Have you heard of Scandoval? I’ve asked a handful of friends this question over the past week, and a surprising number confirmed that this strange new word had recently appeared in their news, attached to stories from The New York Times, CNN and vanity fair. My friends didn’t quite know what it was, other than the vague idea that it was related to the Real Housewives shows. More importantly, they didn’t know why it was being recommended to them, considering they didn’t follow Bravo shows or reality shows.
That’s because this is the March Madness of reality TV. Scandoval is an explosive cheating scandal involving the cast of Vander Pump Rules – and takes place in real time, with the cameras on, allowing viewers to look for signs of deception in every scene as it airs. There are clear villains and an obvious heroine, and it all leads up to the reunion, which was filmed in late March and has already provided a source of drama and staged paparazzi encounters. The Scandoval is so monumental in the Bravo multiverse that it’s culturally important for people outside of this bubble to know what’s going on, just as people who don’t follow sports are subjected to the NCAA media cycle every year.
Jeff Daly/Peacock
It’s not just about the Scandoval, either. This is a golden era for Bravo and the broadcast home of it, Peacock. Almost every Housewives franchise is coming up in its own special way, and many of them are making major news headlines: Jen Shah of Salt Lake City She has just been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for running a telemarketing scam and her surprise arrest was caught on camera; Erika Jayne’s Beverly Hills she continues to display obscene greed when her estranged husband, disbarred attorney Tom Girardi, is federally indicted on charges of stealing millions of dollars from victims of corporate embezzlement. miamiA Peacock-exclusive streaming series, it just wrapped up a gorgeous fifth season and cemented itself as a blueprint for future Housewives shows; ultimate girls tripa crossover event that brings wives together like the third act of a Marvel movie, is in its third season and already building buzz for its fourth. married to medicine continues to be a powerful, captivating, and hilarious franchise centered on black women and doctors in Georgia, and it will bring a famous wife of the atlanta history books for its next season.
That’s not even all, and the list above doesn’t address the biggest part of the Bravo drama going on right now: the Scandoval. Here’s a brief summary, for culture: Vander Pump Rules is a spin off of Beverly Hills starring servers and bartenders from trendy Los Angeles restaurants. Its tenth season is currently airing and as it began, news broke that Peter Pan Syndrome bar owner Tom Sandoval had been cheating on his partner of nine years, Ariana Madix, with a younger cast member named Raquel. Leviss for the last six months. Details about the affair have been trickling out online (lightning necklaces will never be the same again) and viewers are scouring each new episode for signs of the couple’s lies. Meanwhile, Bravo took back the cameras after the matter came to light, and the midseason trailer promises intense and intimate reactions from everyone involved, plus plenty of vengeful edits for Ariana. The reunion is set to be a show like Bravo has never seen.
Nicole Weingart/Bravo
To put it again in sporting terms: Scandoval is like David Beckham cheating on Victoria with Emma Bunton. Or as Scottie Pippen’s ex-wife who begins a relationship with Michael Jordan’s son, a story that literally happened in the last season of miami. See? As Quad said in the ninth season of married to medicine when asked if she had cheated on her previous boyfriends, our cup overflows.
All of this means that Peacock will get my money’s worth for the foreseeable future, no big-budget original series required. i mean i loved it , but I haven’t thought much about it since I watched the final episode of the first season. Housewives and its related series live outside of the app, on message boards, social media, and podcasts, filling the silence even between seasons. Meanwhile, the Scandoval is where vander pump is available to stream the next day. Peacock is also the only place to see miami and ultimate girls trip, two programs that already make it essential in my own line of applications. I never expected to get this much use out of an NBC streaming service, but here we are.
The next app to get my business will be the one I pick up married at first sight australia. If you have reached this point in this article, a Real Housewives fever dream posted somehow on a tech website, do yourself a favor and find a way to watch it (between Vander Pump Rules episodes, of course).
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