‘The Kardashians’ Fans Think Kim Kardashian’s Scenes are ‘Heavily Scripted’
The Kardashians is officially back for season two. The trailer promised even more drama, shocking behind-the-scenes moments, and some insight into some of the family’s recent scandals and biggest controversies.
Out of all the Kar-Jenner siblings, Kim has unarguably had one of the most buzzworthy years thanks to her highly-publicized split from Kanye West and her subsequent fling with comedian Pete Davidson.
Because of this, some fans are accusing the reality TV star of sensationalizing, or even fabricating elements of her private life for the sake of publicity by faking some of her reactions in the show.
This has led some social media users to ask: how many of Kim’s scenes in The Kardashians are actually real, and how many of her “authentic” reactions are scripted?
‘The Kardashians’: premise, cast, and season 2 release date
In September 2020, Hulu announced that they had ordered 40 episodes of a new reality TV series titled The Kardashians, per Variety. The news came on the heels of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, which followed the titular family for over 14 years before coming to an end in June 2021.
Similar to Keeping Up, The Kardashians follows the day-to-day lives of the Kar-Jenner dynasty — namely, Kim, Kourtney, Khloé, Kris, Kylie, and Kendall — as they negotiate multi-million dollar business deals, travel to luxurious destinations, and deal with all of the drama that comes with fame, family, and high-profile relationships.
Some of the bigger plot points of the season include Kourtney and Travis Barker’s highly-anticipated wedding ceremony, the continued fallout amid Kim’s divorce from Ye, and Khloé’s split from NBA star Tristan Thompson after he cheated on her — and fathered a child — with a different woman.
Why some fans think Kim Kardashian’s scenes in ‘The Kardashians’ are heavily scripted
Some Kardashian followers on Reddit believe that Kim’s scenes in the Hulu show are heavily scripted and that her actual, in-the-moment reactions are edited — an accusation that Kim and several other members of the family faced during their time on Keeping Up.
Throughout its time on E!, the Kar-Janners were repeatedly called out for staging scenes in the show, including Khloé’s “arrest” in season 1 and Kris Humphries’ proposal to Kim in season 6, per The Cut. Apparently, this seems to have carried over into the new Hulu series.
Specifically, social media users pointed to one moment in The Kardashians where Kim asks Davidson, “do you want to shower with me,” in public. At the same time, they were surrounded by cameras and a group of other people. Fans claimed this scene was “so heavily scripted” due to how unnatural Kim’s delivery of the line was, leading to what some thought to be an awkward moment for everyone involved.
“The ‘do you want to shower with me’ at the end was so clearly scripted and unsexy. Blech,” one Reddit user wrote. Another fan agreed, “right, like in front of everyone??”
It doesn’t help that Kim and Davidson were repeatedly accused of faking a “PR relationship” throughout the course of their short-lived romance, with many people speculating that the couple was just pretending to date in order to promote their own public images.
But whether Kim and the former Saturday Night Live cast member were actually in love or simply just wanted to keep their names in the headlines, it’s not exactly a secret that many of TV’s biggest reality shows have some heavily scripted moments.
This often happens in order to create buzzworthy fights, romances, or interactions between the cast members with the hopes of sparking audiences’ interest in the show, therefore leading to higher viewership ratings — as seen in Keeping Up. Or, in extreme cases, showrunners might even choose to reshoot entire scenes in order to protect the reputation of an individual or the series as a whole.
How much of ‘The Kardashians’ is actually real?
Although The Kardashians advertises itself as a raw, genuine look into the inner lives of one of America’s most reputable families, there’s certainly a strategic approach to what is actually seen on screen.
The new series isn’t scripted, but with that being said, there are still plenty of staged moments Reddit users have been quick to point out. As reported by Popsugar, there’s already numerous continuity errors on The Kardashians, like when Kris called her daughters to confirm Travis’s proposal to Kourtney on October 17, 2021. However, the Caller ID for some of them read 2022.
So while the show is, for the most part, real, producers are seemingly inserting certain moments to make for entertaining TV — something that’s not exactly new to the Kardashian clan.
