Not gonna lie, this was a surprise to us — and we know everything about the Kardashian fam!
On Thursday’s new episode of the Emergency Contact podcast, co-hosts Simon Huck and Melissa Gray Washington grilled guest Kourtney Kardashian about the final (cable) season of the now-iconic reality TV series Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Related: Sofia Richie Is ‘Not Surprised’ Scott Disick Blabbed About Their Bad Breakup On ‘KUWTK’!
So feeling a bit nostalgic about the whole thing, the 41-year-old Poosh founder recalled how difficult it was all the way back at the start of the show, 20 seasons ago, to even get the thing off the ground! Remembering how much work the family had to do to get a network to pick up the now-iconic reality TV series even just to shoot a pilot, Kourt recalled (below):
“This producer that met Kim had just found her really interesting and wanted to shoot with her, so they came and Kim was like, ‘Can we come to the store [Dash]?’ They came to the store and the girl was like, ‘Oh my God, you and your sisters! This is everything.’ So then we started trying to pitch a show, like, [about] the sisters. I remember we went to E!, we went to everything, and no one wanted it.”
Yikes!!!
But persistence paid off — and strong connections, too. One night, a noted casting director came over to have dinner with family matriarch Kris Jenner, and when the now-infamous momager mentioned the show to the Hollywood gate keeper, all hell broke loose!
Kourtney shared:
“[The casting director said] ‘This has to be a reality show. I’m calling Ryan Seacrest.’ So they introduced Ryan to my mom and then we made a reel, and it just was picked up right away. I think something happened with like, Lindsay Lohan‘s show and they needed filler, and so they were like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a one-season thing.'”
Wait, come again?! No, not that part about the casting director immediately hooking the family up with Seacrest (and the rest, from there, was history), although that is interesting. We’re interested in the throwaway reference to Lindsay Lohan!!!
Related: Amelia Hamlin Is ‘Not Bothered’ By Kourtney’s Presence In Scott Disick’s Life
Well, as it turns out, Kourt’s memory of the event is more or less correct!
According to Metro UK, it turns out that Keeping Up with the Kardashians was only ever allowed to make it to air in the first place because a reality TV show involving Lindsay and her parents, Dina and Michael, fell through at the last minute and failed to come together! Panicked and suddenly faced with a wide open time slot and nothing to air, E! turned to the Kardashians to fill the dead time. The network didn’t expect much on such short notice — play out a season and then go find something better!
Per the outlet, the girls actually reminisce about their wild and unlikely origin story during the upcoming KUWTK special hosted by Andy Cohen, which will air later this summer. In it, they referenced their humble beginnings, saying:
“The Lohans were supposed to do a show and then it got canned or something happened where it just didn’t go into production. They needed to fill the slot ASAP. And [producers] told us, ‘Don’t get too comfortable. You’re just a filler. You’ll just last one season.'”
WTF?! How did we never know this??
That’s Crazy!!!
Just think: if the Lohans had been able to come through with a simple reality show, the world would have never met the Kardashian family… But here we are a million episodes later, and the KarJenner krew is firmly settled in as one of Hollywood’s most powerful families!
Funny how fate works out sometimes, isn’t it?? Also, 20 seasons later, it’s pretty clear those initial producers had NO feel for the reality TV landscape… just saying!!!
[Image via JLN Photography/WENN]
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