Executive producers Lisa Vanderpump and Alex Baskin are out flogging their new show The Valley, a spinoff of Vanderpump Rules.
Premiering sometime in the Spring of 2024, The Valley follows “a group of close friends as they trade bottle service in West Hollywood for baby bottles in the Valley, all while [navigating] bustling businesses, rocky relationships, and feisty friendships.” It’s Vanderpump Rules Grows Up.
The new show brings back former Pump Rules cast members Jax Taylor, Brittany Cartwright, and Kristen Doute. All three were fired from VPR following Season 8 in 2020 — although Jax and Brittany claim they left voluntarily.
The Valley is “a very different show” than VPR
Jax and Brittany’s lives have changed since they left SUR. They bought a house and had a son, Cruz, now nearly three years old. They opened a business together, Jax’s Studio City, featuring Mamaw’s beer cheese. They’re trying for baby number two. It’s a very different life than they had on Pump Rules.
“This is Jax Taylor adulting,” Baskin told The Hollywood Reporter. With the addition of Kristen’s boyfriend, Luke Broderick, and three other married-couple friends, “It’s a lot of fun … Just because they’re parents doesn’t make them necessarily any more mature or mean that they have it all figured out.”
“It’s a very different show than Vanderpump Rules,” Lisa added. “[It’s] interesting to see them pretend to be grown-ups. I use the word ‘grown-ups’ very loosely — maybe when you have a child you’re supposed to be a grown-up.”
The idea for the show began when Baskin and Jax had dinner two years ago. The topic came up of the former reality show Bad Boy now settled down with his wife in the suburbs, raising a son. Apparently, it was a lightbulb moment.
Addressing the Faith of it all
Despite the lighthearted theme of the show, there’s a shadow still looming over Jax, Brittany, and Kristen. They were all fired from VPR in 2020 (along with Stassi Schroeder) after reporting castmate Faith Stowers to the police for a crime in which she was never involved.
“I think that they learned a lot,” Baskin said of the decision to return the trio to television. “I think they appreciate what it means to be on television and have this opportunity when it’s taken away from them … We address the Kristen situation, as well, so it isn’t like we pretend that everything didn’t happen. That comes up and is part of what we cover on the show.”
For her part, Stassi and her husband, Beau Clark, claim they turned down Bravo’s offer to be on the spinoff. They have two children and a new life of their own. They’re just not in that place anymore.
“It’s just not my group of friends,” Stassi said in January. “I’m friendly with some of them, I’m acquaintances with some of them … I think are lovely. But it’s not my crew.”
The Valley premieres Spring 2024 on Bravo.
TELL US – ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO WATCHING THE VALLEY? DO YOU THINK STASSI AND BEAU WILL EVER MAKE AN APPEARANCE?
