Vanderpump Rules confirms spinoff centered on formerly fired cast members

Big news tonight from The House That Lisa Vanderpump Built—and then highly lucrative infidelity made popular all over again—as Bravo confirms that it’s officially launching a long-rumored new Vanderpump Rules spinoff, The Valley. Formal news of the new show broke during the premiere of the show’s 11th season tonight, including the announcement that it will center on, among other folks, former stars Jax Taylor and Kristen Doute, both of whom were reportedly fired from the series after its eighth season after accusations of racist behavior against series guest star Faith Stowers.

Taylor and Doute’s removal from the show—reportedly in connection with Doute admitting that she and fellow series star Stassi Schroeder reported Stowers, who’s Black, to the cops for a crime she didn’t commit, and Taylor accused her of being a criminal on social media—came in 2020, amidst heightened focus on American racism in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. At the time, Bravo made at least token efforts to clean house, firing Doute and Schroeder in June of 2020, and Taylor and wife Brittany Cartwright at the end of the year.

But that was four years, and one whole “Scandoval” ago; Taylor and Doute both guested on the show’s most recent season, and have apparently been deemed palatable enough in Bravo’s eye at this point to anchor a whole new series. The Valley will focus on five couples (Taylor and Cartwright, Doute and boyfriend Luke Broderick, Danny and Nia Booko, Jesse and Michelle Lally; and Jason and Janet Caperna) as they try to put aside their days of partying, bottle service, and falsely calling the cops on co-workers, in favor of child-rearing, maturity, and being almost, it sounds, overwhelmingly and deliberately dull. The series will begin running some time this spring.