Raquel Leviss says she didn’t receive ‘a single penny’ for Scandoval despite ‘Vanderpump’ ratings boost
“Vanderpump Rules” star Raquel Leviss said this week that she was not compensated fairly for her role in the Scandoval controversy, which gave the Bravo reality series a late-season bump in ratings.
Leviss made the allegations this week as a guest on fellow reality TV personality Bethenny Frankel’s podcast “Just B.” During the episode posted Wednesday, Leviss gave an inside look into the show’s production, as well as her life during and after the fallout of her affair with costar Tom Sandoval, who had been cheating on his girlfriend of nine years, Ariana Madix. The affair, dubbed by fans of the show as #Scandoval, ended Sandoval and Madix’s relationship, leaving viewers stunned and furious.
While much of that ire was directed at Leviss, Bravo’s ratings skyrocketed, setting multiple viewership records for the series with more than 2 million people tuning in for the Season 10 reunion episode. It became the most-watched cable series of 2023 for viewers aged 18-49. The ratings boost left Leviss feeling exploited.
“The network is laughing, running to the bank with this scandal, and I haven’t seen a single penny,” Leviss told Frankel, adding that she feels the show portrayed her “as the ultimate villain.” “So in that way, I feel like it’s not fair.”
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Later in the episode, Frankel, who is leading a possible union push for reality show stars, further claimed that Leviss received “less than my interns get paid” in a year. Frankel also said Leviss did not have enough money to pay for her treatment at a mental health facility in Phoenix, a fact that Leviss seemed to verbally affirm during their conversation.
However, shortly after the interview was released, TMZ reported that Leviss was paid more than $350,000 for her work on Season 10. Reality show stars, especially in a long-running series with recurring cast members, are often paid according to their seniority on the show. Leviss has been on the show for six seasons, having joined in 2016 during Season 5.
A representative for Bravo declined to comment on Leviss’ allegations and the TMZ report.
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While Leviss’ interview has provided the latest fodder for fans and news publications hungry for the next detail of the star’s life post-Scandoval, the episode’s frank look into the reality show industry is timely and on-brand for Frankel.
Frankel is a reality show veteran who was a finalist on NBC’s “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” in 2005, an original cast member of the Bravo reality series “The Real Housewives of New York City” and has gone on to host her own reality show, “The Big Shot with Bethenny,” for HBO Max. After she floated the idea that reality TV stars should go on strike to prevent increased exploitation during the ongoing actors’ and writers’ strikes, the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA opened up talks with Frankel’s attorney on the subject.
In a statement, SAG-AFTRA threw their support behind Frankel and reality performers, encouraging them to contact the guild “to engage in a new path to Union coverage.”
Raquel Leviss has reportedly left a mental-health facility that she checked into after the ‘Scandoval’ affair erupted on ‘Vanderpump Rules.’
Frankel’s TikTok video from July, which she titled a “reality TV reckoning,” that had kicked off the reality show unionization conversation, referred directly to Leviss’ situation and affair, with Frankel commenting, “Her life is pretty much ruined, and at what price?”
During the Wednesday podcast, which was broken into several parts with a second episode on the way, Leviss commented on her lack of desire to return to the show for Season 11 because of the public punishment and humiliation.
“My mistakes that I’ve made on camera live on forever,” Leviss said. “And you mentioned something about the addiction of doing reality TV and the way that they always dangle that carrot in front of you, like, ‘Well, you need to tell your side of the story; otherwise, it’s gonna be written for you.’ And that’s terrifying. So I almost went back, I know, just because of that.”
After Bethenny Frankel and others raised concerns about the treatment of reality stars, actors guild SAG-AFTRA on Thursday said it is engaged in discussions with Frankel’s attorney.
Frankel agreed and shared how she had seen producers enticing dejected reality performers to return to their show by telling them to own their narrative despite backlash from the public.
“That’s how they get people who are miserable and are on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications to go back in,” Frankel told Leviss, adding that many performers return to a series because of few employment options after their reputations were “ruined” on the show.
Frankel then told Leviss that she had been painted as “the villain,” while “Ariana is the hero” and “Tom is another character who doesn’t take the hit as much as you.”
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Leviss agreed and suggested that “Vanderpump Rules” producers played some part in building such a dynamic. She said show producers had promised her, leading up to the latest season, that she would get paid based off “your performance from the season prior.”
“So that already set me up to want to perform well going into Season 10,” Leviss said. “So if this can be my season and really stand out, and I’m single for the first time, and I want to embrace that. And I took direction well.”
“You don’t ever know how you’re doing in the game,” Frankel added in agreement, “because the producer is telling both people, the person killing and being killed, that you’re doing a great job, so you never know what’s coming out of the oven.”
‘Vanderpump Rules’ stars Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss issued lengthy apologies after their alleged affair scandal rocked the Bravo reality TV show’s fanbase.
Elsewhere in the interview, Leviss told Frankel that Sandoval, without her consent, had recorded an intimate FaceTime call in which she was masturbating. The recording of the FaceTime call and text messages are what tipped Madix off to the affair. Later that same night of the call, Leviss said Madix had texted her screenshots of the video with the message, “You’re dead to me.”
“Some of Ariana’s friends have described the video in great detail online, and she also sent it to me, so I don’t know who else she sent it to,” Leviss said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she sent it to other people, but it’s not legal.”
In many states, including California, it is illegal for another person to record a conversation without their permission. A separate state law also makes it a crime to record a sexual partner without their consent.
Representatives for Leviss and Sandoval did not immediately respond to The Times’ requests for comment. The Times could not independently corroborate the allegation.
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