In case you weren’t aware: Vanderpump Rules is the best show of all-time. It’s not just the best reality TV show ever; it beats the likes of Game of Thrones and Scandal to be the most amazing show to ever grace TV. Yes, you heard that correctly. Of course, the show wouldn’t be anything if not for its entertaining cast of SURvers, DJs, and general icons.
Vanderpump Rules is different than a lot of other reality shows out there because their cast members were actually friends before filming began. And the show’s cast of friends (and frenemies) definitely know how to make up an entertaining show. Some of them obviously bring more drama to the table than others. Here’s the definitive ranking of all of the Vanderpump Rules cast members, ranked from worst to first.
16. Kristina Kelly
OK, your first reaction here might be: “who?” The SUR waitress barely makes an impression on the series. So, she’s lucky that she nabbed a spot, at all. Somehow Kristina Kelly always just manages to be around in order to hype up Stassi and whatever bad decision she seems to be making that episode. No offense to her, she’s probably a nice person and all, but she’s never been interesting enough to make that jump to a full-time cast member. Kristina Kelly’s been on the show for years in this supporting role. And it doesn’t seem like she’ll ever quite get to that full-time status.
Also, she gets points taken away for this ranking because it never seems to just be “Kristina,” which is… fine. A little annoying, but fine.
15. Shay
Shay’s messy relationship drama with Scheana was hard to watch. Although it seemed like there were problems stemming from both sides, it appeared that their subsequent divorce had a lot to do with Shay’s issues. His breakup scene with Scheana, where she dropped a bomb on him that she wanted a divorce, was painful. And he didn’t make things any better for himself when he tried to place all of the blam eon Scheana for their broken relationship during the actual episode (and at the season’s reunion). All in all, Shay wasn’t so great to Scheana and, less importantly, never brought the entertainment-factor that a lot of his cast mates bring every episode.
14. Raquel
Like Kristina Kelly, Raquel is just fine. There’s really not that much to say about her except that it’s crazy that she puts up with her boyfriend, James, and his antics. She does get some major points for volunteering at Lisa Vanderpump’s new “Vanderpump Dogs” business. Anyone who shares a passion for helping animals definitely gets major brownie points in my book.
She seems like a nice enough girl (who puts up with more than she should in order to be in this interesting friend group). But, until she starts to really insert herself into the SUR collective, she’ll never be anything more than “James’ girlfriend,” at least to me.
13. Peter
Peter’s actually kind of great. He also seems to be super normal and well-adjusted. In other words, he doesn’t exactly fit in with the rest of the Vanderpump Rules cast. The SUR manager seems to gravitate towards that “voice of reason” role when his boss, Lisa Vanderpump, isn’t there to give her subordinates a stern talking-to.
He always seems like a sweet person, especially when he travels with his wild friends to Las Vegas or New Orleans. Yet, he still hasn’t brought enough drama in order to get a higher ranking on this list. Honestly, it’s probably in his best interest to stay out of the drama when his crazy co-workers/friends are concerned.
12. Katie
Where does one even begin with Tequila Katie? The SURver does always tend to be involved in some kind of drama, whether she starts it herself (like with Lala) or not. But, it always seems like there’s a slight mean-streak going on with all of her drama, like when admitted to “bullying” Scheana during the filming of season five.
Katie does always have her friends’ backs. Yet, only when it suits her. Just look at how quickly she’s dumped her friendship with Scheana multiple times throughout Vanderpump Rules‘ run. Maybe she’d place higher on this ranking if she hadn’t gone full Bridezilla in season five, too. It was just not a good look for her.
11. Tom Sandoval
Tom Sandoval usually has some great points when he’s getting into mindless tiffs with Stassi, Katie, and ex-girlfriend Kristen. However, those great points are thrown off by the fact that he seems to be such a know-it-all while he says them. This is especially hard to watch during any of his fights with longtime girlfriend Ariana. He’s cool, but sometimes you just want to tell him to get it together.
Sandoval does get some major points in this ranking for giving the show some of its most iconic moment to date. When Katie and Tom Schwartz had their joint Bachelor/Bachelorette party in New Orleans, trouble ensued when the girls and the guys fought about Schwartz’s cheating past. Oh, also, this whole fight was going on while Sandoval and Schwartz were dressed in drag. It was reality TV gold.
10. Ariana
Ariana almost seems to be too good for this group of friends. She’s very aware of her privileges and calls out her fellow cast members for their sometimes ignorant comments (cough*Stassi*cough). But, like her boyfriend, she almost seems to know that she’s too good for this? If that’s the case, sorry to break it you girl, but you aren’t. This show’s awesome and sometimes over-the-top but none of the cast members are “too good” to be on it.
Ariana does own her awesomeness and always puts down her forever frenemy Stassi, so those are both things working in her favor for ranking purposes.
9. Lisa
Lisa Vanderpump does well in her boss role on her self-titled Real Housewives spin-off series. But, it’s not as though she’s the real star here. That’s simply because she’s always one place removed from all of the drama surrounding her underlings. It’s not as though we’re expecting her to throw a drink in someone’s face, à la Kristen, Schwartz, etc. It’s just that she, understandably, can’t relate to the rest of the cast in the same way they can with each other. And it’s not like the SUR crew would really want to hang out with their boss in Vegas, either.
Lisa’s one-liners and takedowns do allow her to place higher on this list than some of the others, though. After all, it is her show and without her, Vanderpump Rules wouldn’t be a thing. It’s just that she should stick to bringing the drama to the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills instead.
8. Tom Schwartz
Tom Schwartz has had kind of an up and down character arc throughout Vanderpump Rules’ run. At the beginning of the series, he was just Katie’s awful boyfriend who poured a drink over her head after an argument one time. Then, as he started to appear on the show more, viewers got to see a softer and more endearing side to him.
Schwartz may be kind of relatable as he just seems to want to have a good time with his friends and chill. Although, he’s still had, at least, two drunken make-outs with women who weren’t his then-girlfriend and now wife, Katie. He claimed, during both times, to be so drunk that he didn’t remember anything. But, that doesn’t make those incidents any less sleazy.
7. Kristen
You can always count on Kristen to bring a big dosage of drama to SUR. Whether it’s with her relationships or her friendships, Kristen always finds some trouble in her path. Who could ever forget one of the most shocking moments of the series when she admitted to cheating on her then-boyfriend Sandoval with his BFF Jax? Her admission led to the slap heard around the world, as her BFF Stassi (who had an on-and-off relationship with Jax) backhanded her in the middle of a restaurant.
Kristen’s love saga (if you could even call it that) with James also provided for some much-needed entertainment for the show. Not to mention, her relationship with him also helped to introduce the world to always-hilarious DJ.
6. Brittany
Brittany is the sweetest addition to Vanderpump Rules, full stop. It only sucks that she was added to the series because of her relationship with Jax. Jax is relatively nice and entertaining as hell, but she definitely deserves better (if his recent affair is any indication). Brittany has managed to pull off a feat that no one else on the series has ever quite managed to do: She’s friends with basically everyone. Everyone in the cast is friends with Brittany because she’s a genuinely good person. She’s been able to cross sides, so to speak, and maintain friendships with Scheana, Kristen, Ariana, etc. even though all of them seem to hate each other. It’s actually kind of impressive on Brittany’s part, especially considering the friend group involved.
5. Lala
Before season six, Lala probably would have been towards the bottom of this ranking. But, she’s really redeemed herself as of late. She’s made such an effort to patch things up with her season four/five arch-nemesis Katie. She’s also actually getting along with the likes of Kristen, which is surprising to anyone who watched the pair come to near-blows in season four.
She always keeps it real (except when it came to her relationship with a mystery older man) and is trying her hardest to make the women in this friend group put their differences aside, in the name of feminism, no less. Of course, her efforts have mostly been for naught. But, it’s the effort that counts, right?
4. James
James really is the best and most entertaining addition to this cast. He was kind of annoying at first as he taunted Sandoval in defense of his then-girlfriend Kristen. But, he came around with the help of some outrageous one-liners (like, see above). He also had an intense feud going on with Jax (before their recent, and totally random friendship in season six). Jax always threatened that their feud would come to blows, but he was on probation from stealing sunglasses… so that wasn’t gonna happen. So, that gave James free reign to taunt the bartender with drink orders as he shouted the instantly iconic “Pumptini!” and “Cosmopolitan!” in front of the entire restaurant.
There’s just no shortage of hilarity when James is involved, whether he’s making fun of Stassi by crawling around on the floor during the season five reunion or DJing any of Lisa Vanderpump’s charity events.
3. Scheana
Scheana really is the forever Cady Heron in this friend group. She’s always trying to get in with the Plastics a.k.a. Stassi, Katie, and Kristen to no avail. One season they’ll all be best friends and the next, Scheana’s on the outs. It’s almost sad to watch. But, then again, Scheana’s drama with the core three is the cornerstone entertainment for the show. It’s the one tried and true path to entertainment that Vanderpump Rules has. And it’s one of the reasons why Scheana will always find herself at the top of this cast’s ranking.
We’ve also got to mention her attempt at some other hilarious projects – like her early seasons singing career (if you could even call it a career). Let’s talk about “Good as Gold” and “Shake That.” They’re BANGERS. But not for the reasons she was hoping, most likely.
2. Stassi
Stassi is the Queen Bee of Vanderpump Rules, or, at least, she was. Her top-tier status rivaled even the greatest Queen Bees of our time like Regina George and Blair Waldorf. It was her way or no way at the beginning of the series, where she bossed around then-boyfriend Jax and her worker bees, Kristen and Katie. As befits this show, all of those relationships had a falling out at some point or another. And her falling out with Kristen led to the aforementioned slap. It was a totally surprising move from the usually put-together Stassi.
Stassi left the show during season three but eventually found her way back to the show. She’s yet to reach that once secure Queen Bee status she had in seasons one and two. But, just for her iconic moments throughout the series, and the ones in those two seasons alone, she’s made it to the top of this list. After all, no one except for Stassi could quite make her birthdays seem like they should be nationally-recognized events.
1. Jax
Oh, Jax. That’s something that every Vanderpump Rules viewer says at least once per episode. Jax always manages to find drama for himself. He’s really been tied to the most problems within the series, and thus, the most entertaining moments that the series has ever had. Honestly, the ridiculous drama would be cut in half if he wasn’t on the show.
There isn’t enough time or space to ever describe every crazy thing Jax has done on the show. He’s stolen a pair of sunglasses (and gotten arrested), slept with his best friend’s girlfriend, cheated on his current girlfriend (too many times to count), gotten into multiple physical fights, and that’s just the major stuff. Every episode it’s something else, whether he’s an hour late to one of Lisa Vanderpump’s events or getting a tattoo of his ex-girlfriend’s name in order to try and win her back (and failing to do that, no less). Everyone should be lucky to have Jax on this show, tbh, even if he is kind of a despicable person. He’s always getting into trouble, fights, and/or drama and somehow manages to get away with all of it. And he does all of this with a weird mix of charm and humor. So, it’s almost like you can’t stay mad at him for long.
For all of the glorious entertainment he’s brought to Vanderpump Rules (and the amount he’ll undoubtedly bring to the series in the future), he really is the “top guy” in this cast.