When the Kardashian-Jenner family jumped from Keeping Up with the Kardashians on E! to The Kardashians on Disney+, a new title and network weren’t the only changes to their reality TV presence.
The shift ran deeper, with some viewers now questioning the point of the series when major parts of their lives no longer make it to air – and what we do see is a more tightly controlled marketing exercise than ever.
“The storylines for the last five seasons have all been the same – Kendall talks about anxiety, Khloé laments being a single mum, Kourtney’s more in love with Travis Barker than ever, Kim is working loads and Kylie remains elusive,” brand and culture expert Nick Ede told The Sun, describing The Kardashians as “one giant advert”.
Part of the reason for the network and show change was to allow the family more control. While Kim, Khloé and Kourtney all had executive producer credits on KUWTK, only momager Kris reviewed footage and could request cuts. On The Kardashians, all family members, including Kylie and Kendall, now also EPs, are involved in what does – and doesn’t – make it to air.
“Obviously like any human being, they have boundaries so they can decide what stays in, what stays out of the show,” executive producer Danielle King told Us Weekly. Another executive producer, Ben Winston, told Radio Times, “If there’s something that they really don’t want, we do take it out, because they’re our partners and our executive producers.”
While ratings for The Kardashians are still high – S5 debuted with 3.9 million views globally over the first four days – responses like Ede’s are becoming more common, with The Daily Beast proclaiming, “The Kardashians are boring now.”
More tellingly, the family’s social media presence has taken a hit this year. Kim lost almost half a million followers on Instagram between Taylor Swift releasing an alleged diss track titled ‘thanK you aIMee’ and fans calling for her to speak about the ongoing unrest between Israel and Palestine.
Granted, with 361 million followers intact, Kim’s platform is still large, but it seems her priorities are elsewhere – and social media and The Kardashians are there to service those pursuits rather than being the focus.
After her appearance on American Horror Story, Kim landed a show of her own with the same creator, Ryan Murphy. She’ll be playing a divorce lawyer who runs an all-female firm in procedural drama All’s Fair. And that’s just the start. “I can do a movie a year; I’ve got about 10 years where I still look good, so that’s all I’ve got in me and then I’ll take some time off … That’s my 10-year plan,” the 43-year-old said on an episode of The Kardashians.
Whether fans will take to Kim’s acting ambitions is another question. Her interview on Variety’s Actors on Actors series received backlash. One user wrote, “To say Kim K is an actress is definitely a reach.” Another posted, “Kim K has no business being there. She is not an actor.”
Kim has said, “I like to prove people wrong,” and seems determined to be taken seriously in this new endeavour, so much so that hitting her sisters with a purse on reality TV might not align with that goal.
Kylie, meanwhile, has undergone a rebrand of her own – but it’s happened away from The Kardashians. Once known for her blue hair and lip filler, the young mother-of-two is now in a high-profile relationship with actor Timothée Chalamet, not that it features on the show.
After spending almost two decades sharing every intimate detail of their lives on reality TV, the series now seems to be less about revealing those raw and heartfelt moments and more about generating publicity for other interests.
