Vanderpump Rules executive producer Alex Baskin hinted that Bravo isn’t waiting around for Rachel “Raquel” Leviss to return to the show.
During the Friday, January 26, episode of Scheana Shay‘s “Scheananigans” podcast, Baskin didn’t hesitate when asked whether the door was open for Leviss, 29, to come back after season 11. “I don’t see that happening,” he replied.
Baskin answered more burning questions about Leviss’ absence from the upcoming season. “I didn’t know [whether] Rachel [would come back]. That was a wild card. We talked to her up until a certain point in the season. It really depended on the day,” Baskin explained about the behind-the-scenes conversations that occurred before production began.
After the fallout of Leviss’ affair with Tom Sandoval, which played out at the end of season 10, Vanderpump Rules fans weren’t sure whether she would return. Leviss checked herself into a mental health treatment facility in April 2023 shortly after filming the season 10 reunion. Her three-month stay at the center overlapped with the season 11 production schedule, and she later confirmed she had no plans to return to the series.
According to the executive producer, Leviss wasn’t sold on the idea of reuniting with her costars after they all turned on her.
“She had concerns about reintegrating into the group. We said, ‘We are here to support you and protect you.’ That may or may not make sense. I didn’t know how she would have been received. But I ultimately think the right thing happened,” he noted. “If she didn’t think it was right for her to come back then we didn’t want that on us. We are doing OK over here and hopefully she is doing OK.”
Baskin stood by Bravo’s decision to not push Leviss when she wasn’t interested, adding, “We talked about anything and everything. We were open to whatever form it would take but it got difficult because we were so deep into the season. I didn’t exactly know how it would work.”
While speaking about the cheating scandal and her Bravo future in August 2023, Leviss cited money as part of the reason she didn’t want to return.
“I asked for equal pay with Tom and Ariana [Madix] and for them to reimburse me for my treatment expenses. They refused to pay me equally,” Leviss said on Bethenny Frankel‘s “ReWives” podcast. “I feel like when you pay your employees, it really shows how much you value them.”
Baskin weighed in on the claims on Friday, telling Shay, 38, “She had a very healthy offer in front of her. Our concern was whether it was the right thing for her anyway because at that point we weren’t sure. I thought it would have done well for her. I thought it would have been the right forum for her to tell her story. I felt good about it from that standpoint.”
Instead of getting back in front of the cameras, Leviss has used her “Rachel Goes Rogue” podcast to share her perspective post-Scandoval.
Earlier this month, Leviss told listeners that she didn’t think it would be healthy for her mental state to resume filming the reality series. She also alleged that production heavily influenced her story lines in the past, which made her concerned about how her scenes would play out if she filmed again.
“It is very strange how the fans’ comments will influence our story line and how we go about filming. I guess it is part of the producers’ jobs to know what the fans want to see and what they are asking for,” she claimed on her podcast. “A lot of cast members will self-produce and will be thinking about what story line they’re going to be involved in as the season comes up. The comments that the fans will put out there seems to influence [what happens].”
Leviss aside, fans will see their favorite Vanderpump Rules stars returning, including Shay, Madix, 38, Katie Maloney and more.
Season 11 of Vanderpump Rules premieres on Bravo Tuesday, January 30, at 8 p.m. ET and will be available to stream on Peacock the next day.
