Bravo and Ariana Madix are winning Scandoval – here’s what you can learn from them
By now, you probably know all about Scandoval – whether you want to or not. The moment when the world found out about an affair happening within the cast of Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules was one that united us more than any politician could ever hope to.
Scandoval – named for Tom Sandoval, one half of the couple involved in the cheating scandal – continues to make waves on social media, with the likes of Page Six, TMZ and others posting constant updates of varying significance. Big or small, the social media discourse of the day gobbles it up and spits out new timelines, theories and clues.
What’s been impressive throughout is the way Bravo and those in its universe have reacted to the spike in interest and adapted their digital strategies accordingly.
For the uninitiated (bless you), we suggest grabbing a glass of wine and reading a timeline of the drama. Even before Scandoval, VPR’s intersecting relationships were complicated – which makes for great TV.
In the meantime, here’s a quick overview: VPR is an extremely popular Bravo reality show that follows the lives of (mostly former) employees at a restaurant owned by Lisa Vanderpump, a (also former) cast member of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Now in its 10th season, VPR went through a bit of a lull but was thought to be making a comeback as the new storylines center on the divorce of two cast members. However, that turned out to be minor in the grand scheme of things.
On a Friday afternoon in March, news broke that the aforementioned Tom was cheating on his longtime partner Ariana Madix with Ariana’s close friend Raquel Leviss. The hours, days and weeks that followed can only be described as a frenzy that everyone couldn’t help but weigh in on, from Chrissy Teigen to the New York Times.
What has made Scandoval one of the most talked about affairs in recent memory has been debated to death, so we’ll leave that to the blogs (but DM us if you want to debate, we’re down). It’s relevant to MTD because even as the tabloids uncovered detail after detail, Bravo needed to keep up while still being able to tease the show, which was airing as all of this went down, and was taped as the affair started, but before anyone knew.
Although the network is famous for its reality shows, it spent many years shying away from anything that happened off-camera – until Denise Richards famously broke the fourth wall in 2020. It was such a viral moment that Bravo started to lean in, going as far as producing full shows – Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip – that bring together cast members from various housewives franchises and allow them to speak freely about their experiences on TV.
After news of Scandoval broke, Bravo made the brilliant decision to restart production and capture the aftermath. At the same time, there was a huge opportunity to scrap its original digital strategy for Season 10 and capitalize on the many new eyeballs tuning in to the show.
For new fans, it was a business opportunity not just for Bravo but also Peacock, the streaming service where the previous nine seasons live. Within a week, Bravo and Peacock posted this guide that lists all the necessary episodes to watch if you want the highlights. On a recent episode of Bravo’s late night show Watch What Happens Live, housewife Candiace Dillard Bassett revealed that after she found out about Scandoval, she spent a day in a hotel room checking episodes off that list.
For existing fans, there’s content only Bravo could provide, like its popular reunion reveals that show what everyone’s wearing and where they’re seated, the latter being a newer tactic that directly responds to the fandom, who in recent years have taken to guessing who from each show will be seated closest to host Andy Cohen at reunions.
Although social media may seem like the main driver, Bravo is usually driving back to its primary owned platform, BravoTV.com. This has meant plenty of #linkinbio posts, but the network also experiments with other means of reaching its most engaged friends. One of those current methods is text message, where they text links to reunion reveals, trailers and news.
It’s not only Bravo who’s capitalizing – most of the cast, apart from the offending parties, have made the most out of this moment, sharing their own perspectives on social media and going on podcasts to tease what’s to come.
No one has done it better, of course, than Ariana. Her PR team deserves a raise for excellent execution: a two-week Instagram break followed by a post with the now-iconic quote, “What doesn’t kill me better run.” Since then, there have been consistent announcements on the opportunities coming her way, from a spot on Dancing With the Stars to a role in a Lifetime movie.
One of the smartest moves, however, is Ariana’s revenge merch. These days, merch is a reality star’s bread and butter, and Ariana is undoubtedly making $$$ from this new clothing line featuring some of VPR’s most iconic lines. Glamour put it best, lauding Ariana’s “ability to turn the lemons of her public humiliation into some Beyoncé-level lemonade.”
In addition to Ariana, almost all of her castmates (past and present) have taken advantage of the attention:
Jax Taylor was fired from the show in 2020, but didn’t hold back on social media when it came to taking down his ex-best friend Tom. His brutally honest tweets scored him and his wife Brittany a guest appearance on Watch What Happens Live and a new show on Peacock where they watch and react to Season 10.
James Kennedy – who was friends with Tom and previously engaged to Raquel – has been working on his DJ career as long as we’ve known him. Lately, he’s been going viral for his sets where he leads the crowd chanting, “Sandoval’s a liar!” And that’s something we know the music industry is paying attention to.
Kristen Doute was also fired in 2020, and has also dated Tom and James, but is making a grand comeback in the finale episode as she supports Ariana, who was once a sworn enemy. Kristen was also among the first to start sharing details as they happened, and posted one of our first glimpses of Ariana after the news came out in what is Kristen’s most engaged Instagram post so far this year.
That’s not to say you even need to work for Bravo to use Scandoval in your digital strategy. You might not know this if you aren’t a Bravo superfan, but there’s a massive community online, with influencers who have built entire careers out of commenting on the Bravo universe. To call Scandoval their Super Bowl would be an understatement.
It felt like just about everyone who has a social media account was commenting, but a few of them took it beyond creating memes. Danny Pellegrino – author and host of the popular Bravo-centric podcast Everything Iconic – just happened to be wrapping up a rewatch of the series when Scandoval came to light.
He’d spent weeks recapping the insanity of the show on his social media accounts, which seems to have snagged him an invite on Watch What Happens Live alongside VPR’s Katie Maloney. (He also co-wrote a cocktail book with Tom and Ariana.) Danny then invited Katie on his podcast for a longer interview than a 30-minute television program can allow, and he’s since mentioned that his interviews with Katie are among the most-downloaded episodes of his show.
Gibson Johns is another pop culture commentator who goes deep on Bravo and has relentlessly covered Scandoval across his platforms. He and Danny are the kinds of people whose tweets are always re-purposed by other accounts for content. Although Gibson has a significant following on social media, he is smartly using it to promote his owned platforms where he can really dive in on analysis. For example, he recently published a full breakdown of Tom’s controversial interview with Howie Mandel. The title that made us all click: I Watched The Tom Sandoval Interview So You Don't Have To.
Moments with the virality of Scandoval may be few and far between, but there’s still plenty to learn from the way so many in the Bravo world pivoted when they saw how the story captured the attention of what felt like the entire Internet. What we should all watch now is how much longer they can sustain the intrigue, particularly after Season 10 wraps and production picks back up. Can Bravo keep its new audience? We will literally watch what happens, live.