Has the Vanderpump Rules drama revealed the toxicity of our relationship to reality TV?

You don't have to be a reality TV fan to get sucked in by the current Vanderpump Rules drama.

When it broke over the last few days that cast members Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss have been having a months-long affair, unbeknownst to Sandoval's girlfriend Ariana Madix, it seemed to garner the attention of an audience far larger than just those who watch the Bravo show.

Resident reality TV experts Amil Niazi and Scaachi Koul explain the "Scandoval" of it all, and what it means for our relationship to the genre as a whole.

We've included some highlights below for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: There's a story that's been kind of inescapable, even though I don't know anything about it. It involves a Bravo reality show, Vanderpump Rules. As best as I can understand, it's a cheating scandal. Not a thing that I would have thought would be the biggest story in entertainment this week, but it's also the kind of story that makes me think, why are people so invested in reality TV in this particular way? And, it also raises this larger question of, has reality TV maybe gone too far? Amil, I would like you to do the honours; please set the stage for us.

Amil: I would love to. As you're often wont to say, this is mine and Scaachi's WrestleMania. Vanderpump Rules was initially a spinoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Former housewife Lisa Vanderpump had a couple of restaurants, one of which is called Sur — which, I can't wait to tell you, stands for "Sexy Unique Restaurant." And, it's called Sur Restaurant, so it's "Sexy Unique Restaurant Restaurant." Anyways.

Sur is host to a bevy of wannabe models and actors and actresses who bartend and bus, and they form the nucleus of Vanderpump Rules. Now they're just influencers, and they've kind of made it — they all own houses in the Valley — but it began as just the story of the people who work at Sexy Unique Restaurant Restaurant.  

Scaachi: What a true example of the detritus of society this show is. God, I love it so much. 

Elamin: What happens in a typical episode of Vanderpump Rules that makes you so drawn to it?

Scaachi: I mean, it's a gaggle of out-of-touch, not-particularly-bright white people who all moved to L.A. thinking that they were going to become actors, and then they end up getting sucked up by the service industry, and then this show, and now they're only famous for this show. 

They just fight with each other because they can't stop sleeping with one another, and then they cheat on each other, and then someone has a dog birthday party and everybody doesn't go to the dog's birthday party because they're mad at that girl's boyfriend … it is a renaissance. It's the greatest show on television. It's been on for ten seasons. I hope it goes on long after my death.  

Elamin: Amil, please bring us to the current timeline. Earlier this week, there'd been these reports that Tom Sandoval, one of the show's big stars, is having an affair with one of the other co-stars. Who are these people, and are they important?

Amil: Are they important? I mean, Tom Sandoval himself would say he's the number one guy —

Scaachi: — He thinks he's the number one guy in this group. 

Amil: It's honestly quite Shakespearean, the level of betrayal and the layers that are happening in this story. Tom Sandoval is coupled up with this woman, Ariana, and they've been together for nine years. They own a home together, they are partners in business, and it's been one of the most beloved relationships on the show. Ariana is very good friends with this woman, Raquel, who's a newbie; she's like the ingenue on the scene. She's just broken up with her toxic boyfriend, and Ariana wants Raquel to soar, so she's been taking her under her wing. Unbeknownst to Ariana, her boyfriend Tom and Raquel have been having a seven-month-long affair right under their noses — in their own home.

I think that's why this visceral reaction is happening — it's the level of betrayal, the layers. They have matching necklaces to signal their love to each other. Raquel goes to every one of Tom's band's shows with Ariana, and they stand together cheering for this man. You don't have to like reality television to be a fan of the sort of dramatic undertakings that are going on.

Elamin: Scaachi, after the story breaks, it just sort of becomes everywhere; it seems like every publication at this point has done a deep explainer on who these people are and here's why this matters. Why do you think this story particularly is blown up like this?

Scaachi: Oh, it's a Shakespearean level of drama. The level of betrayal on this is manyfold. If you've been watching the show, you've been watching a lot of allegations of cheating kind of get thrown around amongst the cast. Tom and Ariana's relationship, it's always been rumored, started with an affair because Tom was dating another woman named Kristen who was fired from the show for calling the cops on one of her Black cast members who was never seen on the show again —

Elamin: Just that sentence is exhausting, my God.

Scaachi: A couple of them were fired for that, actually. It was a real down moment for the show, for sure.

Elamin: I could imagine.

Scaachi: But their relationship allegedly started with infidelity, which they have denied. I think Raquel used to date James Kennedy, who is a "DJ" — I'm using that word as loosely as possible — and he was cheating on her constantly. So it does feel like a strange kind of manifestation of everything that's happened on the show. I'd also say it's fun to watch people fight, and Tom sucks. So this is a kind of schadenfreude that I'm really enjoying. I think he's awful, and I'm really enjoying watching him sucking. … It's like jazz, Elamin

Elamin: It's nothing like jazz. 

Scaachi: Sometimes it's about the notes they don't play. 

Elamin: Nope. None of that is like jazz in any kind of particular way. Amil, there's this part that I think needs to be spelled out, which is that this cheating scandal broke, and then the current season of Vanderpump Rules is airing right now, but these episodes were shot earlier. So it means you're watching these people knowing what's happening in the background. To me, that's kind of like reality scooped reality TV, in a way, and I would think that would ruin the TV show. But it makes people want to watch even more … what's going on there?

Amil: Oh, absolutely. Here's a reference you can understand, Elamin: this morning, James Kennedy compared it to a Taylor Swift album.

Elamin: Nice. I'm on board.

Amil: In which there are many, many Easter eggs for the fans to discover upon relisten after relisten. And so we as the fans know that this has happened — know that it's breaking. We also know that the cameras are up and have been filming all of this in real time. We can watch the current season looking for all of those little hidden Easter eggs. It's like a detective series now. We're all looking for every clue and unearthing what we know is going to come and is unfolding. So it's actually very exciting and makes it more interesting.

Elamin: Do you worry about us? Like, do you worry that reality TV is crossing a line and maybe becoming a little corrosive to all of us in this way, because all we want to do is wait for this big fight to happen in front of our eyes?

Amil: I do, yes. I think when the news first broke, I assumed it would be exciting to the devotees of this show, of which there are certainly not as many to warrant a New York Times story. But the levels of betrayal, the sort of Shakespearean drama that we've been alluding to, did help this story go viral and now, it's to a point where restaurants which employ many people who have nothing to do with this story, are being bombarded with hateful messages and horrible reviews. All of the people central to the story are being harassed by paparazzi, harassed by fans receiving death threats. These are not characters in a soap opera, and I think that the massive Bravo universe has made us sort of treat it like a soap opera. These are real people, and they are experiencing real tragedy and real heartbreak, in real time. I think that there is something very toxic and corrosive happening here, where we are forgetting that that line exists. And it's a little too blurry for my liking.

Elamin: That's the thing that I think about most, Scaachi. Do you worry about what happens to us when we sort of blur the line between what is a reality show and entertainment, and real life in a sense?

Scaachi: Well, let's put aside the obviously very bad harassment that people in these sorts of shows face. I don't recommend anybody deliver death threats to anybody who's involved in anything, what a waste of time and energy. However, to argue that reality television is some new permutation of entertainment through tragedy is illogical. There's lots of examples of how we engage in the agony of the human experience for entertainment. Nobody has these conversations about the round-the-clock coverage of the Murdaugh trial. Everybody accepted that that was a reasonable thing to pay attention to every day for several weeks. But this is considered ludicrous, and is often maligned because it's interesting to women. It's usually women who are interested in these sorts of programs. 

Do I think that it's healthy? Not necessarily, but I think there's lots of things that aren't necessarily healthy for us to consume, but I do them anyway. I think there's a way to consume them responsibly without, for example, throwing a brick through the window of Tom Tom. Even in the Bravo Universe, there have been worse storylines; there was a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills storyline about domestic abuse. That was far, far more upsetting than two consenting adults making a bad choice for themselves. But we have two adults making a choice.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.