By now, you’ve probably heard the news that Keeping Up With the Kardashians will be coming to an end in 2021.
Over the course of 21 seasons and 14 years, KUWTK helped — for better or worse — to reinvent the reality TV genre and usher in a new era of celebrity and public exhibitionism.
The Kardashians were a precursor to modern social media — a development that has allowed every day people to put themselves on display and open themselves up to criticism in the style of Kim and company.
You can criticize the family for their alleged lack of talent or their narcissism, but you cannot deny their impact on our culture.
And if you’re thinking the Kar-Jenners will simply slink back into obscurity now that their flagship series has come to an end, then you know nothing of the powers of Kris Jenner.
Perhaps more than any other member of her wildly famous family — yes, even more than Kim — Kris is responsible for transforming the Kardashians from a pack of SoCal socialites into a global media empire.
Though she’ll turn 65 this year, it’s absurd to think that Kris will retire.
Her ambition and enthusiasm for her work are the stuff of Hollywood legend, and with the show that made her a household name coming to an end, we’re sure Kris already has her next project in mind.
For obvious reasons, many have assumed that Kris would like to remain a fixture in the world of reality television.
Specifically, they think she’ll join the cast of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
In some ways, the move would make perfect sense:
RHOBH could use a ratings boost, and recent cast shake-ups have resulted in a vacancy for which many fans believe Kris would be a perfect fit.
Ever since Lisa Vanderpump left the show last year, viewers have complained about the lack of an older, more mature presence within the Beverly Hills Housewife clique.
Even Bravo boss Andy Cohen has expressed an interest in Kris joining the cast:
Yes, everyone seems to agree that the logical next step for Kris Jenner is to jump to a new network, write herself a catchy tagline, and join a franchise that’s almost as iconic as the one she started with her kids.
The only problem is, Kris doesn’t seem to have much interest in the opportunity.
The matriarch has largely kept mum about the rumors, but that’s standard operating procedure.
If she were to join the cast, she would probably keep negotiations very hush-hush, so that the announcement could be framed as a big surprise.
So it’s not Kris’ reticence that leads us to believe she’s uninterested — it’s the fact that joining the cast would amount to a major demotion.
It’s important to note that Kris wasn’t just a cast member on KUWTK.
Along with Kim and Ryan Seacrest, Kris was credited as a co-creator and executive producer on the show.
In other words, she’s used to calling the shots.
And it seems she’d like to continue doing so if she were to sign on with RHOBH, a move that probably wouldn’t sit well with her co-stars.
“Andy [Cohen] has been begging Kris to join RHOBH for weeks,” a source close to the situation tells Life & Style.
“They’ve been talking about it and she’s tempted, but she’d want to play a bigger part on the production side of things, too. They’d have to reach some form of agreement for her sign up as an official housewife but there have been discussions.”
Cohen himself has conceded that Kris is unlikely to take the gig due to the fact that he’s unable to offer her the kind of control she’s accustomed to.
“I don’t think she would do it. [Kris] is leaving a show for which she has total control over. Why would she leave and join a show that she has no control over?” he said on a recent episode of his SiriusXM.
“She wouldn’t be an executive producer of the show, she wouldn’t have control over the edits, so I think for someone who is used to having so much power over a show, I can’t see her surrendering that power.”
But that doesn’t mean Kris and her friends on RHOBH won’t be working together at all.
“She’s made cameo appearances on the show before and had a blast,” the Life & Style source says.
“As it stands, she’s more likely to become a familiar face next rather than an official housewife next season, and will see how it goes from there but anything is possible.”
It may not be much, but we’ll take the world’s most famous momager however we can get her.