Since the inception of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kim Kardashian has always been the one credited as the reason why the family landed their own TV show. But, according to new reports, Caitlyn Jenner was the real celebrity who helped the then-unknown family snag a reality series.
In 2007, the first season of KUWTK aired on the E! network. Kim was just 27 years old and had created a little buzz for herself as the sidekick of the top socialite of the time, Paris Hilton. Paris had already gotten herself in hot water with a sex tape leak of her own in 2003. The shocking tape came around the same time the hotel heiress snagged her own reality show alongside Nicole Richie called A Simple Life. So, speed up to 2007 when a sex tape Kim made with her ex-boyfriend Ray J back in 2002 surfaced and hurled their names into the tabloids. The media coverage brought Kim new attention outside of being friends with Paris. When KUWTK was announced later that year, many assumed Kim landed the show as a result of her X-rated video. But new reports say otherwise and credit the feat to one member of the family who was already a self-made celebrity figure at the time.
In Dirty Sexy Money: The Unauthorized Biography of Kris Jenner, the memoir claims the producers behind the creation of the series were more interested in Caitlyn Jenner (then Bruce Jenner). "For years the traditional party line for explaining the Kardashians’ rise to power has been that wildly ambitious Kris Jenner was desperate for fame and birthed a television show on the back of her daughter’s porno flick," the book states, as noted by OK! Magazine. It continues to explain how the series creators used the former Olympian's name to reel in interest from network execs. "The reality, however, is that the real draw initially for programmer makers was Bruce Jenner," the book reads. "Without him to hook in the television bigwigs, Kris and her daughters would have been unlikely to get a second look. The sex tape had nothing to do with it."
Additionally, the book claims Ryan Seacrest, the late John Ferriter, and his producing partner, Eliot Goldberg, were actually the ones most instrumental in getting the show picked up. After Goldberg met with talent executive Deena Katz, Katz had already worked with Caitlyn and Kris after booking them on a show in the past. Once producers saw the natural drama between the family during a meeting, Katz opted to focus on the Olympic champion's name when she suggested the idea to Goldberg. "Bruce Jenner was the big thing," Goldberg later recalled. "He was the Olympic athlete." The book goes on to explain the reputation of the Kardashian sisters at the time. "The Kardashians were known because of O.J. Simpson," it states. "The Kardashian sisters had been making the rounds about the store, so they were on E!’s radar."
When it comes to the role Kim's sex tape played in the show getting picked up, the book reads, "There was a little bubbling about the [sex] tape, but ... nobody really knew who Kim Kardashian was." It looks like Caitlyn Jenner deserves more credit than she's given.
Source: OK! Magazine