There's one phrase that gets thrown around online with more intensity than a communal ring light at an influencer event: "The Kardashians are over."
Like many popular online phrases, this one is satisfyingly dramatic yet not exactly draped in facts. The Kardashian/Jenner clan remain one of the most famous and photographed families in the world, so if you’ve been dreaming of living in a time and place where their existence is not chronicled for all to see, you might have to find something else to write about in your dream journal.
The Kardashians are not going anywhere, anytime soon, but when you look closely at their overall relevance in the pop culture space and the trajectory of their reality show, some cracks are beginning to show.
In the spirit of getting this next part out of the way quickly, people who clamour to ask 'what are the Kardashians even famous for?' are generally the same kind of people who pipe up at parties to ask if anyone would like them to recap the crazy dream they had last night.
They already know the answer, they just refuse to accept it.
Glamorous, attractive people attaching themselves to brands and events while also parlaying that appeal into something like a TV series is the foundation on which the entire entertainment industry is built. It's how people within the modeling industry, in particular, have built up personal brands and moved into different fields, yet there are rarely questions about why this brand of beautiful woman are catapulted to fame.
In the same vein, reality TV has emerged as one of the most dominant forms of entertainment in the last few decades, becoming the breeding ground for magazine cover stars, radio show hosts, and best-selling authors alike. So it's no surprise that one of the families at the centre of this phenomenon has launched a series of household names.
Listen to The Spill hosts explain what is really happening to the Kardashians.
The reality series Keeping Up With The Kardashians premiered in 2007 and ran for 14 years, 20 seasons, and spawned a number of spin-off shows. The wealthy family had always been adjacent to fame, but as the second eldest sister Kim Kardashian moved more into the spotlight Kris Jenner pitched Ryan Seacrest and E! a series hooked on their family, knowing the network was hoping to find a similar success story to The Osbournes.
When the family ended Keeping Up With The Kardashians in 2021 and launched The Kardashians in 2022, their reasoning behind the change was that wanted more creative control over their story, and for the new series to be a more sleek, documentary-style offering chronically their business ventures with as much intensity as their personal lives.
For the first season in particular, it appeared to work.
Audiences were served up a behind-the-scenes look into Kim Kardashian's Saturday Night Live hosting stint (with a side storyline about her divorce from Kanye West) a series of lux locations including the Dominican Republic, Kourtney Kardashian's picturesque engagement to Travis Barker and the reaction from her children's father and long time Kardashian reality TV fixture Scott Disick.
However, the fifth season of The Kardashians, which just finished airing in Australia on Disney Plus, is painting a different story of where their fame stands now. Both in regards to how the public responds to it and how the family is now internalizing and reacting to a life lived in the spotlight.
One of the greatest strengths when it comes to the Kardashian/Jenner family's hold on fame has been their willingness to put everything on camera. From blowout fights where adult women throw each other into walls, to finding out their partners are cheating on them to discussing viral moments that momentarily turned the world against them, every moment is captured by an array of cameras and then blasted onto our screens.
As an example, I only know the topline details of my closest friends' birth stories, yet I have somehow witnessed the moment when Kourtney Kardashian leaned forward and pulled her first son Mason from her body during her final moments of labour. All while flipping through some TV options looking for a way to pass a Sunday afternoon.
In the past, the talkability around the Kardashians has been equally divided between an insight into their glamorous world, the allure of a large dysfunctional but close-knit family unit, and the many controversies attached to their name. Many of which have to do with their love lives or their embracement of wild beauty standards.
Moments in time they never apologise for or explain away, but instead bide their time until the full story can play out on their show many months later.
With this current iteration of The Kardashians, we are seeing a different trend.
The main storylines from the last two seasons are hooked on Kylie Jenner's tears over cruel public comments concerning her appearance, Khloé Kardashian's fear of stepping out in public and being judged (to the point where she canceled an appearance because it was going to be outdoors in direct sunlight) Kendall Jenner lamenting that she is wrongly judged by the public if she even dares to walk down the street and Kourtney Kardashian saying that her one wish is to step away from the public and raise her children in private.
The show used to have splashes of the family dealing with the downside of fame, but in recent years this topic has become a waterfall of content.
In a recent episode of The Kardashians, a main storyline centred on Kylie Jenner leaving a private plane that was whisking her family away on the annual holiday trip they film for each season. After her departure, Kim, Khloe, and Kendall were furious at their billionaire sisters' behaviour.
(But not because she left half her family on a plane she had a 'bad feeling about', which would have been my main concern.)
Instead, the sisters lamented that Kylie had gotten out of filming, as clearly this trip was one they were contractually obligated to film for the show and now they would have to work more to make up for her absence. All for a trip they seemingly resented being on in the first place.
These moments from the show, which look as painful to film as they are to watch, show that the Kardashians are currently burning in a hell of their own making.
Even they cannot keep up with the impossible beauty standards that they have set for themselves, meaning they are stuck in an endless loop of modifying their faces and bodies for public consumption all while bracing themselves for the backlash that always follows.
With the exception of Kim Kardashian, whose open adoration of fame actually makes her the most calming to watch in this situation, this is a family whose overall desire is to stay in the spotlight yet they have started to openly despise it.
Their main source of content has become their hatred of their own fame, which then feeds into a new series of headlines, and so the cycle starts again.
Laura Brodnik is Mamamia's Head of Entertainment and host of The Spill podcast. You can follow her on Instagram here for more entertainment news and recommendations.
Feature image: The Kardashians/Disney Plus.
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