Katie Maloney squashed rumors about why the Vanderpump Rules cast was fired, revealed her phone call with an executive producer, and seemingly shaded the reboot – suggesting it’s the “same recipe,” but it “might not taste as good.”
Before Bravo announced its decision to reboot the entire cast, rumors swirled that production was halted because several stars were playing hardball amid salary negotiations. According to the claim, the network didn’t have enough money to keep paying the stars’ high salaries.
But on her Disrespectfully podcast, Katie squashed rumors about why the cast was fired.
“It wasn’t because people were demanding tons of money, or scheduling,” she said, via @realityops on Instagram. “No one was negotiating any of that. That had not even been discussed or brought up … No one was in any rooms negotiating anything, like, that money was no subject.”
“I think the main thing was just that they couldn’t make a show about these folks anymore,” she said, referring to the cast divide in the wake of Scandoval.
Katie was asked how she reacted when executive producer Alex Baskin told her the news.
“I kind of knew. I felt it. I think it was just a matter of time. I think we all did at some point,” she said. “I mean the fact that it was put on hiatus — [or] pause or whatever you want to call it — that is sort of a way of saying, like, it’s done … That was kind of the gist of the conversation.”
“I think maybe there was a world in which they were trying to figure out how we could do it, or maybe there would be, you know, a final season of tying up people’s stories,” said Katie, who told Alex that she “get[s]” why they rebooted.
In the call, Katie and Alex also talked about “the last 11 years,” which was “a little sad.”
“I’m interested to see how this reboot will be because I feel like a show that was done for 11 years with the same people with the same stories, I think trying to make it different and fresh is gonna be really difficult to do.”
“You can take the same recipe and try to make the same product, but … it might not taste as good,” she said. “We’ve seen people try to do it, and we’ve seen the results of that.”