The Kardashians are back:no longer keeping up,but still cashing in

It was Kris Jenner who,in her moving 2011 memoir Kris Jenner…and All Things Kardashian,famously wrote,“When you’re really passionate about something,and something fits,you just roll with that.”

So perhaps it makes sense that America’s most famous fishbowl family is making a triumphant return to our screens withThe Kardashians arriving on Disney+ April 14,less than a year after announcingwhat was supposed to be the end of their blockbuster TV careers.

If there is one thing the Kardashians are genuinely passionate about,it’s reality TV. They have been mainstays in the genre since the 2007 debut ofKeeping Up with the Kardashians on E! that helped weave the family into the fabric of pop culture.

Love them,hate them,don’t care about them;the bottom line is,you can still probably name them all. As a media brand,they’ve become such headline generators that even the staunchest Kardashian-denier would have been hard-pressed to avoid their departure from our screens last year.

After 20 seasons ofKeeping Up with the Kardashianson E!,the family decided it was curtains (sorry,kurtains) for the series last June.

“We haven’t had a break for 14 years. I think there’s no other way to say it other than we just live such big lives. And we have kids now. And they need us,” explained Kim during the finale.

“There’s so much going on that,even just for a minute we need a break.”

Ironically,having a break seems at odds with the “Get your f--cking ass up and work,” advice Kim doled out to women in business during an interview withVarietylast week. The ill-thought-out comment triggered an intense backlash online.

What better way to distract from a negative wave of publicity than by dropping the full trailer forThe Kardashians,the new show that seems very much like the old one.

What can we expect fromThe Kardashians?

“Life without cameras was a big change for us,” says Kim in the opening montage,before we’re treated to a supercut of what to expect. There’s Kourtney undergoing IVF with her new fiancee,Travis Barker. There’s Kim’s relationship withSaturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson.

“This is a relationship no one saw coming,” says Kris,intercut with shots of a giddy Kim texting Davidson.

Like in previous seasons ofKUWTK,Kim’s ex-husband Kanye West is present without really being in the room. “He told me my career is over,” cries Kim in one scene,before Kris interjects by paraphrasingThe Godfather,“no one messes with the family.”

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Credit to the Kardashians;they’ve managed to stuff enough drama into the few months sinceKUWTKended that a new series seems justified. Kim and Pete,Kourtney and Travis,Kylie and Baby,Khloe and,oh dear god,Tristan again?

So why are the Kardashians back on TV so soon?

Now that we know what to expect,the more pressing question is:why?

Why are we back here when everyone agreed that a break was a good idea less than a year ago? The obvious answer is money,and the switch from E! to US streamer Hulu will see the Kardashians making some serious kash (I’m sorry).

In the sameVariety interview that featured Kim’s unfortunate business advice,Jenner addressed the gilded elephant in the room. “Well,money always matters,” Jenner said when asked about making the switch. “Anybody would be foolish to say that money doesn’t matter anymore.”

Money certainly does matter,and if reports of the family earning a nine-figure pay cheque from Hulu are to be believed,there will be plenty to add to their already enormous pile.

But in the churn-and-burn world of celebrity,reputation and relevance are just as important as money,even for rusted-on stars like the Kardashians. Their entire brand is built on visibility;if you want people to read POOSH,wear SKIMS,and buy Kylie’s lip kit,it helps if the sales staff are on TV regularly.

A return to the small screen goes a long way to wrestling back control of the narrative at a time when the Kardashian-West threatened to derail the brand.

A shiny new series is a delightful way to distract us all while also manipulating the temperature on the konversation (I’ll never stop). No doubt the series will be a hit for Disney +;the masses will tune in,debate and dissect,even if all it feels a bit wrong.

And in the words of Kris Jenner,again from her 2011 memoir,“When you feel like something is really wrong,it’s usually wrong.”

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