Why a Vanderpump Rules breakup is the Red Wedding of reality TV

polygon.com:

“This is our JFK assassination.” “This is our Watergate.” The people who made these declarations were not talking about a breaking piece of political news. They’re talking about the breakup of Vanderpump Rules stars Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix. I, personally, have been comparing it to Ned Stark’s death plus the Red Wedding plus the JFK assassination, since it is too big, too shocking, too life-altering to be compared to any single event.

Vanderpump Rules is a spinoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills that set out to follow the lives of Lisa Vanderpump’s employees at her restaurant SUR (Sexy Unique Restaurant). Over the course of the show’s 10 seasons, SUR employees have gained fame and moved on from their jobs waitressing, hosting, and bartending, but not from the show. The magic of Vanderpump has always been that its core cast members were good friends for years before the show began. Their relationships were real, and so was the drama. And the latest Vanderpump scandal is the most shocking one yet.

Sandoval and Ariana’s breakup would have been big news to the Vanderpump community regardless, but it was the revelation that the split was sparked by Sandoval’s affair with co-star Raquel Leviss that left fans in full meltdown mode, theorizing, gathering clues from old footage and Instagram photos, and investigating every detail of the so-dubbed Scandoval. The maelstrom the fans stirred up in the days following the breakup was overwhelming enough to permeate beyond the insular Bravo bubble, leaving many confused onlookers wondering who these people are, why there are multiple Toms involved, and why any of this matters.

With nearly 200 episodes and a decade’s worth of hookups, breakups, and feuds making up Vanderpump