We learned on Tuesday that Keeping Up with the Kardashians will be over following their twentieth season, which will finish airing next year. I assume they’re filming that season right now, and I also assume it’s like whack-a-mole trying to hide all of the actual drama and instead only show the manufactured-for-reality drama. Kim clearly has never wanted to show the real sh-t that happens in her marriage, nor does Khloe want to show her actual doormat vibez with Tristan Thompson, and on and on. They outgrew the show, but more than that, their real-life dramas are too big for a dinky basic-cable reality show now. Which is just what Page Six’s insiders say:
Kanye West’s mental health crisis, E!’s finances, and a big Kardashian cash grab were all factors in the demise of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” sources say. Insiders exclusively told Page Six that the Kardashian family has been talking about “what the end of their show looks like” for “three or four years” before dropping the bombshell this week that the series will end after 20 seasons. “It’s been a long time, coming,” they said.
But we’re told that matters came to a head because of a number of factors, including West’s ongoing mental health struggles. Insiders said that Kim Kardashian already had reservations about exposing West’s bipolar battle to the viewing public. And she’s recently begged the “media and public to have compassion and empathy” during his latest bouts — so teeing up storylines around the illness would’ve rung as hypocritical. And leaving West out of the show — as they could have done as the show’s executive producers — would have left fans feeling cheated.
Meanwhile, E!’s parent company, NBCUniversal, has been hard hit financially by COVID, and E! just lost its other flagship show “E! News” in the economic fallout. (It’s been replaced by “Daily Pop” and “Nightly Pop,” and the “E! News” brand remains online.) Sources said that when the Kardashians had floated their exit in the past, E! was able to dangle ever-larger checks to bring them back — but this time, the pockets aren’t so deep.
As Page Six first reported, in 2017 the family renewed its contract with E! through 2020 for $100 million, and we’re told that they wanted more to re-up, in spite of the battered economy. At the same time, the show — which scored a high of 5.8 million viewers for a season premiere in 2010 — brought in just 1.6 million viewers for its most recent episode — perhaps reducing the network’s motivation to spend more hard-to-come-by cash.
Another factor: Sources said that for the last four years or so, the show has been more important to the family as a platform to advertise their many, many, products and draw new potential customers than as a source of income in its own right. Plus, the family’s social media followings now reach many times more eyeballs than the show — so they’re less tied to the E! series as a marketing machine.
Yeah, I believe all of these reasons and I think all of these issues were major factors – Kim couldn’t show a huge part of what she was going through with Kanye; E! doesn’t have the money to lure them into another multi-year contract; they were basically only using the show to promote their more lucrative side-businesses; the show wasn’t actually that popular anymore. All of it. And as I said, Kim and Kourtney have seemed especially “over it” for several years. Kourtney tapped out (and no one missed her), but Kim has been phoning in her storylines for years.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
That top picture must their Halloween photo
🤣🤣🤣 Breathless.
If only Lamar Odom was shown the same compassion by this klan of leeches. Guess he wasn’t lucrative enough for them.
They showed him even in the hospital, they are scared of Kanye cause he truly dgaf. They have no problems ever dragging anyone that ‘wrongs’ them like a pack of wolves.
And Scott issue with alcoholism too. they know they can’t silence Kanye, he doesn’t care and they have a lot of shady business they don’t want to be exposed, they have more to loose than him.
They showed him even in the hospital, they are scared of Kanye cause he truly dgaf. They have no problems ever dragging anyone that ‘wrongs’ them like a pack of wolves.
Lamar needed the K’s more than they needed him, much like Scott Disick. Lamar’s basketball career was basically over by then and of course Scott has no talent or real career of his own. They let themselves be used for the benefits it brought them. It’s not like that with Kanye. He will actually stand up for himself and walk away and not care what happens because he was famous before the K’s for his talent and will remain famous after the K’s.
“Lamar’s basketball career was basically over by then”
Uh, no. Revisionist history. He married Khloe in 2009, and won championships with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010.
Later on, he was in a medical crisis, so no, he didn’t “let himself be used”. Khole asked him to meet up, and then her camera crew filmed it as if he was stalking her. What the Kardashians did to Lamar was truly shameful.
He won those championships with the Lakers and his career has been quickly downhill since. Look at what happened during his time with the Mavs, he had career-low stats and was eventually listed as “inactive” when the season was still ongoing. Same with the Clippers, he was too out of shape and had more career-low stats. After that he went to the European leagues, then back to the Knicks and they eventually waived him too. I don’t think it’s inaccurate to say his career was basically over by then.
And yet after all that shit the K’s did to him after his OD, he was still happy to make a big public appearance with them at Kanye’s show in 2016 at Madison Square Garden and pose with the whole family. He liked the press too.
The premise of your 1st comment was that he needed them more, but his career was doing very well when he got with Khloe. It went down AFTER he married her, and while he was dealing with drug and mental health issues.
Exploiting a man’s substance and mental health issues for TV is a terrible thing. There’s no justification that is going to make that OK.
To be fair, regarding leaving out the Kanye stuff, I don’t blame them. It would be difficult enough just dealing with his mental health issues, without having to “script” the best spin on it. And, because it’s been so public already, it’s not like they could just film the show and pretend that it wasn’t happening.
I mean, I understand not wanting to show the real life drama with Kanye. Mostly because living with someone with a mental illness as aggressive as his can become an abusive cycle. They love you then they hate you. My father was the same way, I love him deadly but he was the same way. Its an emotional Rollercoaster that you just want to keep public.
I don’t believe this excuse. They’ve shown they have no limit to what they will exploit.
I think ratings are down drastically, they wanted more money, but asked for too much compared with how much $$ the show pulls in. This story is to save face.
Agreed. If Kanye were willing to be used like that, they would absolutely show his mental illness. But he won’t allow it, so they can’t. It’s not altruism, it’s Kanye having a backbone.
I agree – if E had been willing to fork over the cash, they’d still be doing it. It’s probably easy for them, and it all promotes all their other crap.
You said it, Tiffany. I think it was a mutual decision and E gave them the pleasure of directing the narrative.
Maybe there’s a KimYe divorce actually coming..
But re: the show… good riddance
Kim is such a hypocrite. Can’t believe she was outta here dragging Kourtney for not showing her private life. I bet Kourtney is relieved the show is over.
If anything Kourtney showed the most from her life,she only became more reserved the last couple of years. For almost a decade she showed every aspect of her relationship and her motherhood. Kim rarely showed her kids,and treats Kanye with kid gloves. Khloe hid Lamars behaviour ecen from her own family until it was too much.
Exactly, they do not care if they exploit anyone on their show. If anybody believes Kim or their family had any qualms about exposing Kanye, than the K clans PR clearly works. The only reason they won’t show Kanye’s mental health issues is because Kanye will burn it all to the ground. Kanye literally tweets that he dresses Kim so she doesn’t embarrass him with her style. They’ve exploited Scott’s alcoholism and the death of his parents, Lamar’s overdose, Rob’s depression, and Khloe’s fake fertility issues. Kim has been pressuring Kourtney to show more about her private life for years despite everything that happened with Scott. Now all of a sudden they act like they are private people. The show isn’t profitable enough anymore. Their excuse about how it just time to end it is bs because they would’ve done it for more money.
Right ? I feel so bad for Scott kids, it’s one think to know that your parent dealt with addiction and it’s another think to see it on tv, I wonder what they were thinking when they showed that on TV. I feel Kanye did not want his kids on the show anymore and He applied pressure on Kim’s neck and she had no other choice than leave to show.
For whatever reason they give for the show know longer continuing, it is good news for 2020.
Oh come on. It’s because the ratings for their show are extremely low. The E network can’t pay them $30 million a season for a tanking show. If the ratings were high there is no way they would end the show. Didn’t Kim and Khloe attack Kourtney for wanting a private life and not wanting to be on the show anymore? Hypocrites.
This! They don’t care about Kanye, it’s a great story line to them. Ratings suck and they are ever more greedy wanting more money. The negotiations tanked. Just wait, they will relaunch their show somewhere else.
This!!! Me, you’re exactly right.
Good riddance to bad rubbish
They were paid $100 million to do the show and it was more a platform to advertise their products than an important source of income…? Meanwhile I think I’ll be able to afford rent, bills AND groceries this month !!!! (It’s not quite so bad, but it definitely hasn’t been particularly easy either)
Insiders said that Kim Kardashian already had reservations about exposing West’s bipolar battle to the viewing public.
Translation: She and PMK couldn’t figure out a way to shoehorn it into the show without seeming like even bigger attention junkies than they already are, so they’re going to hunker down until the election to see which way the winds blow and determine if they can still get mileage out of Kanye’s connection to the president. Until then, a new series exploiting the next generation of Kardashian’s is being worked on.
It’s because Kanye isn’t willing to play along for the cameras. If he was, I can guarantee you we’d have a whole season of just Kanye’s storyline. I guess they think Kanye’s privacy is more important that Lamar’s huh? Sure had no problem showing allll his sh*t.
I hope one day that Kanye West gets jack of playing in their garden. He knows where the bodies ate buried. Until then, can they each buy one of those tickets to travel by spacecraft to explore Mars or wherever it’s going? You know, one of those trips that has no return option. 🚀
Kanye is way worse than any of the klan.
Disagree. At least Kanye has talent and got famous because of that and he worked his way up, too, he wasn’t born rich and well-connected, it wasn’t instant fame and success for him. He was a producer before he was a rapper. He knows work.
Kim is nothing but a spoiled rich girl with an infamous daddy and her family’s fame is simply due to that nepotism and her own sex tape. There’s nothing redeeming there.
Sara says, I agree. His embrace of Trump, a sexual assaulter and a man who’s trying always to divide the country apart based on race is disgusting. I think E probably doesn’t want to be linked to Trump in anyway.
I almost feel like this show had the potential to get deeper into some of the issues they’ve chosen to gloss over. I intially liked the show because it showed a family of women leaning into their business savvy and time-management skills. Turning it into a soap opera detracted from that, but years ago I did genuinely appreciate how we saw Kim grow from her relationship misakes and build that growth into her new relationships and career goals. Maybe I’m reading to deep into all this – I know it’s probably not healthy for family drama to be televised and profited off of. But years ago when I watched religiously, I used to really find something of value there believe it or not. Oh well!
E! Will show reruns for all eternity. Knowing the K Klan they got a pretty good residual package. The only person who does not seem to have her own little empire is Kourtney.
One of the cable network reported the show had very low ratings.
I think the public is also tired of the excessive wealth and wasteful lifestyle of people that did nothing to deserve any of it while so many deserving people can’t even pay rent or buy groceries Right now . It was interesting for a while but the shallowness and consumerism is just too much.
Plus when the show started they all looked like normal human beings. Now they are plastic dolls with unrealistic bodies…all the while pretending as if they had zero work done ! Not to mention how dirty they did so many of the men they dated as well as close friends they kicked out of their inner circle (there are many). All the money they have earned over the years and they all still seem so money hungry.
so , pathetic. what makes you think they didn’t deserve it? do something instead of sitting behind a computer and judging successful women. they aren’t the miserable one’s here. i think they left bc they are really rich and filming during the virus isn’t worth it.
Finally! This is the only good news of 2020
This is the first time I’ve seen a full-length photo of that denim-and-chaps outfit. YIKES.
One word, succubus
Amazing!