KUWTK was almost part of the Bravo empire of shows
By Josh Hill
If history shook out differently, Keeping Up With The Kardashians would be airing alongside Real Housewives on Bravo.
Whenever a television show is a hit for a network, part of the narrative inevitably becomes about losers. Not the show or the network currently airing the series, rather the networks that passed and/or missed out on it.
We’ve all heard the stories about NBC passing on The Walking Dead and basically everyone aside from AMC passing on Breaking Bad. There’s a similar what-if story for Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ryan Secrest helped tell the tale of how hard it was to sell the show. Seacrest said that after E! initially passed on the series, he set his eyes towards another up-and-coming reality television hub.
"We pitched it to E!, and initially they passed. I called Ted and said, “This is a special show, and I want you to know we brought it to you [first].” I was going to take it to Bravo."
As we now know, that never happened. Imagine how different the reality television landscape would be if Bravo had landed KUWTK. Even without the series, Bravo has staked its flag in the reality television mountain with the Real Housewives series, but picture a world where Andy Cohen is hosting a Kardashians-based talk show.
Think about how close we were to having that mega-ultra-superteam: The Kardashians and Andy Cohen, with a full serving of Real Housewives.