encourage that person to read my contract and find at any point in which I’m required to do anything that I don’t deem real or that I don’t want to do,” she replied.
During her “Scheananigans” podcast, Shay said she could sympathize with both sides.
“I always see both sides. I completely understand Lala [pressuring Madix to film with Sandoval],” she noted.
“Then I also understand Ariana being like, ‘But this isn’t real and we’re supposed to film our real lives.'”
“So there are two things that can be true at the same time,” she continued. “And seeing her stand her ground, I’m like, ‘OK, respect. You didn’t cave, and you held on to your boundary.'”
Overall, Shay said the most frustrating part of the season was feeling like everyone “had to walk on eggshells” between Madix’s heartache and giving producers enough juicy footage to piece together a successful season.
An insider told Page Six in April that “VPR” was being put on a brief pause before moving forward with a potential Season 12 so everyone can “decompress after two very rough, intense seasons.”
They added, “The cast is looking forward to a break from filming the show.”
Bravo honcho Andy Cohen didn’t seem too worried about the news that “Vanderpump Rules” was taking a breather while speaking about the show in May.
“We used to do this all the time with the ‘Housewives,'” he explained. “We would say, ‘You know what, let’s put cameras down for four or five months and come back to them.'”
“And they will have lived life and things will be different.”
