Katie Maloney is not holding back when it comes to how she really feels about the Vanderpump Rules reboot.
“This isn’t against any of [the new cast]. I don’t know them, but it just feels cheap to me. It feels cheap and I don’t like cheap,” Maloney said during the Tuesday, April 22, episode of her ex-husband Tom Schwartz’s “Detox Retox” podcast. “This isn’t anything to do with them or anything like that.”
Maloney pondered why season 12 couldn’t be “a whole different show” if there’s all new cast members, adding, “With the same name [but] different show. There’s not even a season 1. To me, it just feels like it’s going to try to have the same flavor and the same everything.”
After being on the show since it debuted in 2013, Maloney doesn’t recommend trying to “replicate a recipe.”
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“I think everything that made our show great is also what tore us apart at the end,” she added while reflecting on the show’s legacy.
Maloney was an OG star of Vanderpump Rules when it debuted as a spinoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and evolved into its own franchise. In the aftermath of Tom Sandoval‘s affair with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, the show picked up cameras immediately to document season 11. The episodes, however, were met with mixed reactions and ultimately the show was put on pause amid cast tension.
Bravo confirmed in November 2024 that season 12 begins production next year with Lisa Vanderpump and a brand-new group of cast members. Maloney, for her part, revealed that she didn’t plan to return for season 12 before Bravo decided to overhaul the entire cast.
“I had made a decision months ago after this past season. I needed to move on with my life,” she explained on an episode of her “Disrespectfully” podcast in December 2024. “I had talked to our producers about it and I told them my decision on that. I felt personally ready to move on from the show. I felt like my life and where I was at was moving in a different direction. Mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, I was prepared to move on from the show.”
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Maloney noted she was ready for something new. “It had been a long time. I lived many lives and went through so much on that show,” she continued. “It just got to a point where I don’t know that I can live and grow and be the version of myself I want to be on this show any longer.”
Schwartz, meanwhile, has made appearances on VPR’s The Valley as he looks ahead to his next projects.
“We got 11 seasons. That’s insane. I’m so grateful for that. So I have nothing to gripe or complain about. It was probably 11 of the best years of my life. I got to travel the world. And yeah, man, it was exhilarating,” Schwartz told Us the same month about how he felt “nostalgic” and “sentimental” since news broke that he wasn’t coming back for season 12, adding, “I still talk to everyone — mostly everybody. Everyone’s thriving, everyone’s doing their thing.”
