How Keeping Up With The Kardashians Changed Since Season 1
How has Keeping Up with the Kardashians changed since Season 1? Hearken back to 2007. Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Gwen Stefani topped the pop charts; American Idol was TV's undisputed No. 1 show; and the box office was dominated by sequels of Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, and Spider-Man. It was also a time when Kim Kardashian was known primarily for being the daughter of O.J. Simpson's lawyer and Paris Hilton's nightclubbing sidekick – and for her notorious sex tape.
That all changed in a major way with the debut of E! reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, showcasing the affluent Los Angeles family as they lived their not-at-all-ordinary lives.
Viewers loved it. It didn't take long for the show to become a major TV hit that made Kim, her sisters, and their shrewd "momager" Kris Jenner household names. Understandably, the massive success of the series led to some big changes in the lives of all the show's participants since that first episode. With the news that Keeping Up with the Kardashians is coming to an end after its 20th season, let's take a look at how the reality television juggernaut has changed since season 1.
Kim Kardashian got married twice, and became a mother of four
In the early 2010s, viewers of Keeping Up with the Kardashians watched Kim Kardashian embark on a whirlwind romance with basketball player Kris Humphries. It all culminated with a $10-million wedding featured in a 2011 KUWTK special. However, just weeks after the special aired — and 72 days after they wed — the newlyweds announced their marriage was kaput.
Several years later, Kim married rapper Kanye West. They wed in 2014, and had four children: North, Chicago, Saint, and Psalm. Kanye's struggles with bipolar disorder, however, created some fraught moments in the marriage, such as his off-the-cuff rant during his first campaign rally for his 2020 presidential bid. "I almost killed my daughter!" he tearfully screamed, after revealing he asked Kim to get an abortion when she became pregnant with North.
Kanye later took to social media to clear the air. "I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter," he wrote in a tweet. She responded via social media, explaining in a since-deleted post how coping with a bipolar loved one can be "incredibly complicated and painful."
Kylie Jenner became a billionaire and a mom on Keeping up with the Kardashians
When Keeping Up with the Kardashians first hit the air in 2007, the youngest member of the clan, Kylie Jenner, was just 9 years old. Since then, viewers have watched her grow up, becoming a confident young woman with a flair for business.
In fact, Kylie made headlines in 2019, when Forbes reported that at age 21, she'd become "the youngest self-made billionaire ever." According to the magazine, Kylie's ten-figure wealth was generated from her Kylie Cosmetics makeup brand, which partnered with fashion brand Ulta for a distribution deal that expanded Kylie's brand significantly. Sales went through the roof, with Forbes estimating Kylie Cosmetics was worth $900 million.
In the midst of all that, Kylie also became a first-time mom. In February 2018, she confirmed via Instagram that she and rapper Travis Scott were the proud parents of a baby girl, whom she later named Stormi. "I'm just trying my best, even though she's still little, to remind her how blessed we are and that this isn't normal, the way we live," Kylie explained in an interview with Harper's Bazaar. "It's just our life."
Kris Jenner's 23-year marriage came to an end on Keeping Up with the Kardashians
When viewers were first introduced to the Kardashian-Jenner family in the debut season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kris Jenner was married to Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner (before her gender transition). While Caitlyn was initially a big part of the show, behind the scenes a rift was forming in the marriage.
The truth was revealed in 2013, when the couple issued a joint statement to E! News announcing they'd split up. "We are living separately and we are much happier this way," they said. "But we will always have much love and respect for each other." They added that they will always be best friends, and that the family remains their priority.
Kris and Caitlyn subsequently divorced at the end of 2014, according to TMZ. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Caitlyn insisted the divorce had nothing to do with her transition, but was due to many other reasons. "Kris and I had a great relationship for a long time," she explained. "Our relationship didn't work any more and we mutually decided that it was time to split up."
Keeping Up with the Kardashians' Caitlyn Jenner revealed her true self
You may be tempted to assume that Caitlyn Jenner's gender transition was the reason that she and Kris Jenner from Keeping Up with the Kardashians split up, but Caitlyn has reiterated that was not the case. "It was a very mutual decision to split," Caitlyn told The Guardian. "I didn't leave to go transition."
While it wasn't the reason she got divorced, Caitlyn did move forward with her gender transition. While supermarket tabloids sold murky, fanciful tales, occasionally altering pictures as "evidence," Caitlyn shut it all down when she publicly came out as transgender in a 2015 Vanity Fair cover story. Accompanied by portraits by Annie Leibovitz, Caitlyn spoke about her monumental decision. "I'm not doing this to be interesting," she revealed. "I'm doing this to live."
Since then, Caitlyn has authored a bestselling autobiography, starred in her own reality show, and spoken out about transgender rights. Most importantly, Caitlyn became demonstrably more comfortable in her own skin than she ever was before. In an interview with People to mark the five-year anniversary of her transition, Caitlyn declared, "when I wake up in the morning I'm happy with myself."
Kendall Jenner from Keeping Up with the Kardashians became a top model
Like her younger sister Kylie Jenner, Kendall Jenner was just a kid on season 1 of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. As she grew older, her genetic gifts clicked into place, and her God-given good looks earned her a spot on runways all over the world. As E! News recalled, Kendall first modeled when she was 14; nearly a decade later, at age 23, Forbes declared her to be the highest-paid model in the world.
While her success as a top model has been undeniable, it hasn't come without controversy. Case in point: her 2018 interview with Love Magazine, in which she haughtily declared she was "super selective" about what jobs she took on. "I was never one of those girls who would do like 30 shows a season or whatever...those girls do," she shared. Not surprisingly, her words stirred up backlash, as those remarks ignore the immense privilege that she enjoys as a Kardashian.
Kendall later realized she had stepped in it when she subsequently issued an apologetic tweet, claiming she was "misrepresented," her words "twisted" and "taken out of context."
Kourtney Kardashian split from longtime boyfriend Scott Disick
Kourtney Kardashian has undergone a stunning transformation. In season 1 of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the eldest Kardashian sibling was single; by 2020, she was the mother of three children, courtesy of Scott Disick. Of all the roller-coaster relationships displayed on the series, this on-again, off-again partnership was arguably the most enduringly turbulent.
The tone was set early in the show's run when Kourtney revealed to sis Khloé Kardashian that she was pregnant with Mason Disick, the first of their three kids. "I'm so disappointed in you," Khloé told Kourtney in a 2009 episode, asserting that Scott had impregnated her just to keep her.
Scott's party-hearty ways were a continual source of friction, but the final straw came when photos surfaced of him canoodling with another woman in Monte Carlo, leading Kourtney to finally sever ties in 2015. His subsequent shenanigans were well-documented in the tabloids, including a cavalcade of women, a 2017 trip to rehab, a romance with 15-years-younger Sofia Richie and, in 2020, reports of another stint in rehab. Will they ever reconcile? Only time will tell.
Kim and Rob Kardashian both competed on Dancing With the Stars
When Keeping Up with the Kardashians debuted, Kris Jenner's only son, Rob Kardashian, was just 20. At the time, he was dating singer Adrienne Bailon, until that relationship came to a screeching halt. Rob subsequently admitted he cheated on her.
Over time, Rob became a scarcer presence on KUWTK, but he arguably followed the family tradition of attempting to parlay his celebrity into even bigger fame. In his case, that involved appearing on Dancing With the Stars in 2011, three years after big sister Kim Kardashian competed, but was sent home early on. As she told OK! after being eliminated, she "never, ever claimed to be a dancer."
Rob, however, did far better, with he and partner Cheryl Burke nabbing the season's runner-up spot (J.R. Martinez took home the mirrorball trophy). In a post-finale interview with Good Morning America, Rob was asked if Kim was jealous of his more-successful DWTS performances. He insisted there was "no jealousy. I mean, my family's rooting for me from day one...but she only lasted like week two or three, but who's counting?"
Keeping Up with the Kardashians star Kris Jenner launched a daytime talk show
While her kids ventured off into their own successful endeavors, Kris Jenner wasn't just sitting idly by. In addition to offering her "momager" career guidance, in 2013 the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star launched her own daytime talk show, Kris. Like many fledgling daytime shows, Kris was given a six-week summertime test run, airing on Fox-owned TV stations in various markets throughout the U.S.
Unfortunately, Kris garnered neither the ratings nor reviews that the network hoped for (Newsday TV critic Verne Gay, for example, described the debut episode as "awful"), and was subsequently cancelled. After it was all over, Fox exec Frank Cicha told The Hollywood Reporter that while the show "wasn't a disaster in the ratings," it was ultimately "an expensive show to produce," and one that "wasn't a good fit" with the rest of the syndicated daytime lineup. He also offered a brutally frank assessment of what went wrong, explaining the show's biggest liability was its host. "When the camera was on she looked not just like a deer in the headlights," he quipped, "but like a deer that already got hit."
Some of the Kardashian sisters embarked on individual TV projects
Kris Jenner wasn't the only member of the family to use the success of Keeping Up with the Kardashians as a springboard to further television shows. In some cases, the Kardashian kids went solo, but they also weren't afraid to team up for such KUWTK spinoffs as Kourtney and Kim Take New York and its sub-spinoff Kourtney & Kim Take Miami, followed by Kourtney and Khloé Take the Hamptons. And who could forget 2015's Dash Dolls, focusing on the staff who worked with at the sisters' Hollywood clothing store, DASH?
Then there were solo projects, and Khloé Kardashian had several. In addition to Khloé & Lamar, chronicling her marriage to Lamar Odom, she also headlined a talk show, Kocktails with Khloé, and a fitness series, Revenge Body with Khloé Kardashian. Kylie Jenner also got her own show, Life of Kylie, while Caitlyn Jenner headlined I Am Cait. Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian's foray into law resulted in Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project.
Of all these, the hands-down weirdest was Kirby Jenner, a 2020 Quibi series that chronicled the exploits of a Kendall's fraternal (and entirely fictional) brother, Kirby.
Khloe Kardashian hosted the second season of X Factor
Keeping Up with the Kardashians will forever be a reality television juggernaut, but one Kardashian sibling discovered that other television genres are tougher nuts to crack. Case in point: Khloé Kardashian's one-season stint co-hosting Simon Cowell's Fox TV singing competition The X Factor.
After original host Steve Jones didn't work out, The Hollywood Reporter reported he'd be replaced by two co-hosts for the second season. Of the potential candidates, TMZ declared Khloé the frontrunner for the job, and she and Mario Lopez were ultimately hired as co-hosts for the second season.
However, as Khloé quickly discovered, there's a huge difference between having cameras trail you while living your glamorous life and hosting a live television show. "There were so just so many pieces I never knew were involved in live TV," she admitted in an interview with HuffPost. She added that her first week was the worst, when she "literally was like, 'I am going to die. I want to fake a heart attack.'" At the end of the season, Reuters reported that Khloé was not invited back.
Rob Kardashian became a father, but things got complicated
Rob Kardashian's romance with Blac Chyna was, in a word, short-lived. And while their coupling did bring about a reality show – Rob & Chyna – as well as their daughter, Dream Kardashian, it also resulted in a tsunami of lawsuits when the relationship went sour.
The couple's problems began in 2017, when Rob posted racy pictures of Chyna on social media. After that, she sued Rob and took out a restraining order against him, accusing him of domestic violence. Rob and sister Kylie Jenner then countersued, claiming Chyna tried to strangle Rob with the cord of a cellphone charger. Then Chyna filed a subsequent lawsuit naming all the Kardashians, accusing the family of "slut-shaming her on social media and killing her hit television show." Finally, in 2020, Chyna's lawyer issued a statement to Page Six implying that racism was behind the cancellation of Rob & Chyna (although The Guardian previously described the program as uninteresting and lacking substance).
When asked about whether she'd watch Rob's rumored return for the final KUWTK season, Chyna quipped to TooFab, "Probably not."
Kim Kardashian studied to become a lawyer
Kim Kardashian was always the breakout star of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, but who could have imagined back in 2007 that over a decade later she'd be one of the most famous women on the planet? Or Mrs. Kanye West, and mother to their four children? Or a fashion mogul and social media superstar with nearly 200 million followers on Instagram?
While all of that is indeed surprising years after KUWTK premiered, there's no way anyone could have predicted Kim's 2019 announcement — made in a Vogue cover story, of course — that she was studying to become a lawyer. While in some ways it made sense, as her late father, Robert Kardashian, was also an attorney, it's still a surprise.
The least wild thing about Kim's decision to get her law degree was that a show was made about it: the Oxygen channel's Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project. And while some may have scoffed, Kim proved her mettle by convincing President Donald Trump to grant a full pardon to Alice Johnson, who served more than 20 years after receiving a life sentence for a first-time drug offense.
Khloe Kardashian married and divorced an NBA star, then had a child with a different NBA star
Khloé Kardashian was single and ready to mingle when viewers first met her in season 1 of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Then as the series progressed, viewers watched her whirlwind romance unfold with NBA star Lamar Odom. Less than a month after they met, the pair tied the knot in a quick (but still opulent) wedding.
Despite the fact that they were still getting to know each other, the couple agreed to let cameras film their lives as newlyweds for the E! reality show Khloé & Lamar. However, after two seasons Lamar was done, with TMZ Sports reporting that he was shifting his focus to his NBA career. Eventually Khloé filed for divorce in 2013, but she subsequently "paused" the legal proceedings when Lamar fell into a coma after an overdose. He recovered, and the divorce was finalized in 2016.
That same year, Khloé began a relationship with another NBA star, Tristan Thompson; in 2018, she gave birth to their daughter, True Thompson. And while the pair didn't last, they're co-parenting their child together.
All the sisters from Keeping Up with the Kardashians have become ridiculously wealthy
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians siblings are nothing if not entrepreneurial. This has been proven time and time again, with every single sibling starting ancillary, non-TV businesses that have proven to be wildly successful. Kim Kardashian has launched an array of lucrative ventures, but none more so than her KKW beauty line, selling a 20 percent stake to global cosmetics firm Coty — and pocketing a whopping $200 million, with Forbes estimating her net worth at $900 million total.
Then there's Khloé Kardashian, with Celebrity Net Worth estimating she's worth $50 million; her Good American denim brand accounts for some of that, and generated $1 million on its launch day alone, according to Vogue. Meanwhile, InTouch Weekly pegs Kourtney Kardashian's net worth at $45 million, largely from her TV income and her Poosh lifestyle website.
As previously mentioned, Kylie is the richest member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, with Forbes declaring her a billionaire. Kendall is no slouch either; in 2018, Forbes revealed she was the highest-paid model in the world, with Celebrity Net Worth pointing to endorsement deals that made her even richer.