A year ago, if you told me The Washington Post would be covering part 3 of the “Vanderpump Rules” reunion ― with an in-depth analysis — I’m not sure I would have believed you. In today’s age of reality TV and social media spectacle, the lines between political realities and televised drama are increasingly blurred. A testament to this phenomenon is the recent fascination with Season 10 of the Bravo series, specifically the Tom Sandoval cheating scandal (aptly dubbed “Scandoval”). In an unexpected twist, Sandoval cheated on his longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix with her best friend Raquel Leviss…all as the cameras were rolling. The fallout skyrocketed the show into the cultural discourse, even earning Madix and some cast mates an invitation to the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner. At first glance, one might dismiss the debacle as mere tabloid fodder, but upon deeper reflection, it echoes an alarming undercurrent in our society. This public captivation with the scandal is a stark illustration of the post-truth era that Americans find themselves desperately trying to navigate.
Scandoval, brimming with manipulations, deceit and obfuscations — despite omnipresent cameras — mirrors a modern political tension that despite access to more information than ever before, objective truth appears increasingly elusive. After a decade on air, fans of “Vanderpump Rules” thought they knew almost all there was to know about the dynamic between cast mates and couple Tom and Ariana. Then, in an instant as news spread about Tom’s monthslong affair with Leviss, fans were left questioning everything they had seen and heard with their own eyes and ears.
It’s a stark, unsettling reminder that the realm of politics has transformed into a stage for choreographed performances, where facts are distorted and reality is subjective. Political discourse has increasingly become a battleground of misinformation. Reality shows like “Vanderpump Rules” act as a mirror to our society, reflecting our collective struggle to untangle fact from fiction. Viewers watch reality television with some understanding that the shows are produced, but ultimately buy into the premise that what they are watching is real. Like the Housewives franchises that preceded it (the show is a spinoff of the popular Bravo show the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”), the show emphasizes a deeply aspirational lifestyle. In this case, the series plays off an age-old American trope of a group of young upstarts in Hollywood trying to “make it.” Over the years on the show, Tom, for example, grows from a struggling musician and model into a performing artist, entrepreneur and a reality TV star.
Yet, as Shakespeare explained long ago, “All that glisters is not gold.” Decades of reality TV later, from foreclosures to fraud charges, the public has been clearly shown that the lifestyles they vicariously enjoy on television are not sustainable or genuine. Spending $40,000 per month on “glam” just doesn’t add up. As viewers of reality TV and participants in our political discourse, we are tasked with a critical responsibility. We must develop the ability to discern the authentic from the contrived, the factual from the fantastical. Still, even though most viewers likely have a sense that not all that meets the eye is true, they keep tuning in each week. The premise of unreal “reality TV” is not off-putting, but rather enticing because deep down we wish the “realities” that we stream were attainable. We want to believe the lies we know we are being sold. After all, is there any better form of escapism than so-called “trashy television”?
Alarmingly, though, it seems voters have given into the same reality-suspending mindset when it comes to our political discourse. In our post-truth political world, evidence is dismissed when it doesn’t align with preferred realities. After all, though “Scandoval” has been covered as a shocking storyline, the evidence was there all along — viewers were warned. In Season 3 of the show, an ex-girlfriend of Tom’s, Kristen Doute, accuses Sandoval of cheating on Ariana with “Miami girl” during a boys’ trip to Florida. Doute even went so far as to fly the woman out to California to have her confront Tom on camera. Madix and Sandoval vehemently denied the affair took place for years, but now the cast admits they all knew the cheating took place back then. Rumors of Tom’s infidelity consistently surface throughout the show.
The political resonance of “Vanderpump Rules” lies not in its scandalous storylines, but in the uncomfortable truth it reflects about our society’s struggle to separate truth from illusion. The battle for truth is a collective effort and one we must not lose sight of. We must remind ourselves that the stakes of our favorite guilty pleasure show are not comparable to the consequences of our political decision-making. Scandoval makes abundantly clear the urgent need for a sociopolitical reality check.