Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kendra, Giuliana & Bill, Khloe and Kortney Take Miami. These are shows E! Entertainment Network prides themselves in producing and airing, but who are these people?
By now the Kardashians have become some what of a household name. Before the recording breaking E ! Network T.V. show debuted 4 seasons ago, their name was infamous with the O.J. Simpson trial; the Kardashian father,Robert Kardashian, now deceased, was O.J Simpson’s defense lawyer. Daughter Kim Kardashian and her then boyfriend Ray J did have a sex tape leaked, but surely this was not enough to obtain a reality show. The E! Network thought differently, and thank God for that! America, or at least 4.8 million of us (fyi Jersey Shore averaged just 3.6 million viewers) agree that their life is interesting enough to be put on television. The Kardashians sure are milking their stardom for all it is worth. The three eldest girls, Kim, Khole, and Kourtney are spokes models for various products, own their own stores in L.A. and Miami, Dash. Khole and Kortney even have their own spin off show, Khole and Kortney Take Miami, also on E!. It is rumored that Kim receives $10,000 for a tweet with the mention of a product. They have made their name a brand. Not too shabby for not doing much.
Perhaps the Kardashians are the only Z list “celebs” who were catapulted into A list territory through a reality T.V. show (wasn’t reality T.V. at one point for old, washed up celebrities trying to lose weight or survive on an island with out hair care products?) but E! is certainly using the Kardashian model to create various other T.V. shows starring people no one should really care about. Giuliana DePandi , an E! News anchor, and Bill Rancic, the winner of season 1 of The Apprentice, initially started their reality show on the Style Network, but now the show airs on E! as well. The show follows the “day to day” life of this married couple as they live life in Chicago and L.A. While not up to the caliber of Keeping Up with the Kardashians when you are in the need for some reality junk T.V. this show definitely suffices, at least for a short period.
Why are we so obsessed with watching other people live their lives? Do we really want to watch as Kendra Wilkinson, former playmate, Hugh Hefner girlfriend, Girls Next Door cast member and the current star of Kendra yells out that she no longer fits in her jeans all while raising a child on her own reality T.V. show? I know I don’t. What makes Kendra different than the Kardashians? I think “ The Kardashian Phenomenon“, a story in the LA Times has some answers.
“She’s attractive to guys because she’s absolutely beautiful,” said Brad Haley, the executive vice president of marketing for CKE Restaurants, whose Carl’s Jr. burger chain hired Kim to promote its new chicken salad. But she also draws in women, he said, because “she’s not a waif-thin model. She’s got curves . . . and talks about how she’s got to diet and keep after her body.”
“[Our fan base] started off very male, but it’s transformed into a very heavily female base,” Kim Kardashian said Tuesday backstage at the New York runway debut of a new Kardashian fashion line from Bebe. “I think that’s because we’re not afraid to share our beauty secrets and our flaws. If I have cellulite, I’m not afraid to talk about it and try to find a product to make it look better.”
Is this why I am drawn to Keeping Up With the Kardashians more so than Kendra, because the Kardashians women talk about their cellulite and how they need to constantly diet? This might be so. I recently sat down to watch the series premier of Pretty Wild, a show on E! starring 3 girls with virtually no supervision in L.A. running wild. However, I could not sit through a full episode it was so disturbingly awful to watch. Bitch Magazine sums up the show nicely in this article. Who knows though, my disdain for these girls could be absolutely off the mark E! might have themselves another Kardashians dynasty on the hands. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
What do you think about these E! Network shows?
Related posts:
- The Network looks for alternatives to Spring Concert
- The Network plans Spring Weekend 2011
- Shriners Network considers closing Springfield Hospital
- The Network to host DJ at Spring Concert
- The Lyons Network Sponsors Leadership Conference
