Kourtney Kardashian Says ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ Was Supposed to Be a ‘One-Season Thing’
Kourtney Kardashian is reflecting on the origins of Keeping Up With the Kardashians amid the series’ final season.
During a recent appearance on the Emergency Contact podcast, the Poosh founder opened up about how her family’s now-iconic reality show came to be, revealing that producers initially saw it being a one-and-done type of thing.
Kourtney Kardashian says ‘no one wanted’ to pick up ‘KUWTK’ at first
This may be hard to believe, but getting KUWTK picked up by a network was no easy feat.
During an Apr. 15 appearance on the Emergency Contact podcast, Kardashian opened up to hosts Simon Huck and Melissa Gray Washington about how difficult it was for her family to receive a television contract from a major network.
“This producer that met Kim had just found her really interesting and wanted to shoot with her, so they came and Kim was like, ‘Can we come to the store?'” the mother of three recalled, referring to Dash, the clothing boutique she and Kim Kardashian West ran alongside sister Khloé Kardashian.
“They came to the store, and the girl was like, ‘Oh my God, you and your sisters! This is everything,'” the Poosh founder continued. “So then we started trying to pitch a show, like, [about] the sisters. I remember we went to E!, we went to everything — I think no one wanted it or something.”
Producers expected ‘KUWTK’ to be short-lived
Though no one wanted to pick up a show about the Kardashian sisters, that wasn’t the case when the idea of a series surrounding the entire Kardashian-Jenner bunch was laid out on the table.
According to Kardashian, the pitch was brought up when a casting director came over to the family’s house for dinner and told Kris Jenner, “‘This has to be a reality show — I’m calling Ryan Seacrest.'”
After Jenner was introduced to Seacrest, the family made a reel of their everyday goings-on, and the show was immediately picked up by E!.
However, producers didn’t expect the show to air on the network for long as they only picked it up to fill in a timeslot.
“I think something happened with like, Lindsay Lohan’s show and they needed filler,” Kardashian shared. “And so they were like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a one-season thing.'”
Now, ‘KUWTK’ is on it’s 20th and final season
Not long after KUWTK aired on E! in 2007, producers were likely eating their words because the show became an instant hit and was soon picked up for more seasons.
Today, KUWTK is airing its 20th and final season.
The series has captured the Kardashian-Jenner family’s many ups and downs throughout the years, from breaks and divorces to marriages and births.
Although Kardashian says it was challenging to adjust to filming at first, she has since become more comfortable showcasing her life on camera.
“It’s hard when you first start filming, because I would think about like, ‘Oh my God, what did I say? What did I do?'” she explained. “But then I didn’t realize how little of it is actually used, and that you also don’t know how editors are going to edit it and make you look, or what the intention is. I think once we started seeing edits, I felt more comfortable.”
As for how she feels now that KUWTK is coming to an end, the Poosh founder said it’s “bittersweet” but, at the same time, “exciting.”
“I think we get so scared of change, just as people … but I don’t know, I’m excited,” she concluded. “It is bittersweet thinking of the crew that we have seen every day for like 13 years.”
