14 DAY TRIAL // Kim Kardashian is one of the biggest presences on social media and, without a doubt, the most mediated celebrity of our times, to the point where she doesn’t step out for lunch without grabbing international headlines. With all that, the Kardashian rule over television may be at an end: the Kardashian empire is “krashing.”
We’re talking strictly of the rule in the realm of television; as far as other business endeavors are concerned, the Kardashians aren’t going anywhere just yet because they’re still turning a massive profit from their fashion, cosmetics, and accessories lines. They even have a line of kids’ clothes now.
Nikki Finke, former editor at Deadline who still enjoys the same reputation as before of having the best scoop in TV and film possible, notes that there seems to be a consensus with most US media outlets not to report on the disastrous ratings for the second half of season 9 of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which premiered a couple of weeks ago.
Keeping Up with the Kardashians returned on E! right after Kim’s Italian wedding to Kanye West with the promise of more drama, more tears, and exclusive looks at the wedding and into Kourtney’s third pregnancy.
By all means, the first episode should have been a killer in terms of ratings. It wasn’t.
“The show’s Season 9B premiere was down -29% in P18-49 vs Season 8, and down -17% vs S9A premiere, and down -10% vs S9A finale. Let’s not forget that Seasons S8 and S9A were down from S7, etc. The Kardashians are krashing,” Finke writes.
Yahoo! has a few figures to better illustrate the steeping ratings for the once-insanely popular E! show: the second half of season 9 premiered to 1.1 million viewers in the 18-49 demographic. The second episode had a little over 2 million viewers tuning in, despite the added drama.
For comparison, the record for the show was in 2009, when Kim married Kris Humphries and 4.1 million people tuned in to see her walk down the aisle. The previous season, the eighth, opened with Kim and Kanye finding out they were having a baby girl, and a solid viewership of 3 million.
How the mighty have fallen. The worst part is that, as Finke sees it, things will only get sadder for the Kardashians and might even cost E! President Suzanne Kolb her job. Industry analysts believe part of the reason for the declining ratings is the media overexposure which, for once, has stopped paying off.
In other words, the bigger the stars the Kardashians are, the less people will be paying attention to them on TV. Of course, the fact that it’s well known they stage drama for the show doesn’t help.
“The Kardashians are still its highest rated and highest profile series, even though down from their heyday in 2011. But with the next contract, their show won’t even be profitable given the price per episode,” Finke says. It’s already been confirmed that all Kardashians are coming back for season 10, which will also be divided in 2 parts.
That means that, by the time Season 10B finale airs, few will still be left watching.