The Real Reason Keeping Up With The Kardashians Is Ending

Looks like there will be one less thing to keep up with in 2021: the Kardashians! On September 8th, 2020, Kim and her cadre of famous-for-being-famous siblings announced that their reality TV show is soon going to wrap up, with the final season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians airing in early 2021. On social media, Kim said she wouldn't be where she is today without the show. She wrote on Instagram, "This show made us who we are and I will be forever in debt to everyone who played a role in shaping our careers and changing our lives forever." Kourtney and Khloé shared similar messages on their respective pages, with Kourtney adding in an Instagram Story that she'll be sharing her thoughts on the show coming to a close in the near future. So why is the show finally coming to an end after 14 years and 20 seasons? One factor, as noted by Showbiz 411 back in April, is that the Kardashians just can't seem to keep up with the network's demand for high ratings. The E! Network docu-soap has been in decline for some time, with ratings this most recent season sinking to new lows. This, despite the network shifting the air date around, with new episodes running on Thursdays this season instead of Sundays. The 18th season of Keeping Up, which debuted on March 26th, 2020, didn't exactly start with a bang, with the first couple of episodes only bringing in around 1 million viewers per night. The fourth episode of the season then dipped to just 871,000 viewers, and the final two installments of the show before the mid-season break hovered at around those same viewing figures. Compare those numbers to the roughly 1.4 million fans the show was attracting each night in recent seasons, and the whopping 4.8 million they netted for the Season 4 finale, which was the show's ratings peak, according to the Los Angeles Times. Viewers haven't been the only ones leaving Keeping Up with the Kardashians behind. In fact, Kourtney Kardashian stepped back from the show recently, saying it was becoming "toxic," according to an interview with Vogue Arabia. She said she's focusing her energy on other things that bring her joy instead. She told the magazine, "Privacy is something I have come to value and finding that balance of private moments with being on a reality show is hard." The decision came after a few seasons of Kourtney battling with the rest of her family over scheduling and other concerns. She told Health magazine in March 2020, "I've been taking less time with filming and, in general, with work. My sisters don't like when I say 'setting boundaries,' but it's more about a schedule. I try to make myself available to my kids to really be a mom." Flash back to last season, when Kim and Khloé were clearly frustrated with Kourtney. The two even threatened to fire her after they thought she was committing less to the show, in an episode that first aired on December 8th, 2019. There are a few other factors that could have gotten in the way of the show extending for another season. The behavior of Kim's husband Kanye West, for instance, has been unpredictable, whether disappearing to his Wyoming ranch or launching a Twitter tirade against his in-laws…or a confusing presidential bid. In addition, the pandemic, of course, poses unique challenges when shooting a show about socialites, shoppers, and globetrotters. For the Kardashians, it's meant filming their exploits on laptops and iPhones in a limited capacity, rather than with their full crew. Executive producer Farnaz Farjam told Elle in May 2020, "If Kris [Jenner] gets annoyed and walks out of the camera angle, it's not like we can follow her and continue shooting. She has to come back onto the screen and explain [why she walked away]. It's less fly-on-the-wall, because we have to give them direction and they have to be more informative with us." And with quarantine still forcing people to stay home, it's likely the mothers featured on Keeping Up will have their hands full with their kids for the time being. A video Kim did about social distancing, for example, featured frequent interruptions from her daughter North. Kourtney already stepped away to spend time with her children, after all, so it's possible the rest of the Kardashian crew may simply be following suit. Watch the video to learn The Real Reason Keeping Up With The Kardashians Is Ending! #KeepingUpWithTheKardashians #Kardashians