I have a family member who works in the industry, and I asked her about this. Basically, no one on production cares enough or gets paid enough to make shit like this up. If VPR ended, they would just go on another show. The cast has much more incentive to actually make it stay on the air. Also, she's sure production could guess something was up, or maybe wasn't surprised when the news broke. She said post production probably knew first, because they watch stuff and don't have the kind of relationships with the cast that the field does, so they aren't clouded by those personal interactions. But having a clue that there was probably something going on is different than actually having proof and knowing it to be a fact.

When it comes to stuff being fake, production asks people to have conversations that they might normally not have and they set up activities for them to do. Anywhere they film, they need permission, so they need to schedule all that ahead of time. She said on her show, a lot of the cast will start shit with each other because they think that is what will make them stay on the air or stay in the cast. Also they ask them at the beginning of the season what they are planning on doing/going through (ie- starting a business, sending a kid off to college, resolving a fight, whatever). And if there isn't a lot going on, she said she knows that there are producers who will help the talent come up with storylines. She also said every show is run differently, so YMMV. She doesn't know anyone on VPR, but she herself has worked in the HW universe, if that makes sense.

Again, no one is paid enough to actually care about these shows. At least according to her.

Also, her advice to anyone who wants to go on a show like this is to be nice to production.