Kim Kardashian has announced ‘with a heavy heart’ that it's time for a curtain call for Keeping Up with the Kardashians, with the fly-on-the-wall TV series ending in 2021.
The news sent ripples throughout social media – die-hard fans tweeted about their heartbreak, while casual observers of the family affairs expressed shock at their departure from our screens.
But in actual reality (and not the glossy, often hyperbolic reality E! presented to us for nearly 14 years) is that Kardashian klan had far outgrown their reality TV roots many years ago.
Momager Kris Jenner and executive producer Ryan Seacrest wanted to recreate the success of The Osbournes - and they certainly succeeded.
The 2007 launch of Keeping Up With the Kardashians followed the wealthy but not mega-bucks rich family as they navigated their way through Hollywood, with each episode putting a shimmering glow over a banal triviality.
Critics panned the series for peddling pointlessly famous people, but Keeping Up in The Kardashians managed to tap into the reality TV zeitgeist; perfectly-timed, it followed the newly-formed path created by The Hills (which also turned previously unknown people into stars) and paved the way for shows including the Real Housewives franchise and even TOWIE.
While it became a huge hitter for E!, with 3 million tuning in at the show's peak, the 18th series was already showing fatigue. Having lost its hallowed Sunday slot, KUWTK was shunted to Thursday nights, pulling in an average of less than 1 million. Not even the hotly-anticipated physical (and ugly) fight between Kourtney and Kim could draw an audience, with 871,000 viewers tuning in - the fourth lowest-rated instalment for the series to date. The Kardashians, it seems, were struggling to keep up with themselves.
The show is also surplus to requirements simply as we no longer need a TV programme to keep up with the world’s most famous family and KUWTK proved to be a gateway to the klan’s true business model – social media.
With Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian now having well over 100 million followers on Instagram, they have a far bigger audience online then any show could realistically achieve. And it's a far more lucrative to pedal their wares – from luxe lip kits to fragrances and body shape wear – with a snapshot on social media.
Keeping Up with the Kardashians has always suffered for the delays shooting, editing and releasing a series causes, with the drama of an upcoming season having already been featured in the tabloids and resolved long before the show drudges it all back up again. The later seasons have tried to counter this pitfall by showing the family being more mindful that they have cameras on them, giving the show a more meta-edge, but the family’s dramas seem too rehearsed and too manufactured to be truly enjoyable.
As the sisters’ celebrity began to eclipse the need for a show documenting their life, Keeping Up With the Kardashians has become a necessary victim of the family’s own success. The first few series, which featured plot points including Kim buying a stripper pole, Kourtney, Khloe and Kim heading on a Girls Gone Wild photoshoot and Kendall and Kylie Jenner asking for a puppy may not have been as high-drama as speaking at the White House, but they were far more raw, authentic and more importantly fun. The family was likeable and relatable in their silly squabbles, playfights and reunions - but as the sisters became more famous, they became more distant and untouchable, their experience all the more veiled and obscured to their everyday fans.
It seems as the family have become bigger figures in the public consciousness, the stakes have also had to have been raised – but serious and potentially world-altering events, such as Kanye West’s run for President and his subsequent outbursts, seem out of place on a show that was once so frivolous and fun. Even for a family that has broadcast the most intimate moments of their lives to the world, it feels invasive for all eyes to be on Kim and Kanye’s marriage while he is suffering with his well-documented bipolar disorder. Perhaps Kim thinks so too.
With Kourtney, Kim and Khloe now in their 40s and each having growing business ventures and families of their own, it’s little wonder the Kardashians are looking to buy back a little more privacy away from prying eyes of cameras.
Family matriarch and businesswoman supreme Kris Jenner will no doubt be cooking up the family’s next project. But as for KUWTK, it seems we’re all caught up for now.