Looks like there will be one less thing to keep up with in 2021: the Kardashians! On
September 8th, 2020, Kim and her cadre of famous-for-being-famous siblings announced
that their reality TV show is soon going to wrap up, with the final season of Keeping
Up with the Kardashians airing in early 2021.
On social media, Kim said she wouldn't be where she is today without the show. She wrote
on Instagram,
"This show made us who we are and I will be forever in debt to everyone who played a role
in shaping our careers and changing our lives forever."
Kourtney and Khloé shared similar messages on their respective pages, with Kourtney adding
in an Instagram Story that she'll be sharing her thoughts on the show coming to a close
in the near future.
So why is the show finally coming to an end after 14 years and 20 seasons? One factor,
as noted by Showbiz 411 back in April, is that the Kardashians just can't seem to keep
up with the network's demand for high ratings. The E! Network docu-soap has been in decline
for some time, with ratings this most recent season sinking to new lows. This, despite
the network shifting the air date around, with new episodes running on Thursdays this
season instead of Sundays.
The 18th season of Keeping Up, which debuted on March 26th, 2020, didn't exactly start
with a bang, with the first couple of episodes only bringing in around 1 million viewers
per night. The fourth episode of the season then dipped to just 871,000 viewers, and the
final two installments of the show before the mid-season break hovered at around those
same viewing figures.
Compare those numbers to the roughly 1.4 million fans the show was attracting each night in
recent seasons, and the whopping 4.8 million they netted for the Season 4 finale, which
was the show's ratings peak, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Viewers haven't been the only ones leaving Keeping Up with the Kardashians behind. In
fact, Kourtney Kardashian stepped back from the show recently, saying it was becoming
"toxic," according to an interview with Vogue Arabia. She said she's focusing her energy
on other things that bring her joy instead. She told the magazine,
"Privacy is something I have come to value and finding that balance of private moments
with being on a reality show is hard."
The decision came after a few seasons of Kourtney battling with the rest of her family over
scheduling and other concerns. She told Health magazine in March 2020,
"I've been taking less time with filming and, in general, with work. My sisters don't like
when I say 'setting boundaries,' but it's more about a schedule. I try to make myself
available to my kids to really be a mom."
Flash back to last season, when Kim and Khloé were clearly frustrated with Kourtney. The
two even threatened to fire her after they thought she was committing less to the show,
in an episode that first aired on December 8th, 2019.
"So all of the days that Kourtney isn't filming, Khloé and I are picking up the slack and
having to share more. Because if we're not sharing our lives, then what is the show?"
There are a few other factors that could have gotten in the way of the show extending for
another season. The behavior of Kim's husband Kanye West, for instance, has been unpredictable,
whether disappearing to his Wyoming ranch or launching a Twitter tirade against his
in-laws…or a confusing presidential bid.
In addition, the pandemic, of course, poses unique challenges when shooting a show about
socialites, shoppers, and globetrotters. For the Kardashians, it's meant filming their
exploits on laptops and iPhones in a limited capacity, rather than with their full crew.
Executive producer Farnaz Farjam told Elle in May 2020,
"If Kris [Jenner] gets annoyed and walks out of the camera angle, it's not like we can
follow her and continue shooting. She has to come back onto the screen and explain [why
she walked away]. It's less fly-on-the-wall, because we have to give them direction and
they have to be more informative with us."
And with quarantine still forcing people to stay home, it's likely the mothers featured
on Keeping Up will have their hands full with their kids for the time being. A video Kim
did about social distancing, for example, featured frequent interruptions from her daughter
North. Kourtney already stepped away to spend time with her children, after all, so it's
possible the rest of the Kardashian crew may simply be following suit.
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