On September 8, the matriarch of the Kardashian family herself, Kris Jenner, delivered some shocking news: “It is with heavy hearts that we’ve made the difficult decision as a family to say goodbye to Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” she stated in an Instagram caption.
While we haven’t gotten the last of the show just yet — its final season will air early next year — we can’t help but wonder what a world without KUWTK will look like.
For 14 years, Keeping Up with the Kardashians has been an endless source of entertainment, giving us infamous quotes like “Kim, there’s people that are dying” and Kylie’s “Is that a chicken?” We’ve gotten to see Kim’s iconic ugly crying face, Scott’s ever-comedic and dramatic presence, Kylie’s evolving range of pastel hair colors, Kendall’s modeling journey, and much more.
We’ve stepped into the Kardashians’ glamorous, opulent lifestyle: their extravagant photoshoots, multimillion-dollar Calabasas mansions, birthday parties, Christmas cards, closets, and vacations.
And through various spin-offs, we have gotten a more in-depth look at many of their ventures, like Kylie’s makeup business in Life of Kylie, what it’s like to work at one of the Kardashian boutiques in Dash Dolls, and two of the sisters’ East Coast adventures in Kourtney and Khloe Take the Hamptons.
But perhaps more importantly, we got to see the Kardashian clan as real people — witnessing sibling bickering, relationship issues, and what it’s really like to live in the public eye. We even got to watch them eat salads.
And sure, the show has seen its fair share of criticism‚ frequently being labeled as unintelligent, “trash” reality TV (which is debatably true) that makes the family “famous for being famous.”
But no matter how you feel about the Kardashians, you have to admit that they’ve had a tremendous impact on pop culture and media. Their reality show has provided us an intimate inside look into their lives beyond what could be discerned from paparazzi photos. In doing so, it set the scene for the “influencer culture” that we all know today.
In many ways, the Kardashians have grown out of the need to document their lives through reality television — they can now do so through Instagram and Snapchat. They’ve also expanded into multiple industries — fashion, beauty, healthcare, modeling, entertainment, and media are just a few. Individually, they’ve created families and built businesses of their own. Kim is studying to become a lawyer. In an ironic twist, Kourtney is now close friends with TikTok star Addison Rae. In other words, the Kardashians have built an empire.
So even though we may not be seeing them on our television screens every week on E!, by no means have the Kardashians gone out of style. They are still here, shaping culture, entertainment, and more, all while documenting it online for the world to watch.