Vanderpump Rules‘ executive producer, Alex Baskin, is firing back at Scheana Shay‘s suggestion that he pushed her to fake storylines amid filming on season 11.
After Scheana, 39, took to her podcast to suggest that Alex threatened her and other cast members with a series cancellation if they failed to produce high drama, Alex denied any such thing, slamming her claims against him as a “dramatic” account of the conversation he has with the cast at the midway point of production.
“I think that was a pretty dramatic, heightened account of what happened,” Alex stated during a recent interview at Variety‘s TV FYC Fest.
Earlier this month, on Scheana’s podcast, the longtime cast member told her listeners about the chat Alex had with her and her castmates.
“I know Alex Baskin has said that midseason, the show was not in a good place,” she said. “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.’”
Scheana had voiced her story after fans wondered why she and Lala Kent, 33, seemingly turned on longtime friend Ariana Madix, 38, shading her for failing to do her job and expose her whole life to the cameras, as they offered a bit of grace to her cheating ex-boyfriend, Tom Sandoval, 41.
In his own recollection of the discussion, Alex shared, “We did get the entire cast together, and we thought we had hit a point in the season where I actually think that they were impacted by what was happening on social media. We basically were telling them to drown out the noise, and to make the show that they had made over the previous 10 seasons — and that didn’t mean we asked them to manufacture anything.”
“It didn’t mean that we gave them any specific talking points,” he continued. “It just meant that we had made a show that worked because it was everybody rowing in the same direction, and reacting to each other. And we’ve gotten away from that. So we thought that we had to intervene in that sense.”
As Pump Rules fans have surely heard, the show was put “on pause” after its 11th season concluded in May.
“We’ll have a clearer picture a few months from now,” Alex explained of how the show will move forward. “It was such an intense experience in such a compressed timeframe.”
“I think we will do an analysis of what else we need to consider for the show — and that’s who returns, and what the complexion of the cast looks like,” he added, appearing to hint at a potential cast shakeup. “I think everybody needs a little bit of time to live their lives, and then we can pick back up on them in a different spot.”
As for The Valley, there’s no question about that series’ future after its premiere captured the highest ratings of a new Bravo show in 10 years.
“We go into production very shortly, and I’m excited about that, because obviously all chaos is broken out in their lives,” Alex revealed, citing breakups between Jax Taylor, 44, and Brittany Cartwright, 35, and Jesse, 43, and Michelle Lally, 36.
Alex also confirmed the show’s season two cast.
“Everyone is coming back, which is great!” he added. “We’re very excited to pick up with everyone in a different place, and see what happens.”
