When Vanderpump Rules cast members Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval broke up, it was a pop culture sensation that brought in a flood of new fans and created international headlines. Parasocially, it’s hard to imagine there could ever be a reality television event as captivating as the breakup that would come to be known as Scandoval, but this year, Bravo is delivering us an even more compelling televised breakup: Paige DeSorbo and Craig Conover’s split. And we’re not just seeing the messy aftermath — we’re watching the entire story unfold from both sides on not one, but two Bravo shows.
Scandoval Unfolded Almost Entirely Off Screen
As season 10 of Vanderpump Rules was airing, Ariana discovered evidence that Tom, her boyfriend of a decade, had been having a months-long affair with her close friend and costar, Rachel Leviss. The show’s crew quickly picked up cameras to film an additional episode covering the breakup in real time, which saw over four million viewers and garnered the show a pair of Emmy nominations. But as gripping as this was to watch on TV, the real drama was unfolding off-screen.
Coverage of Scandoval on the show was responsive; what we watched on Vanderpump Rules was the fallout of the breakup, without any sort of on-screen lead-up. Though the relationship between Tom and Ariana no longer felt fully functional, it didn't necessarily seem obvious that they were headed for a split. The longtime couple had created a life with one another; they owned their home together, worked as business partners, and had become something of a branded power couple. Maybe it seemed more like a rough patch than the end of a relationship. Without a runway, Scandoval crash-landed onto Vanderpump Rules for one fleeting episode.
Two Bravo Shows Tell the Full Story of Paige and Craig's Breakup
Paige and Craig’s breakup, on the other hand, has been a well-crafted story unfurling across two separate shows. On Southern Charm’s tenth season, we watched Craig obliviously believe everything in his partnership was fine, and though he and his girlfriend disagreed on fundamentals such as where to live, when to marry and have children, and how successful Paige was allowed to be, he believed love was enough to carry them through. The subtext there was an expectation that Paige would have to give in and sacrifice her career goals, marry him, and become a mother much sooner than she’d like. Paige visited him in Charleston occasionally, noticeably annoyed at times, and beginning to withdraw. In the show’s finale, Craig is fresh off a relationship-ending phone call with Paige, allegedly blindsided.
In a recent episode, Paige wept to her best friend and housemate, Ciara Miller, as she expressed her anxiety and fears around the relationship. Ciara seems to give Paige the permission she’s struggling to give herself, but Paige is scared of how Craig (and the world) would respond if she were to end the relationship. On this season’s Southern Charm reunion, Andy Cohen asked the cast if they’re fearful of Craig, and several hands went up. Craig has been known to have anger issues and a superiority complex, and Paige is justified in feeling fearful of how he might react.
'Southern Charm' and 'Summer House' Co-Stars Rally Around Paige and Craig
Who knows how things have unfolded off camera and behind closed doors, but on screen, we’ve seen Craig direct his rage at Paige in the most southern way imaginable. In the south, the most cutting insults are delivered in dulcet tones. Though his delivery is always pleasant, anyone fluent in southern politeness can pick up on his coldness. Whenever he’s asked if Paige has cheated on him, he punishes her for breaking up with him by letting the question go unanswered. He leaves Paige vulnerable to Bravo audiences, who have proven they can’t be normal about anything, and love to project onto the interpersonal dynamics of people they’ve never met.Both Paige and Craig are central characters on their respective shows, with close friends around them in whom they can confide. This provides viewers a peek behind the curtain at both parties' true feelings about the relationship and its dissolution. Both casts largely take the side of their respective costars. On Vanderpump Rules, Tom and Ariana were part of the same group of friends, which forced the cast to take sides. It tore the show apart. After more than 10 years on the series together, real-life friendships had long been weakening, and the definitive split into factions following Scandoval was ultimately the demise of Vanderpump Rules.
The Morality of Bravo Breakups
Paige and Craig’s breakup began amicably and was not the result of cheating, abuse, or any sort of wrongdoing. It’s a harder pill to swallow that your relationship is over, not because your partner turned out to be a monster, but because circumstances simply won’t allow it. The result of their breakup much more closely mirrors what happens in real life — their friends were there to support them, a few who were stuck in the middle awkwardly shuffle to one side or the other, a bitter ex-boyfriend’s resentment blooms because he didn’t get what he wanted, a woman is heavily scrutinized, rumors swirl, life goes on. No one really profited or suffered to any extreme. It’s a more complex narrative to navigate as a viewer because of its realism.No reality television moment could ever come close to the pop cultural frenzy of Scandoval. For months on end, fans were fed updates in real time. We were all foaming at the mouth for any information we could get our hands on; my screen time app gave up on running the numbers and just started saying, “Babe, you are out of control...” But on television, we only saw reactive glimpses of the real event, the human emotions involved — the aftermath without any of the buildup. With Paige and Craig's breakup, the entire story is being told in full from both sides, and it’s been even more compelling than Tom and Ariana's on the screen. If Scandoval was a fairy tale, Paige and Craig’s breakup is a long-form human interest piece.
