Lisa Vanderpump Insists ‘World Has Moved On’ from OG ‘Vanderpump Rules’ (Exclusive)

Vanderpump Rules is entering a new era.

The hit Bravo series is returning for season 12 on Tuesday, Dec. 2, but Lisa Vanderpump tells PEOPLE it will feel like a fresh start with its entirely new cast. While there will be notes of nostalgia as cameras follow SUR employees navigating life inside and outside of work — just like it did with the original group when the show premiered in 2013 — the upcoming installment is in a category of its own.

“The continuation is the essence of working in the restaurant business, and I’m still here and that’s obviously the crux of the matter, but the most important thing, always in a show like this, is the relationships and the people and the cohesion, and that’s very different,” Vanderpump, 65, explains. “They’re very different people. The world has changed. The world has moved on. I think Gen Z are incredibly different to how young people were 12 years ago.”

News of the shakeup was announced in November 2024, months after the conclusion of season 11, which featured OGs such as Tom Sandoval, Ariana Madix, Scheana Shay, Katie Maloney, Tom Schwartz, James Kennedy and Lala Kent.

“We would never try to do the same show again,” the SUR and TomTom owner clarifies. “We’ve done that. We’ve moved on. The problems they had in the last cast at the end of Vanderpump Rules, they were much bigger, much more serious. Not an emotional level, but we would talk about starting businesses and marriages and things like that. Whereas this, these are naughty, young, funny people living their best life. And so it’s kind of back to grassroots.”

The new cast includes Venus Binkley, Jason Cohen, Shayne Davis, Chris Hahn, Angelica Jensen, Marcus Johnson, Audrey Lingle, Natalie Maguire, Demy Selem and Kim Suarez, and Vanderpump says “they’re a lot of fun.”

“Most of the people that are on this show have worked here for years,” she adds. “So it wasn’t like we had to put a cast together and then start shooting it. It’s about existing relationships and this group of young people. One of the things is, I like all of them very, very much, and they’ve got a lot of personal stories, deep personal stories, which obviously defines them and their choices. There’s some sadness of what some people have been through and some very surprising facts, but they’re a cohesive group.”

All but one of the newcomers are entering the world of reality TV for the first time, with the exception of Hahn, 31, who previously appeared on Netflix’s 2022 series Dated & Related. Still, even he tells PEOPLE there was nothing that could have prepared him to welcome cameras into every aspect of his life.

“We were fed to the wolves,” he jokes, revealing that he didn’t get any advice before he began filming. “We’ve had a lot of vulnerable moments this season, and that’s been an adjustment. I think when we first started, I felt a little shy. But this is about our lives, and I didn’t really understand that at first. Once I understood that, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m not going to shy away from anything. This is who I am. This is who we are. This is what we’ve done. This is what we do, and we’re proud of it.’ ”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Hahn continues. “People can judge. People can say what they think and talk their s—, but it’s not going to change who I am.”

Other cast members, like Lingle, say that it was easy to forget there were cameras around.

“I was saying things I probably shouldn’t have been saying mic’d up,” she laughs, later admitting that everyone is “messy in our own ways.”

Maguire, who starts the season off fresh out of a “rocky” relationship, even says that she isn’t sure there is a “peacemaker” amongst the group. However, she isn’t nervous about anything ahead of the premiere.

“I think we just have to be aware of the shadiness under these walls,” she quips before Binkley chimes in: “And navigating lies.”

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Vanderpump Rules season 12 will premiere on Dec. 2 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo, with episodes available the following day on Peacock.