Lisa Vanderpump Revealed How They Picked the New ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Cast

Lisa Vanderpump welcomed a new cast to Vanderpump Rules for the 12th season. After 11 seasons following the same group of friends and servers, the show is rebooting with a new, younger group. Vanderpump shared how they settled on the new cast of reality stars.

Lisa Vanderpump shared how they put together the new ‘Vanderpump Rules’ cast

While Vanderpump has said that the reality series’ reboot will feel very different from the original, the show will still focus on servers at the restaurant SUR. Vanderpump said she wanted to center the show on a group who already knew each other.

“A couple were [added] later to the game before we started filming,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “But essentially, I like to work on a group that has cohesion and authenticity, so Marcus and Kim and Demy, they’d worked here; Venus [as well], for years. I mean, I’m not going back to the OGs, but [they were working here] definitely for a few years. So there was already comfortability at the restaurant, and then a couple of people were added as we started looking.”

One cast member, Shayne Davis, does not work at the restaurant, but Vanderpump still felt that he fit well with the rest of the cast.

“Well, because he was Marcus’ best friend, and he was always on the other side of the bar,” she said. “He just became part of the SUR equation.”

For the most part, though, the cast members are all restaurant employees.

Vanderpump spoke about how former reality stars made their way onto the show

Some fans have expressed concern about cousins Chris Hahn and Jason Cohen, as they have both appeared on reality television in the past. This didn’t worry Vanderpump.

“They wanted to be here, I suppose, because they’d heard about SUR, but they didn’t know that we were definitely going to be doing the show,” she said. “Listen, a lot of these people want to work as waiters, and if you were going to work anywhere in Hollywood where there’s a chance it might be a television show, wouldn’t you choose that place? I mean, let’s be honest about it.”

She noted that because the show films at SUR, many staff members likely hope to appear on reality television.

Lisa Vanderpump warned the ‘Vanderpump Rules’ cast about their portrayal on the show

Vanderpump is a reality television veteran. She said she wants to give the new cast guidance as they navigate the newfound attention. She also warned them that they wouldn’t like the way the show portrayed them in every scene.

“All of them aren’t gonna like all of it,” she said. “That’s what I just told them, I said, ‘You’re gonna look at it like a pack of photographs.’ You’re gonna go, ‘I don’t like that, oh I like that,’ because that’s a reality, and it’s our job to tell the truth. It’s our job to document the truth, and not everybody is going to be happy with everything.”

Still, she said the cast quickly adapted to being in front of a camera.