Shahs of Sunset delivered much reality TV goodness throughout its nine seasons on Bravo from 2012 to 2021.
There were many unhappy fans when news broke of its cancellation or pause, as Bravo likes to state, in 2021.
Despite some considerable casting shakeups in its final years, the remaining original cast members still knew how to put on a show.
Reza Farahan, Golnesa Gharachedaghi, Mercedes Javid, and Mike Shouhed were with the show for its entire nine-season run, and while we lost some faces along the way, the quartet served as constants throughout the show.
Bravo has a long history of putting shows on hiatus, most of them never to return, with The Real Housewives of Miami being one of few shows to return and be a success story.
Shahs of Sunset Season 9 was a decent season featuring plenty of drama, so a lack of schedule real estate drove the network’s decision to put it on the shelf.
Shahs of Sunset should be connected to Vanderpump Rules
The network cares a lot about scheduling shows well, and there’s no better place to schedule it than out of Vanderpump Rules on Tuesdays.
They’re both set in L.A., and the cast crosses paths often, so it would have made more sense to have a connective tissue between those two shows than the network’s attempt to make Jax Taylor happen again on The Valley.
Most of the Shahs of Sunset cast remain close with NBCUniversal – which owns Bravo.
We had Farahan on The Traitors Season 1, while Javid has emerged as quite the scene-stealer on The Traitors Season 2.
The cast still has fans, which is crucial to the success of any show, so it feels like the show would still have a built-in audience compared to some of the newer offerings on the horizon.
Three original stars and some new faces should do the trick
The network would benefit by going for a soft reboot that brings back Farahan, Gharachedaghi, and Javid, alongside primarily new faces.
Even the fans who stopped watching the final seasons will be more likely to watch if some of the originals are a part of the action.
The rest of the cast could be made up of people who actually run in the same circles as the trio.
Back when the show was officially canceled, it was on the heels of Mike Shouhed’s arrest for domestic violence, leading to accusations that Bravo canceled the show due to that.
But the network claimed the show had run its course. The sad part is that the show was in much better creative shape than many of the network’s other offerings.
There is a path forward for Shahs of Sunset
With the right amount of cast changes, there’s a path forward, but the network would need to take a chance to see if the show can stage a comeback.
It might be better suited to Peacock for a trial run, similar to how RHOM returned after almost a decade off the air.
One thing’s for sure: The cancellation was unjust because the show was still more worth watching than many of Bravo’s other shows.
Shahs of Sunset Season 1 to 9 is currently streaming on Peacock.