It is not a new Marvel movie, and not another installment of the Star Wars franchise either. Disney's most in-demand brand in 2022 is none other than the Kardashian family.
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Three months ago, the streaming service launched "The Kardashians", a modern version of the popular "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." The series premiere, which first aired in the United States on Hulu, is said to have been the most-watched in US history, surpassing other popular programs offered by the service, such as "The Handmaid's Tale" dystopian series and "Only Murders in the Building" comedy show with Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, and Martin Short. Moreover, The Kardashians series premiere was also the biggest-ever on Disney+ platforms worldwide.
We ran the previous series for 20 seasons, and felt that it was a round and respectable number to wrap up that part of our lives and take a break – but after a year of no filming, we missed the screen, said Kris Jenner, the momager of the family, who has run the empire for 15 years.
The proposal from Disney is an attractive opportunity to switch over to streaming. We discussed the idea and were all drawn to a new and exciting chapter of our lives, she said.
Daughter Khloé added, It's time for someone else to take us in a new direction. This is an innovative step to upgrade the content we produce, and everything is filmed at a quality level. We show how much we've grown since "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" first launched in 2007.
Because when we first started, we were worried, a lot happens to us in life and it is impossible to confine everything into a narrative of beginning, middle, and end. Many plots were hastily edited, wrapped in a colored ribbon, and left on the side. Real life is not like that. Now we are more exposed, turning directly to the camera in a natural way, not just a reality but an authentic documentary series.
Such self-praise is warranted as one significant change that occurred behind the scenes of the news series is that for the first time, Kris and her five daughters received the credit of producers.
In other words, success has given them unprecedented control over the product and the way it is presented, and they will take this opportunity, the family said, to reveal the whole truth, as an answer to never-ending criticism against them.
The time Kim and Kendall got laughed at by the Emmy Awards audience comes to mind in particular. While presenting the Outstanding Reality TV category, Kim said that "truly compelling television comes from real people just being themselves," and neither sister seemed to understand why the attendees found that hilarious.
With regard to their involvement in production, Khloe said they take part in the behind-the-scenes process, watch footage that is being edited and give feedback, not from a place of defensiveness, but simply to express their opinion and make the series better.
This is a window into our life, and I personally feel that I've grown emotionally just from watching myself, she said. Kendall and Kylie were little girls when we started, so they set more boundaries.
Kendall explained, Both of us chose to shield our privacy in the previous series, but feel more open to sharing now, because we are producing together. People think that everything is scripted and staged, but the new program leaves no doubt – the chaos never ends.
The deal pushed the Kardashians to the highest-paid contracts of the time. Although the exact amount reality TV's number one family received from the media giant is unknown, Variety magazine has claimed that the sum stands around 9 digits.
To put it into perspective, the deal is equivalent to those of writers Shonda Rimes ("Grey's Anatomy," "Bridgeton") and Ryan Murphy ("American Horror Story," "Glee") who signed $100 million contracts with Netflix, a direct result of the era of the war between streaming giants, with Disney+ running strong in the race.
The Kardashians' contract is for two seasons with 20 episodes each, and needless to say, its renewal will mean that more money will line their pockets.
At a press event to promote the series, which took place several weeks ago in Hollywood, several members of the family arrived with a makeup artist and hairdresser, and stylist to make sure that the outfits photograph perfectly, at all times.
The team includes PR consultants as well, to make sure the Kardashians are mentioned in the media frequently. Such a flamboyant empire takes a lot of effort to run. Although the Kardashians did not invent this capitalist method, they certainly have pioneered it among contemporary celebrities.
Disney's "The Kardashians" is full of marketing content, such as high-end fashion brands, private jets, exotic destinations, and never-ending luxuries the average person could only dream of, all covered by a heavy layer of makeup and accessories.
But with all due respect to Disney, the Kardashian family earned their crowns on social media. Altogether, they have 1.7 billion followers on Instagram. Kim, Kylie, Chloe, and Kendell have more followers than Netflix has subscribers.
Twenty-four year old Kylie has the third-most-popular Instagram channel with 350 million followers, preceded by the official Instagram page and football legend Christiano Ronaldo with 520 and 456 million followers respectively. Kim is currently seventh on the list with 319 million followers. And with a net worth of $1.8 billion – according to Forbes magazine – she is desperate to be taken seriously at last.
For years, the person most identified with the family has been struggling to get rid of the image of a frivolous and provocative star who became famous thanks to a sex tape. She followed in the footsteps of her late father, Robert Kardashian, who was O. J. Simpson's defense attorney during the 1995 murder trial, and decided to study law.
At the same time, she also joined an initiative to help inmates who were wrongfully imprisoned and worked with the White House during the Trump administration to commute the sentence of several women. For many, seeing the reality TV star in the Oval Office was a bizarre experience.
After the event, Kardashian said it was the moment she realized how much influence she had, and that a future in politics was not off the table.
She told Israel Hayom, I'm used to being criticized for everything and I am no longer affected by people's reactions. I focus on empathy for those who need help, and not on public relations.
I grew up with a father who was an attorney, and when I got a driver's license, he made sure I was responsible for my car, filling the tank and washing it consistently. When I was a young girl, they had the O.J. trial, and I would sneak into my father's home office and look at the documents and the evidence he was working with as part of the trial. It made an impact on me, and so I want to bring change and justice to people who have been wronged by the American legal system.
Looking back on my past interviews, I always said that were it not for the reality programs and publicity, I would have become a criminal lawyer or investigator. And yet, now that I am entering this world, I also hear voices advising me not to, because it will "hurt my image," or that I should go volunteer for some charity organization instead.
But no one dares tell me what to do, Kim continued. My volunteering has nothing to do with this. I've grown up, I am raising four black children, meaning from a persecuted community that is being discriminated against in this country. I want to change the situation, so that my children and the children of all my friends have a better future, hoping we can heal this broken system. That is my motivation.
Q: Do you feel a special responsibility as someone who has millions of followers?
Absolutely, Kim said. When I speak about these things with my children, as much as possible, given that they are still little, or with my sisters or in the White House, I see that the young generation is interested and worried about what's going on in the world.
Q: What's been a turning point in your life?
"Age and parenting brought understanding with them. I wake up every morning at 5:40, and work out for an hour at 6:00, before I get the kids up. We have breakfast at 7:40 and leave the house at 8.
I make sure I have time off as well, pamper myself with a massage or vacation, but it happens less due to motherhood. My friends know that I don't run to parties as much anymore, my focus has changed. At the end of the day, I am with my children, having dinner. I am no longer the Kim who for hours thought about which bikini selfie to post. Although this has not disappeared from my life completely either. A person needs to stay true to him or herself and accept everything with happiness," Kim said.
One person who is far from thrilled about the massive Disney deal is producer Ryan Seacrest, who became famous two decades ago for hosting "American Idol", and has since climbed the show business ladder and constantly appears on TV.
His production company, Ryan Seacrest Productions, was the one that launched the reality show about the Kardashians in 2007, after hearing Chris Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner) pitching the idea of a family reality series. He decided to hire a team and document a Kardashian family barbeque, created a pilot, and sold it to E! entertainment channel, and the rest is history.
Without the Kardashians, the channel has been decreasing in popularity with reruns of the previous show and desperate – and unsuccessful – attempts to produce new reality shows.
It was in September 2020 that the family decided to wrap up "Keeping Up with the Kardashians", and although it was clear to the industry that it was not a final goodbye, the parting from Seacrest, to whom they owe their economic success, was highly unexpected.
That level of success, by the way, the production company has been unable to replicate since. Some interpret the Kardashians leaving as the student who surpassed the master, with the balance of power having shifted. The Kardashians no longer needed Seacrest, whose influence in the industry had decreased.
Now that they are in control, the family has decided to bring abroad one of the most in-demand producers in recent years, Britain's Ben Winston, co-executive producer of "The Late Late Show with James Corden", co-producer of the US Grammy Awards, producer of Adele's "One Night Only" as well as "Friends: The Reunion."
Winston recalled, I was on vacation, and I asked my wife to leave my cell phone in the room for safety reasons. On the last day, we woke up with six missed calls from James Corden. I called him back, and he said, "Where did you disappear? Kim Kardashian is looking for you!" I was excited and scared at the same time.
Winston too insists that this time, it's "the real deal."
It was a huge challenge for me, he said, I knew I wanted to approach it as a documentary, because shooting a reality series means we begin the moment the cameras start rolling, but in documentaries you enter into an existing situation, not necessarily one that was captured on camera from the beginning.
In one episode, for example, Kourtney complained about what happened previously and we decided to leave that part in because that is something that happened to the family at that time. It is our duty to portray the true story, because the Kardashians are, after all, the most famous family in America, the royals of the US.
Q: What was the biggest challenge for you?
The time gaps. From the moment information is known until the episode that deals with that news is broadcast. At today's pace, to think that it will take several months from the time something becomes known to be broadcast is stressful. The previous series had such gaps for up to a year, but we managed to bring them down to four months.
The editing, translation, and distribution of the raw episode alone take eight weeks, which is actually considered fast. With time, I understood that fans revisit stories they read in the gossip columns, but this time to hear the real version.
In such cases, when news is published several months before an episode airs, it is reported in a very different manner than how it is talked about in the series, executive producer of "The Kardashians" Danielle King, who had previously worked on the HBO docu-reality series "Small Town News", explained.
Viewers want to hear about everything that happened firsthand. We constantly brainstorm about how to make the series different from the previous one, because our mantra was "more." To be more open.
Q: Does this require around-the-clock effort?
No, we film five days a week, King continued. Sometimes, during special occasions, we will also film on the weekend, without knowing for sure what the result will be, and I will hire the staff for extra work. It is not exhausting at all, because they are experts at what they do. Producers like to plan ahead so that we know what we're going to do and to make sure we do not exceed the budget. But with the Kardashians, it's important to be dynamic. There is tremendous satisfaction in working with the most famous family in the genre, she said.
"The Kardashians" popularity proves that the success at E! was due to the family being together under one roof. No spinoff of the original show ever became as popular, not Kylie's not Rob and then-girlfriend Blac Chyna's, not Kris', and not even Caitlyn Jenner's.
And what has truly changed? Kylie said, The viewers will get the girls more individually, each with errands and busy days, and times that we meet depending on our schedules. And of course, life interferes and things change wildly. It is impossible to invent what happens to us.
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