Is ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Ending? Kristen Doute Says Season 11 Finale Felt “Very Final”

We aren’t the only ones questioning the future of Vanderpump Rules after that emotional Season 11 finale. Kristen Doute, who starred in the first eight seasons of the show, agreed that the episode “did feel very final.”

At the end of the episode, which aired Tuesday (May 7), Ariana Madix walked out of the cast event after refusing to have a conversation with her cheating ex-boyfriend Tom Sandoval. Lala Kent expressed her frustrations with Madix, claiming the reality star “thinks she is Beyoncé” ever since “Scandoval” propelled her to new levels of fame.

In Kent’s final confessional, she detailed the ways in which the cast has put themselves out there for the sake of their reality TV jobs — all while throwback clips from their first seasons on the show appeared on the screen.

“The nostalgia was so real — especially that very ending moment where Lala is giving her finale confessional moment, and then they’re showing all the photos from everyone’s Season 1,” Doute told the New York Post. “That was really crazy and took me way back to 2012 when we shot the pilot.”

Doute, who was fired from Vanderpump Rules in 2020 before returning to Bravo this year in The Valley, added that the Season 11 finale felt “very final.”

“However, I have said that about other finales of Vanderpump Rules,” she said. “I thought that even my last season felt kind of final. They did the sad music and the black and white. So, I don’t know.”

TMZ previously reported that Vanderpump Rules will be taking a short hiatus instead of jumping into filming Season 12 this summer — a move Doute believes is the “best thing for everyone’s mental health,” especially since there was so little time between filming Season 10 and Season 11.

“I think everyone needs to take a beat and take a break,” she said. “Let them live their lives for a little bit so we can all watch what’s happening a few months from now. So that’s my hope. I hope they keep going.”

Meanwhile, Scheana Shay made some suggestions for how the cast can move forward with Season 12 — and it has to do with continuing to break the fourth wall.

“I think the fourth wall has to be down because we do have to address all of those things,” she said on her Scheananigans podcast. “The show can move in a direction like The Kardashians and The D’Amelio Show where you’re talking about the show on the show like we just did for the finale this week. I feel like there is so much room for this show to go.”

Shay added, “And there is room for Tom and Ariana to stay on the same show if we’re acknowledging, ‘I’m not filming with him,’ [and], ‘I’m not filming with her.’”

Vanderpump Rules is currently streaming on Peacock.