Over the past 15 seasons of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, there’s been a lot of drama — and a lot of the family’s most important moments have been perfectly captured on film. So perfectly, in fact, that if you’ve felt a little suspicious, you’re definitely not the only one. Season 16 is set to premiere on Sunday, and before the new episodes arrive, you might be wondering how real they are. Is Keeping Up With The Kardashians scripted?
It’s hard to get a definitive answer to that one, but it does it seem like KUWTK isn’t based in 100 percent reality — much like most flashy reality shows on TV. After all, with such a huge cast and so many major life moments going on (and E! wanting to be able to broadcast quality episodes), there’s going to be some degree of reshoots and editing happening to put a cohesive season together with a timeline that makes sense.
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Although no one in the family has straight up admitted that the show is scripted publicly, rumors and various pieces of intel have surfaced for years about the different levels of which KUWTK is staged. According to court documents from Kim Kardashian’s divorce from Kris Humphries that were obtained by Life & Style, producer Russell Jay admitted in his deposition that there were at least two scenes involving Humphries that were reshot or scripted.
The Kardashians are also heavily involved in the editing process of the show, too. When Kim appeared on Ashley Graham’s podcast, Pretty Big Deal, back in October, she confirmed that they’ve never edited out “crazy content,” but that she does watch and approve all of the edits to every episode.
“I’m not in the actual editing room but I watch every cut and every edit,” she said. “And that, I think, has always been the magic to being ourselves and showing everything, because we know that we could really have a say in it.”
There have also been a lot of continuity errors between the time the show is filmed and when it makes it to our TVs, and writer Mariah Smith at The Cut is constantly pointing them out, if you’re into that kind of thing. One example she’s pointed out is that Kris and Scott have filmed a scene about missing out on a trip to Cuba that had taken place two weeks earlier, acting as if Khloe, Kim, and Kourtney were still there. Yikes.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been plenty of genuine moments on the show, too. It was heartbreaking to see Khloe cope with going into labor into the world just days after finding out about Tristan’s cheating scandal last season. But it’s also been really fun to see the family celebrate the happier moments in their lives, too, like all of the births and the weddings and the graduations that have happened over the last decade the show has been on the air.
Season 16 of KUWTK premieres on Sunday, March 31, and there’s no doubt there will be plenty of editing and continuity errors that fans will point out to come. But maybe that’s part of the fun of watching the show?