Original subtitles

I'm the dopest. I'm the ropest person in this class.

- You're 16 years old and cameras are rolling

and you're telling everybody,

"I wanna be famous, I wanna be famous, I wanna be famous."

- Does everyone get a tape of this?

Because I hope you do so you can see me when I'm famous

and all of you remember me of this beautiful little girl.

(dramatic music)

- Kim Kardashian, she had one goal,

make me the most famous person in the world.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] The Kardashians seemed so ordinary

when they hit our screens 15 years ago.

(crowd screams)

They're now the biggest family in show business.

- They're victorious. We have been vanquished.

They are in fact an industry.

- World domination next?

- Maybe. (crowd screams)

- [Narrator] These films tell the story

of how they capture the world's imagination

to become rich beyond their wildest dreams.

- They're aligned for public consumption.

So on Instagram,

the power of the Kardashians reach, it's that valuable.

(dramatic music)

- Together with Kim Kardashian, we broke the internet.

(dramatic music)

- That deal valued her business at $1.2 billion,

which is insane. (dramatic music)

- [Narrator] What were they like before they were famous?

- I think this is it.

- You know Khloe and Kourtney.

- They were in it to win it from the beginning.

(dramatic music)

- I don't think I've ever known anybody who

started out the way Chris started out.

- We've got the machine

that's about to revolutionise the way America walks.

- [Reporter] Barack Obama thinks Kim Kardashian

and Kanye West are the worst.

- [Narrator] And how did they conquer

the world of celebrity? (dramatic music)

- To have a reality star

whose career was essentially launched

from a scandalous sex tape.

- Kim Kardashian-West. (crowd applauds)

- Sit down and discuss policy

and prison reform with the sitting president.

That only happens in America.

- It really is such an honour to be here.

- That's wild.

- [Producer] All right, we're ready.

- No, no, no. You're right here.

- [Narrator] On the 14th of October, 2007,

the Kardashians made their debut

on an obscure US cable channel.

- I need someone to make me laugh.

- [Narrator] The title sequence portrayed a wholesome,

fun-loving all-American family,

but it gave no hint that the show was definitely not

traditional family viewing.

- [Producer] That's it, we're done.

- Why did you make a sex tape?

- Because I was horny and I felt like it.

(Khloe laughs) (jazz music)

- [Narrator] The show would enable the Kardashians

to capitalise on an exciting new gap

in the entertainment market.

(jazz music)

- So this is where we are.

This is where it all happened.

Kim Kardashian lived right here in this building here,

right here on South Clark Drive,

right here in West Hollywood.

She came on her own, lived in a one bedroom apartment,

and built an empire. (jazz music)

My name is Sheeraz Hasan and I make people famous.

Kim Kardashian did not wanna be a movie star.

She didn't wanna be a recording artist.

She didn't want to do modelling.

You know, she didn't wanna do fashion.

You know, what do you want?

"Sheeraz, I wanna become

the most famous person in the world."

- [Paparazzi] This your first tour in LA, Paris?

- [Paparazzi] Paris, Paris.

- [Paparazzi] Paris, we love you.

- My first interaction with Kim

is when she was Paris Hilton's assistant.

Paris Hilton, you know, is huge reality star,

but she was pretty much her stylist, running errands.

Where Paris Hilton was one of the biggest stars in the world

and Kim was her shadow.

- Can I get a picture with you?

Thank you, I love your blog. - Thank you.

- Now what Kim did was very smart at the time.

She was photo bombing media opportunities.

(dramatic music) Even if I'm holding a bag.

Even when we're running your Starbucks,

I don't care what I'm doing,

I'm in that shot. (dramatic music)

So when you have someone like Kim that's DNA

and her entire focus is I want to become famous,

then she's gonna do whatever it takes.

(dramatic music)

- I just gotta do a screen cover.

- Oh my gosh. (dramatic violin music)

You're not recording.

Oh. - I was just doing photo.

- [Narrator] Before the Kardashians were discovered,

Spencer and Heidi were the big names in reality TV

portraying themselves as the constantly rowing love birds

in a show called "The Hills."

- She's hand is practically on your knee.

I mean, and dressed like that.

How many times have you even seen her?

(dramatic music)

I remember meeting Kim,

I think the first time was when

we were filming for "The Hills"

and she was coming over to organise my closet.

And I knew her as Paris's friend

and the Kardashians hadn't been picked up yet

and she was so nice and you know, had a great work ethic.

She never drank and she was always so on point,

knew everybody's name.

Just a very professional person.

- I wonder, do you guys need footage?

I have my own footage that I got from Heidi

when she was in the Girl's Gone Wild Fashion Show

and we're backstage with Kim.

This up here is a stash of tapes.

I don't know what most of these are, but,

but I think this is it, Heidi Fashion Show, Miami.

(pop music)

Boom.

Look it who it is.

- [Heidi] Hey, hey. - How are you guys?

The whole fam is here.

- [Spencer] I remember she was did up

like ready for the Oscars

before anyone knew who she was.

- [Guest] Sharon, a smash box.

- Your welcome.

Thank you. Thank you.

I only wish I had the guts to walk out on the runway

with all the lights.

- [Guest] Look the Kardashians.

- [Kim] Oh my God.

- You notice Kim takes her photo with Heidi, is nice,

boom, on to networking.

Off to work the room like a pro.

Kim was thirstier than us, as wild as that statement sounds,

you know, known as the most fame-whore couple,

Kim blew us out of the water.

- And they were really targeting fame and studying it

and taking it very seriously, the entire family.

So they were in it to win it from the beginning.

(dramatic piano music)

- [Narrator] Starring in a reality show

was the key to finding fame for low level celebrities

lacking traditional showbiz talents.

The Kardashians just needed a foot in the door.

(dramatic piano music)

- My name's Eliot Goldberg.

I was a co-creator

and executive producer of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians."

(dramatic piano music)

So I was looking for a celebrity family

that we could put on television.

I just remember being hit like a lightning bolt

in the meeting.

I'm sitting there talking to,

at that point was Bruce now Caitlyn,

and he's sort of rolling his eyes, talking about sports,

and going like this and Kris, you know, saying,

"You know what Kim, you know you," blah blah blah.

And it was just like sort of watching a performance,

which I had had hundreds and hundreds of pitches in my life.

I'd never had a pitch like this.

But I remember thinking,

"We should try to do something with them."

(pop music)

- Hey, I'm Kim Kardashian

and I get to live every girl's dream.

I can't believe it's actually my job-

- [Narrator] The original sales tape

saw a perfectly coiffured Kim

confidently posing as an established star.

- If you think my life is crazy, meet my family.

- We kind of came up with this idea

to make Kim sort of the lead.

We made her the narrator

and I thought that was sort of a hook that made sense.

I don't know what it is, who knows if it's even a show,

but my job as a development executive is to take chances

and to try.

(dramatic music) (cameras click)

- [Narrator] As luck would have it,

Lindsay Lohan's show had just been cancelled

following a drink driving incident

that left a cable channel with a gaping hole

in their schedule. (dramatic music)

- My name's Ted Harbert. (dramatic music)

E at that time was a successful but struggling network

and I was brought in to try to just put on more hit shows.

I took the, I think it was a TVD home,

and put it in the machine,

came back the next morning and said to my staff,

"I think this is a hit.

We should put it on the air."

(light music)

- We got a call on Monday,

"Hey Eliot, so hey,

if we're gonna pick up the Kardashian show,

I need it on the air in six weeks."

And I said, "Wait, wait, wait.

Did you say you're gonna pick up the Kardashian show?"

- Yeah. - Can someone (beep) help me?

- Do you have it? - Like, I'm really tired

of doing all (beep).

- I'm buying something on the phone.

- [Narrator] The first season of

"Keeping Up with the Kardashians"

followed a fail safe formula,

mixing banality with explosive arguments.

- Send to you.

- Get the (beep) outta here.

Go to (beep) smooch, get the (beep) out of here.

- Oh my God, psycho.

- Out. Get the (beep) out.

- I've been involved with a lot of family dramas

and it's a kind of a simple formula,

conflict between family, resolution at the end.

Everybody hugs, we love each other.

I narrowed that down to fight, fight, fight,

hug, hug, hug, love, love, love.

And that's basically, if you watch the Kardashian episodes,

it's what happens almost every episode.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] What really gave the Kardashians the edge

was how perfectly poised family members

showed no embarrassment discussing the most

intimate personal matters.

- When I first heard about Kim's tape as her mother,

I wanted to kill her,

but as her manager I knew that I had a job to do

and I really just wanted her to move past it.

(dramatic music)

- So there were rumours that Kim had a sex tape

going around Hollywood

and she was adamant that this wasn't true.

And then one morning we saw an item in the Daily News

that said that there was a sex tape in fact

and it was being touted around porn companies

and it was Kim Kardashian's.

She was in Australia at the beach with Paris.

So we called her and Kim was in tears.

She was absolutely in pieces,

but she admitted that there was a sex tape.

- Can you even see?

- Yeah, I got it set up.

I'll be back in a minute, holla.

- [Narrator] The low quality home movie

had been made four years earlier,

filmed by Kim's then boyfriend,

now forgotten R&B star Ray J.

- That's just a little taste of me making a bounce tonight.

- [Narrator] What the film lacked in production values

was made up for by the uninhibited performances

of its stars.

- Everyone wanted to know was this a strategic move

to catapult Kim Kardashian's fame

or were they victims of someone violating their privacy?

(dramatic violin music)

- [Narrator] For many, it seemed too much of a coincidence

that Kim's mentor Paris Hilton

had also found fame following the release of a tape.

(dramatic violin music)

- You remember Paris Hilton's sex tape

obviously put Paris Hilton on another level

when it came to stardom. (dramatic violin music)

I was told Paris led Kim down that path and said,

"Here is the roadmap. Put out a sex tape.

The world will know your name."

- [Narrator] In February, 2007,

the Kardashians announced they would sue the distributors.

- That lawsuit settled out of court.

I'm gonna give you my personal opinion.

It was done to save face.

I can tell you it's not the first time I've seen

a frivalent lawsuit go out

where all parties involved know exactly

what's going on 'cause it benefits everyone.

Putting out a lawsuit,

saying you didn't wanna be a part of it,

all of it fueled the fire

of more people being interested in seeing it

'cause they're not supposed to see it.

It is the highest grossing sex tape,

celebrity sex tape, of all time.

- The sex tape did have relevance to my decision.

I was a little worried that we'd be criticised for

putting Kim on.

On the other hand,

I also thought that the sex tape might attract viewers

who wanna, okay, who is this woman?

But that can help elevate curiosity

and let's go check out what this woman's all about.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] The gamble paid off.

Despite industry critics,

the audience wanted more and the series was recommissioned.

- Kris pulled me aside and she said,

"And I just have a great feeling about this

and I just wanna make you one promise,

with this family shit always happens to us."

(paparazzi chatter)

(crowd cheers)

- While we breathe, we hope.

And where we are met with cynicism and doubts

and those who tell us that we can't,

we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up

the spirit of a people.

Yes, we can. (crowd cheers)

- [Narrator] In 2008, Obama makes history.

He'd soon discover that middle America

was more interested in a different kind of celebrity.

- My name is Larry Hackett.

I was the editor-in-chief of People Magazine.

We were the final kind of stamp of celebrity achievement.

If you got on the cover of People Magazine,

you had arrived in the pantheon of American stardom.

And I go to Washington to interview

the new president of the United States, Barack Obama.

(foreboding music)

We are leaving, the correspondent and I,

and she says to me,

"So I'll talk to press secretary

and tell him about the cover."

And I screw up the courage and I say,

"It's not gonna be the cover."

She's like, "What do you mean it's not gonna be the cover?"

I'm like, "We have a different cover this week"

She said, "What is it?"

I said, "Heidi Montag's breast surgery."

(comical music)

- [Narrator] On the cover,

The Obamas were relegated to a picture

the size of a postage stamp.

- I put Heidi Montag's breast surgery

on the cover of the magazine

instead of the new president of the United States.

Why? Because I still believe to this day

it was gonna sell more.

You can imagine his response.

(Larry laughs) (electronic music)

So that was the world we were living in.

- [Paparazzi] Love you Kourtney.

(paparazzi chatter)

- [Paparazzi] You guys pulled up in the same time

like y'all are sisters and know what's going on and stuff.

- [Narrator] "Keeping up with the Kardashians"

had just been recommissioned

but the family had yet to make their fortune.

(paparazzi chatter)

- It was keeping up with the Jones.

You're shopping and spending all this money.

You're driving cars that you might not be able to afford.

You're spending millions of dollars

or racking it up on a credit card

so you can ha be best dressed

and be relevant within these magazines.

- And people are like,

"Oh, how'd you go through $10 million," da da da?

It's like, that was easy at this time

'cause reality TV is now getting put in with

A-list celebrities in the media.

So we're going against their checks,

which are 25 million a movie

against our way smaller checks,

you know, battling for headlines,

"Entertainment Tonight," "Extra," "Access Hollywood."

So the playing field had levelled out,

but we didn't have the budget.

(dramatic piano music)

- I remember if you look back,

the Kardashians were in massive credit card debt

and there was a bunch of stories

that had come out about that.

That they needed money

and this show changed their entire lives.

They were using a facade house for Kris Jenner's home

where it was this big beautiful home

near Runyon Canyon that was very visible,

but it wasn't even where the Kardashians lived.

And I think that was,

"We want to put on a persona of

we have more money than we necessarily have."

Which I kind of love the the whole Kim Kardashian

fake it till you make it really worked out for them.

(fast paced piano music)

- [Narrator] Right from the start,

The Kardashians had a plan to become rich

beyond their wildest dreams.

- At that time,

you gotta remember there was no social media.

There was none of these platforms out there, none.

So the only thing that you could get was the cameras,

was the media, was the paparazzi driving that level of fame.

So the strategy was once we make enough of a noise

in the tabloid world,

once we make enough noise in the media,

covers would follow, the brands would follow,

that could monetize what they were doing.

(fast paced piano music)

- My name is Dan Wakeford.

I was the editor and chief of Life & Style Magazine.

It was 2008 and Kim wanted a cover the magazine

and I was really scared to give her a cover

because you wouldn't usually do that with a cable show,

it would usually have to be a big star.

But people were chattering about Kim.

And then one night she invited me out to a club

with her friend Brittny Gastineau

and we pulled up and there were ques around the block,

there were lines around the block and I was like,

"What is going on? Why are they here?"

And Britney just looked at me,

"They're here for Kim."

And it was in the moment I decided to

take a risk and put her on the cover of the magazine.

(foreboding music)

We did a great body positivity interview with her

and the cover line was, "I have cellulite, so what?"

And it flew off the shelves.

It was my biggest seller I'd ever had at the time.

Women just adored the fact that she was being open

and relatable and just like them.

(foreboding music)

- Kim was so good at doing body related stuff,

how Kim lost 30 pounds,

how Kim's getting bikini ready,

like I remember always seeing that as her way in.

And this is when these magazines sold 3 million plus a week.

It was like dropping a multi-platinum album.

(paparazzi chatter)

- Once the new it girl looked far differently

than what we've seen before.

You know, everyone wanted to start looking like

Kim Kardashian because

Kim Kardashian was found to be very attractive

by men everywhere.

- I remember we had an editor at TMZ back in the day.

He started to take a big liking to Kim.

He liked her butt.

That's really what it came down to.

And every video that we'd get we would start focusing in

on her backside and start saying,

"This woman is beautiful.

The world should pay attention to her."

- Well. - Hi.

- Hello and what a pleasure.

- [Narrator] Kim was quick to capitalise

on her unique asset

and just 10 months after the launch of her sex tape

she was in frank negotiations to grace the cover

of an adult magazine.

- I'm very excited about having you in the December issue.

- I'm very excited. - Very excited.

The great face, the hair, the booty.

I think it will all do very well.

- Got it.

- I have one little question.

- [Hugh] Okay. - Does she have to take

her clothes off?

- [Hugh] Oh yes. (dramatic music)

- When we get to see Kim and her mother,

Kris Jenner going back and forth to decide

if she should do the cover of Playboy Magazine,

people were all in.

- I mean, I'm sure she's not just standing there

with her boobs out.

- She's probably posing and going like this.

- [Narrator] The show went on to document the sisters'

entertaining support for Kim's decision to bear all

in an ultra glamorous photo shoot.

- And then she sticks her butt out

and then her stomach goes in more

and her mouth is always open.

Like why is her mouth open in every picture.

- So I did do Playboy a few months after Kim

and she was really encouraging that she didn't regret it

and just go for it and just get the great photos.

And I ended up not doing the nudity route.

- You start getting, you know, half a million dollars,

it's a lot of money so it's like.

And they're just like, "Just boobs."

And it's like, again,

I don't have boobs otherwise they would've been in that.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] As season two rolled into season three,

the family quickly became known

for their audacious pursuit of money.

- [Reporter] Kim Kardashian helped open

their newest location at 142 West 42nd Street

where Kim was presented with the key

to unlock the 2010 Charmin restrooms.

- She was at the opening of the new hottest toilet in town

and good for her 'cause, you know,

it looked like she got paid.

- It's the fifth year in a row that Charmin is opening up

a great gorgeous clean restrooms for,

you know, everyone to use in New York City

during the holidays.

- This is a great example of Kim

and the Kardashians not being too good for anything

and just really being there, putting their head down.

She didn't have any attitude about it.

She showed up.

She had a great speech to the camera,

hair, makeup, professional. (enchanting music)

- Anything they got offered they would do.

There was no no,

like they said yes to everything

and eventually that paid off

because they just were everywhere at one point.

(crowd cheers)

- [Narrator] The family would soon find themselves

fending our false advertising lawsuits.

They were eventually forced to cut ties

with a high interest credit card

accused of targeting young people

and a slimming supplement that contained mostly caffeine.

But in 2011,

they secured a deal that would change the family's fortunes.

(dramatic music)

- I got a phone call of how the CMO of Sketchers

is gonna be at Mr. Chows in Beverly Hills.

"Kim, you're gonna out to dinner tonight."

"Where?"

"You're gonna Mr. Chows."

"Why?"

"There's a huge marketing executive

going to be eating at Mr. Chows.

He's gonna eat.

He's gonna do what he wants, doesn't matter.

Yes, he doesn't know you, whatever.

We're gonna get you a table."

- [Paparazzi] Kim. (paparazzi chatter)

- I made such a media drama

outside Mr. Chows that the CMO was just,

"Who is this? Who is this person?"

- [Paparazzi] Kim, man, what are you doing?

- Later Kris Jenner ended up closing a deal with Sketchers

and she became the face of the Super Bowl.

- This commercial starts playing.

(seductive music)

And it cuts to a scene where it's Kim Kardashian

barely wearing any clothes.

It's her and this guy.

- I don't really know how to say this

other than to just say it.

You're amazing.

- And it honestly looks like they're like

recreating her sex tape.

Like they're on top of each other.

She's making a lot of innuendos.

- The best I've ever had,

but things just aren't working out.

Well, that's not completely true.

- And then it cuts away and it's a Sketcher's commercial.

- It's something else.

- But the way they did it

really made you think that they were

playing off of her sex tape

and capitalising on that whole thing once again.

- [Narrator] In 2012,

building on what would become

a new business direction for the family,

Kim decided to launch her latest perfume.

But getting noticed in the crowded marketplace

would require an unorthodox PR technique.

- So you're launching a perfume, okay, amazing.

But guess what? We want the news to talk about it.

Do journalists care?

No, they're not there to make you rich and to promote.

So I'm saying, "Okay, then it's very simple.

Then we have to disrupt this event."

- Kim was at her perfume launch

and Kim walked the red carpet.

(dramatic music)

Got flour bombed and obviously this made a lot of press.

(dramatic music)

- It's very convenient that at a launch for a perfume

and while you're filming for your show

you get flour bombed.

And this is where sometimes the viewers,

or us as the viewers,

we kinda like tilt our head like, "Is this real?

Did you really do this?"

But you'll never know. (dramatic music)

- I'm launching a fragrance. Guess what we do?

You are willing to get flour bombed.

We have our discussions.

Kim, team, "Okay, this is what's gonna happen.

You're gonna be fine.

You're gonna be safe,

but we're gonna create a media moment."

If we create media gold, then guess what's gonna happen?

Everyone's gonna talk about your perfume.

Everyone's gonna buy it.

Are the team on it?

Of course they're in on it.

(dramatic music) (paparazzi chatter)

- [Narrator] Despite their talent

for capturing the public's attention,

it would take another decade

for the Kardashians to become billionaires.

All thanks to the family's true genius.

- I can tell you the reason why

Kim Kardashian is one of the most famous people

in the world today is because

she had a woman right beside her

who will do whatever it takes.

Kris Jenner is a beast.

This is a woman that,

a real definition of a media beast,

that's behind a daughter who is all about business.

(paparazzi chatter)

(dramatic piano music)

- [Ted] Kris is one of the best negotiators

I've ever met in my life.

I frankly didn't expect this mom of many

with no legal training at all to end up being

such a powerful negotiator.

- [Narrator] So confident was Kris Jenner's vision

of her family's earning potential.

She made sure from the start

there would be no unnecessary sharing of the spoils.

- The most interesting part about Kris Jenner is

she was already part of the biggest TV shows

in maybe the history of the world,

which was the OJ Simpson trial.

- [Reporter] Word has been out throughout the whole

southern California community,

all kind of bulletins saying that OJ Simpson is wanted.

That he's been charged in the two murders

that took place Sunday night. (dramatic music)

- Robert Kardashian was this American attorney

who came to fame because he was best friends with OJ Simpson

and he also was a part of that legal team.

- [Narrator] America's most famous murder trial

catapulted the Kardashian name into the limelight

as well as getting OJ Simpson off a double murder.

Robert Kardashian was married to Kris.

- The whole OJ Simpson situation took place

and I recognised right away the name Kardashian.

(dramatic music)

I'm Leslie Johnson Leach.

I was dating Kris Jenner's father

and Kris was 17 years old at the time.

Kris came from a family that was not a very wealthy family.

She was very beautiful and she was very social.

I don't think I've ever known anybody who

started out the way someone like Kris started out

and then rose up the way she rose up and now.

(ambient music)

- [Narrator] It was 1973 when Kris first met the rich

and well connected LA lawyer Robert Kardashian.

(ambient music)

- I started as a photojournalist in Los Angeles.

My name's Larry Schiller.

And somewhere is in the '70s

I met Robert Kardashian

who was married to this knockout chick.

And it wasn't long, Kris had they're first baby.

And Kris, she was almost a perfect mother.

She was so devoted to the girls, it was just unbelievable.

- [Robert] You'd think the queen just had a new baby.

- [Narrator] In this rare home movie

shared on Kim's social media channel.

It's clear how keen the couple were

to have their family on film.

- [Reporter] Oh what a great picture.

- [Woman] That's a good one.

- When Chris was about ready to turn 30, Robert said to me,

"I wanna make a video for her."

And what we did is we took Kris

and we went all around LA.

And she was singing to the music track.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] With the taste for the high life,

Kris set her sights on becoming more than

just a glamorous housewife and the couple divorced in 1991.

- When the divorce came about,

Kris was pretty much on her own financially.

That's when Kris starts to emerge as this businesswoman.

(ambient music)

- [Narrator] She married American sports hero

and Olympic champion Bruce, now Caitlyn Jenner,

who was down on his luck with just $200 in the bank.

(ambient music)

- Kris is really what kind of pushed Bruce

back into prominence.

I always looked at Kris as being

the much more savvy marketing person

and business person than Bruce was.

Him and Kris were doing infomercials on TV

and selling fitness products.

- We've got the machine

that's about to revolutionise the way America walks.

- Here you had to treadmill without a motor

and you had to do all the things.

So instead of making it like

we couldn't afford to put a motor in this,

it's like, "Boy you should have this

without a motor because it's better."

- If you want to go slow, you can slow it down.

If you want to go faster, you could pick it up.

- They sold a lot of those units.

I think it really just opened her up

so that she could see that

she could really be anything she wanted.

And she had within her, you know, all the tools.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Chris even got her new husband

on the motivational speaker circuit

and experimented with a TV fitness channel.

- When the show started and they start endorsing things

and popping up everywhere,

that is really Kris Jenner

putting into practise what she did for Caitlyn,

when Caitlyn was kind of down on her luck,

I think she just took that experience

and implied it to her girls.

- Once upon a time, was a little girl

and she was happy.

- [Narrator] As this intimate moment reveals,

Kim was already perfectly at ease in front of the camera.

- Being in front of cameras really started

when they were little girls

and every part of those girls' lives

was being documented on a camera.

So it really, their childhood was a training ground

for what was to come.

- The idea of as a family sharing

everything that happens is a huge decision

and I think very difficult.

I've tried to think would I ever do that?

No, there's things I would not want the world to see.

Kris got it. (dramatic music)

- [Narrator] By season four

of "Keeping up with the Kardashians,"

it would seem that there was nothing left

for this family to share.

But once again, they would deliver.

(ambient music)

- Kourtney's pregnancy was a big deal

'cause she's the first person to get pregnant in the family.

It's the first grandkid.

It's like the first time you got to see

that much intimate moment of someone's pregnancy.

(ambient music)

- It wasn't just a 20 minute story for the audience

to be engaged in.

It's a nine month long narrative.

So it really stretched out their storyline

throughout the family.

- And back to like how authentic the Kardashians are.

They're even showing the birth in the delivery room.

A baby is coming out of a, you know what,

you know, so that's like they put it all on camera.

- Kourtney's acting like nothing is wrong.

She just is so calm.

She's isn't even crying. I'm crying.

- Oh my gosh. (light music)

- You want to grab him?

- [Scott] Oh my god.

- Oh my gosh. Can I pull him put?

- Yeah, go ahead.

There he goes.

There we go. It's a boy.

Oh my gosh.

- I mean, that's real TV right there.

- Yeah, not give a damn, like,

"Yeah, I'll pull this kid outta my vagina on national TV.

I don't care," right?

No shame, they don't care.

(paparazzi chatter)

- [Narrator] The episode would prove

to be their highest rated yet,

leading some viewers to question

if the pregnancy was a deliberate strategy.

- What was apparent with our show

and any show is to keep viewers hooked,

you need to keep bigger stories

and that's why on "The Hills"

it got to the point where they have us doing

all these fake fights

because it needs to be more dramatic

'cause people just want more, more, more.

So with the Kardashians to maintain as far as they have,

they always need a bigger story arc.

(dramatic music) (paparazzi chatter)

- I think Kris uses her family's ups

and downs as great selling points for the show.

That's a great way to explain exploitation.

(Natalie laughs)

- [Narrator] The Kardashians had given more

than any reality family before them,

but their public were about to turn.

- I think some people felt bad.

Other people loved watching her crumble.

(dramatic music)

(cameras click) (dramatic music)

- Kim was heading into her thirties

and she wanted to have children.

She wanted to have what her mother has had.

She wanted to find her man

and then she did something that many people do.

She projected her fantasy of married life onto somebody

and tried to will it to happen.

- [Narrator] Season six introduced

self-conscious looking basketball star Chris Humphries

and saw him sharing a carefully staged marriage proposal

with over 3 million viewers.

- Oh my God. (romantic music)

This is like the moment

that every girl has dreamed of their entire life.

You're crazy. - I love you.

Will you marry me? (romantic music)

- Oh my god, yes.

- By the way you're getting married.

What does that mean? Media gold.

Sign that piece of paper.

This has now become a show. (dramatic music)

- Kim, getting married to Chris Humphries

was the biggest thing in entertainment news.

That was the biggest wedding.

I mean, falling short of like a royal wedding.

(dramatic music)

- One thing that people know on TV

that rates high are weddings.

There's a lot of money to be made on the backside.

Viewers are interested and it's great for tabloid.

So I definitely think Kim knew

there was nothing to lose with this wedding,

only lots of money to gain.

- That is one of the reasons why we had

multiple weddings on television.

(dramatic music)

- You had E involved, the press.

You had like Vera Wang involved making all your dresses.

It was a production.

Like it was a big wedding on top of a actual TV production.

(dramatic music)

- Every detail about this wedding

we were covering stories on

because that was the only thing people wanted to read.

- [Paparazzi] Kim, are you ready to try the knot?

Kim, have you picked out your wedding dress yet?

- One of the things that was our stock

and trade at People Magazine was having wedding

and baby photos.

We'd had Julia Roberts's kids.

We'd had Britney's wedding.

We'd had Brad and Angelina's kids.

It was something that we did.

- [Paparazzi] Wow. You look beautiful, Kim.

- I entered into negotiations with Kris Jenner about

the wedding pictures for Kim.

- [Paparazzi] Hi Kris. - I'm okay, how are you?

- [Paparazzi] Good. - I mean, it's a card game.

She was, you know, carving me up with a smile on her face.

(piano music)

That, I think, was one of those indicators where

she started to realise how famous they were.

At this point in time,

I wasn't gonna say no to these pictures.

(upbeat piano music)

- [Narrator] Exclusive photos

of the quintessential blushing bride

were sold to the magazine for a reported $1.5 million.

They put her on the cover with a knowing smile.

- I dedicated like two days to this wedding

'cause I think it was like a two day special

and I was like all in.

Like I remember before it even aired,

I woke up the day Kim was marrying Chris Humphries

and I was like, "Kim's getting married today."

Like that's how invested I was in it.

(crowd applauds)

- Friends and family, it's a delight to present

for the very first time Mr. and Mrs. Chris Humphries.

(crowd applauds)

- [Narrator] On the 9th of October, 2011,

10.5 million people would tune in to a well choreographed

picture perfect fairytale wedding,

breaking all the network's records.

- Baby, you're my wife.

- How weird is that?

- Now you're stuck with me forever.

- Perfect.

- In reality, the couple had married

seven weeks before the broadcast,

during which time an unexpected storyline

had been developing.

- And everyone's scratching their heads.

Everyone's hearing rumours around the family

that Chris and Kim aren't getting on.

(dramatic music)

- During that period of time,

I had got her millions of dollars to come to Dubai

as an appearance and I said to Kim,

"Bring your husband. Come. You know, it's okay.

I'll add it to the roster. No problem."

She said, "No, Sheeraz."

I said, "Why not?"

She said, "Well, he holds me back."

(dramatic music)

- I think Chris Humphries got into the family and was like,

looked around and said,

"I don't know if this is the situation for me.

I'm not sure I can handle this."

(dramatic violin music)

And as I recall,

they were married for about an hour and a half

and then they got divorced.

that she's splitting from her soon-to-be ex hubby,

Chris Humphries after only 72 days of wedded bliss.

(foreboding music)

- The world went wild

when they saw Kim had filed for divorce.

You had to wrap your head around the shock

and awe of did they really just go through this big wedding

to then file for divorce?

It almost didn't make any sense.

- [Narrator] Kim's marriage lasted less than three months.

It has estimated the family made $18 million

from the deals associated with it.

(dramatic music)

- I think that people probably thought,

"Oh, this is all for reality TV.

This wasn't real"

Because how can you leave a marriage that quickly?

You didn't even give it 90 days.

You know, most jobs you get like a 90 day,

you know, before you get evaluated

or before you get your benefits.

He didn't even get a chance

to get his health benefits, you know.

(cameras click) (paparazzi chatter)

- After the divorce was filed,

Chris then tried to say, "No, no, no,

I want this marriage annulled under the basis of fraud."

(dramatic music)

And the second he threw out the word fraud,

everyone attached to it. (dramatic music)

And then a lot of people pointed to Kim Kardashian said,

"You just use the world

and you used this marriage as a publicity stunt."

(foreboding music)

- We have so much going on in our lives right now

that we don't need to make up things

or fabricate issues to create a television show.

That is just ridiculous.

It's not like, you know, for any kind of financial gain.

(foreboding music)

- [Narrator] The Kardashians ratings plummeted.

(dramatic music)

- And the press just ate her up.

They just called the family like scammers

and they just did this for money.

At this point, there's nothing you can do

to keep the interest of the audience.

They don't trust you anymore.

Their reputation took a huge hit it.

(dramatic music)

But I thought for sure like,

"Oh, this might be the beginning of the end for them."

- This was a failing moment that people wanted to spotlight

and highlight and say,

"See, you shouldn't be paying this much attention

to the Kardashians." (dramatic music)

- But then Kim pulls a great move

and she doubles back to this guy

who's always liked her, called her Kim Karadashon,

and his name was Kanye Omari West.

(dramatic music) (paparazzi chatter)

- Kim-Ye wasn't just a cute celebrity nickname.

Like that was an enterprise.

A huge one.

(dramatic music)

- What they did is they fed the beast of Instagram.

- That deal valued her business at $1.2 billion.

(dramatic music)

- Together with Kim Kardashian, we broke the internet.

(dramatic music)

- This is clearly a black girl look

that you've co-opted.

- Kim Kardashian-West. (audience applauds)

- Fame got Kim Kardashian into the Oval Office.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic violin music)

(dramatic violin music)

- Everything we see of the Kardashians today

has been planned.

- [Interviewer] World domination next?

- Maybe.

- Everything is a strategy.

These are master marketers.

- You guys!

The whole fam is here.

- Kim takes her photo and, boom, on the network.

Like a pro.

- [Narrator] This is a story of how one family,

obsessed with fame,

conquered the world of celebrity.

- They get made fun of, derided,

looked down on, but like...

They monetized the thing that people ridicule them for.

It's ingenious.

- Modern American celebrity is our equivalent

of the gods on Mount Olympus,

and the Kardashians,

consciously or not, exploited that.

- [Narrator] But their journey to the top has been

fraught with accusations and scandal.

- Here is the road map.

Put out a sex tape, the world will know your name.

- So you're launching a perfume

and we have to disrupt this event.

Are the team on it?

Of course they're in on it.

- When Kim and Kris got married, it was a 72-day marriage.

- [Paparazzi] Kim!

Kim, how do you feel?

- And the press just ate her up.

I thought for sure, like, oh, this might be

the beginning of the end for them.

(paparazzi shouting indistinctly)

- [Paparazzi] Kim!

To your left, to your left!

Kim!

- I definitely think after the 72-day marriage scandal,

that she was like, the next move I make

has got to be important and it's gotta stick.

- The whole world knows.

One of the most famous people now.

So famous.

So successful.

So rich.

And she's single.

Kanye West was turned on by Kim Kardashian's power.

It was a power trip that made him fall in love.

(dramatic music)

- Kimye wasn't just a cute celebrity nickname.

That was an enterprise.

A huge one.

(paparazzi shouting indistinctly)

When Kim Kardashian ended that 72-day marriage,

Kanye wasted zero time swooping in there and wooing her.

And the way that he did it was very public.

He released like a mix tape and said, something like,

"I fell in love with Kim, as she fell in love with him."

And everyone was like is Kanye talking about Kim Kardashian?

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] The couple are seen out in public together,

when Kanye invites Kim to see his show

at Paris Fashion Week.

- [Paparrazi] Kim, how was the show?

Did you enjoy it?

- Once they became a couple,

everyone wanted to know everything.

Everything.

- [Narrator] With the public intrigued

by the latest celebrity couple,

it wasn't long before their relationship became reality.

In this telling moment from the Kardashian's TV show,

viewers got a hint of how Kim was willing

for Kanye to take the lead.

- [Kanye] Oh, hell no.

- Oh, yes.

Yes.

But shouldn't I just keep this for,

like, my daughter one day.

- He was, like, "You're beautiful,

but your clothes are not."

So, he went through her closet

and got rid of, like, all her stuff

and Kim used to wear, like, girly stuff,

pink little dresses and these shoes

and these, like, horrid, gaudy, Louis Vuitton bags.

And he got rid of it all.

- [Paparazzi] You look beautiful, Kim.

- I think that Kanye also really taught Kim Kardashian

how to be an uber-celebrity too.

All of a sudden, Kim is sitting front row

at New York Fashion Week which, you know, is a coveted seat.

I mean, she's sitting right there next to Anna Wintour.

Like, it was colossal.

(upbeat string music)

- Always from the beginning,

there were people who thought that embracing the Kardashians

was a sign of the downfall of the golden age of magazines.

It was, like, the peasants storming the Bastille.

But, Kanye wasn't like the average celebrity

who came to shows.

When he came to Fashion Week, he would go to every show.

He would go to small, young designers.

So he really, I think, was accepted.

We considered him part of the fashion world,

because the same hundred people go from New York to London

to Milan to Paris.

We share cars.

We sit next to each other.

You really got to know him.

- [Narrator] Kim's acceptance into the fashion elite

marked a turning point for the whole family.

Their influence could no longer be ignored.

- People realised that if Kim shared something

on Twitter or on Instagram,

that it had a huge impact and that became

more and more important to magazines and...

Nobody does that like the Kardashians.

- My name is Larry Hackett.

I was the editor-in-chief of People magazine

from 2006 until 2014.

And I recall, in the last couple of years,

the growth of the telephone just becoming something

we didn't know what to do about.

Once the telephone became something

where all of your news could be in your hand,

you didn't have to go to your desktop

and you're gonna be getting fundamentally the same news

on the website that you are on the magazine...

It's just a death knell for the industry.

What's amazing about the Kardashians,

is that with each development they always kind of

seem to sit at the intersection of some new technology.

The resistance to the notion that they don't have any talent

starts to fall away because they're just feeding

these beasts of coverage that people wanna see.

(crowd cheering)

- The number one thing that I used to get, all the time...

The Kardashians have no talent.

They can't act.

They can't sing.

They can't model.

They can't do anything.

If the Kardashians had the power to say

change your toothpaste from Colgate to Crest,

of course that's talent.

For at least 10 years,

I was working extremely close with Kim.

At the time, the number one social media platform

was Twitter.

It was the power of real time.

If you can give content to your followers,

you can speak to your followers,

have a direct communication with your followers,

now I know who's watching me.

Now I know who my fans are.

Then all I have to do is,

if I want to sell something to my fans,

who I speak to every single day,

they're gonna end up buying it.

- [Narrator] While the full value of social media

was being discovered,

Kim was solidifying a partnership

that would help her popularity soar.

- [Reporter] Preparations are under way in Florence, Italy,

for Saturday's wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

The couple, known as Kimye,

rented the 16th-century Belvedere Fort.

- I think that they both fed into each other.

I think they both realised the power of their partnership.

I think it's fair to say that Kim

added some stability to Kanye's life,

probably at a time that he needed it.

- He brought his star power.

He brought a totally new audience to her.

And that fanbase is huge and powerful.

- [Narrator] Having created a story that people were

once again willing to invest in,

Kim was primed to make her biggest cash-in to date.

- If you're Kim Kardashian and the whole world

is obsessed with the fact that you're famous

for being famous,

why not make a whole game about trying to become famous?

Glu Mobile, they were this small tech company

based in Silicon Valley.

They made these, kind of, mobile games

that were free to play and then had in-app purchases.

And they had this idea to turbo-charge a game

that they already saw as having traction.

They quickly realised that the, kind of,

main motivation of fans was to become famous

and that's exactly what Kim Kardashian symbolises.

Kim Kardashian Hollywood launched in 2014.

In about two years, it was downloaded 45 million times

and Forbes estimated that Kim took home

about 45 million dollars in that same time-frame.

- [Narrator] Having fully realised the power

of their following,

the Kardashians were about to take the value of celebrity

to a level never seen before.

- Kim started to realise, like,

huh, I can really monetize my fanbase.

But the person who, I think,

really realised that even better than Kim,

was Kylie.

- [Speaker] So help me God.

- So help me God.

- You could look at the presidency of a guy like Obama

as being the old notion of celebrity.

Right?

He accomplished something.

He was famous for doing things.

You went to a guy like Trump and Trump was...

I wouldn't say he was famous for being famous,

but let's remember, a celebrity...

A reality television show is what cemented

his fame outside of New York.

We here in New York knew he was ridiculous.

We've been covering him for 30 years.

But because reality TV made him into this kind of, like,

strutting, helicopter-riding mogul,

people out there, you know, believed it.

Why?

'Cause we told them that's what it was.

And he's been riding on that ever since.

- People realised that just because you've been on

a reality show,

that doesn't mean that you can't be

President of the United States.

And I think that certainly had some knock-on effect

in making people take Kim Kardashian more seriously.

If a reality star from "The Apprentice"

can end up in the White House,

Kim Kardashian can be a businesswoman.

- Instagram was the, let's call it,

the bank for the Kardashians.

They had all of their training ground on Twitter.

All of a sudden now, you've gone from, literally,

120 characters on Twitter to showing your lifestyle.

Showing glam.

What they did is, they fed the beast of Instagram.

And what did they do?

They generated so many followers.

So many followers.

And, at that time, they built an ecosystem

of the Kardashians that,

it doesn't matter what I sell my fanbase,

they're gonna buy it.

(dramatic music)

- I think the Kardashians were such a hit on Instagram

because they're over-sharers.

They need to share parts of their lives.

Their lives are for public consumption.

So, on Instagram, they can do all that in real time.

They don't have to push you to their website

or get you to click here,

it's right there, all in one app.

You can see Kim in a bikini.

You can see, you know, anything you need to see

they can show you in real time.

And not many celebrities do stuff like that.

- At the time, we were sending offers for Kim.

One million dollars.

One post.

One million dollars, brands are willing to pay.

Why?

Because when they push out a message on their social media,

guaranteed sell-out.

Guaranteed to create a trend.

It's the best million dollars you're spending.

- Even me, I have 1.6 million followers

and on one post I can make, like, $25,000.

It's just an insane amount of money

for the least amount of work.

But that's just how the world works today, like,

that's the power of the Kardashian's reach

and their engagement.

It's that valuable.

(slow melodic music)

- Kim Kardashian was the cash cow.

Right?

I got no offers for Kylie Jenner.

None.

Zero.

I would offer brands, "Why don't you take Kylie?

Let's bring Kylie with Kim."

Every brand couldn't even spot sparkling Kylie Jenner.

Nobody.

- And then Bruce and I together

have Kendall and Kylie Jenner.

- [Narrator] The youngest of the sisters, Kylie,

was just 10 years old when "Keeping Up With The Kardashians"

started airing.

- Look what I can do!

- [Narrator] In this contentious clip,

Kylie shocked some viewers who felt

she appeared over-sexualized.

- I can't imagine being on national television.

Having the world see you through those awkward kid phases.

No-one's really supposed to be able to see

that part of your life.

One day Kylie was the awkward little girl,

and the next day, it was very obvious

that she had some things done.

- Kylie denied it for the longest.

And how she would say she got her,

the fullness look is she would over-line her lips.

Finally, she tells people, actually, I got my lips done.

- Kylie was the sleeper cell

when it came to the Kardashians.

She was just the little sister.

And then, she now was hitting the younger demographic

of young girls who wanted to get dressed up

and put make up on.

And I remember the fascination with her body.

- The obsession with Kylie Jenner's lips was so profound

that teenagers were even doing, like,

the Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge,

which is where you got a shot glass and kind of, like,

inhaled on it in some way to sort of, like,

artificially plump your lips.

- Big lips.

Oh, my goodness, doctors are saying,

"Don't do that!"

More than 400,000 tweets about this in the last week

and you're also Facebooking this.

- [Narrator] While the public were mocking Kylie's looks,

plans were unfolding in the Kardashian camp

plans were unfolding in the Kardashian camp

to turn this to their advantage.

- What better business to start than lipstick,

if the whole world is obsessed with your lips?

- [Narrator] Kylie's uncurated Snapchat posts

gave her growing army of followers

a glimpse of her carefree lifestyle.

- She posted a few cryptic snaps of like,

oh, working on something new!

That kind of thing.

And then, November 2015,

she launched these three Kylie lip kits.

- [Kylie] I just posted it on Twitter.

- Go get it, honey!

- There's a clip where Kylie...

It's the day of the launch, and she's kind of,

on her website looking at the Shopify counter

that shows how many people are live on the store right then.

- [Narrator] The emotional reaction shows

how genuinely overwhelmed they were by its success.

- [Natalie] And, they all sold out instantly.

- Kylie, I think you've just launched an empire.

- [Narrator] Kylie was quickly following

in her older sister's footsteps.

Aged just 21, Kylie's rapidly growing cosmetics enterprise

drew the attention of America's top business magazine.

- Don't film the trash in my car.

(Natalie laughing)

All of a sudden, there's this direct-to-consumer brand

that's doing 330 million dollars in sales

without barely any overhead.

And a huge profit margin, like, this is amazing.

Forbes asked for documentation.

Something that you can see and know

that this isn't bullshit.

This is actually legitimate.

In 2017, I had a meeting with Kris Jenner in Calabasas.

And they were telling me that the full year figures for 2016

were something like 307 million dollars in revenue

for Kylie Cosmetics.

And that was just out of this world, unbelievable.

I saw a copy of her tax returns for the year

that showed those figures and the tax returns

all looked very legit.

- [Narrator] Kylie was forecast to become a billionaire.

A nice scoop for Forbes magazine,

and a PR jackpot for the Kardashians.

- My impression of Kris is that she is incredibly smart

and incredibly shrewd.

If you're building a business and you're seeking investment

or seeking to, say, sell a stake of your business,

one of the greatest ways to raise your profile

and do that is with a great splashy article

in Forbes magazine and a great cover.

This is the Kylie Jenner cover.

Spine date is August 2018.

And it calls her the 900 million dollar cosmetics queen.

"The 60 richest self-made women."

Immediately, it got a lot of backlash.

- Was she grinding?

And did she, like, come from the hood

and have to scrape together her pennies?

No, not really.

But, she still had to come up with this concept.

Whether it's self-made or not,

there's an element of, like,

wow, that's a pretty incredible thing

you did at such a young age.

- [Narrator] Whether or not Kylie was self-made

soon became overshadowed by the accusation

she had lied about her profits.

- In November 2019, it was announced that Coty,

one of the biggest, kind of, make up brands out there

was going to acquire a majority stake in Kylie Cosmetics,

in a deal that valued the company at 1.2 billion dollars.

But, some of the figures from Kylie Cosmetics

started to become public.

And that proved to be a little problem.

Forbes published a story alleging that Kylie had lied

and that the numbers on her tax return

didn't match up to the numbers that Coty had reported.

- They called her the youngest self-made billionaire

to make the Forbes list.

And now, Forbes is accusing Kylie Jenner

of lying about her net worth and forging tax returns.

Forbes claims her company, that would be Kylie Cosmetics,

is much smaller and less profitable than Jenner led onto...

- It's worth noting that the Kardashians

explicitly deny ever forging any tax return.

"The accusations that the Jenners, and/or their accountants,

falsified tax returns and then lied

about their 2016 revenues for the last four years

are absolutely false."

The letter read.

So, they flatly denied that.

(indistinct paparazzi shouting)

- [Narrator] The Kardashians were never charged

with forging tax returns,

and the lip kits continued to sell.

Kylie's net worth has since been estimated

to be far lower than first thought.

A mere 600 million dollars.

- There's an old adage in PR and entertainment.

I don't care what you write about me,

just spell my name right.

And that's kind of what the Kardashians are about.

Kylie and Kendall are millionaires.

No, they're billionaires.

No, they're making all this information up.

And then you have legitimate business magazines

writing stories about how they're piping

all this information about whether they're billionaires.

It's like, you don't understand.

You've already bought the notion.

They've won.

That's exactly what they want.

Just mention their name.

(paparazzi shouting indistinctly)

(paparazzi shouting indistinctly)

- The Kardashians learnt and mastered the ability

how to become rich when you're famous,

without being in a movie or a music career

that every other traditional actor and artist has to do.

Now, do you think Brad Pitt was happy?

Do you think Angelina Jolie was happy?

Of course it created beef.

But everyone else then had to realise

we have to embrace social media.

- What changed is, because of the internet,

there were people rising and becoming more important

because of their following on social media.

So that was really the perfect moment

for the Kardashians to rise to the top.

I'm Mickey Boardman from Paper magazine

and together with Kim Kardashian

we broke the internet in 2014.

The name Break The Internet came about

by accident, actually.

Drew Elliot, who was the creative director

of Paper at the time,

was coming back and giving a whole new redesign to Paper

to, sort of, take it into the future.

And Drew said to me, "If we have Kim Kardashian

on the cover, it will break the internet."

And I said, "Break The Internet?

That's such a crazy name."

So I said, "Well, yeah, let's do a whole issue

called Break The Internet and just be open

about what we're trying to do

instead of pretending we're putting someone on

who we think is cool,

let's show that we want to really get amazing traffic

and make people go crazy."

We knew that we wanted Jean-Paul Goude to do the cover,

so we just reached out to him and said,

"We want to do Kim, what would you like to do?"

It was absolutely his idea.

She came around the corner to the studio

on the outskirts of Paris like Princess Diana,

chased by paparazzi on motorcycles.

There were a million fans outside the studio.

I don't know, I didn't tell.

I didn't know how people knew she was gonna be there.

And she came, and she just said,

"You know, I'm so excited about this.

Whatever you want to do, I'm happy to do.

I'll stay all night.

Let's really, if we're gonna do this, let's really do it."

There were no problems.

There were no arguments.

One of the few times in 30 years of shooting celebrities

that it was literally a dream.

Jean-Paul had the idea to, sort of,

do a little strip tease with the dress.

He said, "Well, what if we, sort of,

do like you're peeling back the dress a little bit?"

And she said, "Sure, let's do it."

We posted the Break The Internet cover

at about 7pm Eastern time in the Paper offices

which are here in New York City.

In those times, for us, you could measure how many people

were on your website, and for us,

a few hundred people was a good moment.

We would think oh, look, we have 300 people on our site

right at the same time.

That's really good.

Quickly...

Not immediately, but sort of, like,

by the next morning we had 70,000 people on our site.

All day long.

Like, I mean, for days and weeks.

- There was very mixed reactions inside the TMZ newsroom.

Some people, kind of, got the joking sense of it.

Other people were like, "What the hell is happening?

Why do people care?"

And I think that was a real turning moment

for Kim in fashion,

and I think that the love-hate of that magazine

fueled just more curiosity.

(dramatic music)

- [Paparazzi] Kim!

Do you regret doing that spread?

- [Paparazzi] With you being a mother,

do you care about the criticism?

- [Paparazzi] Kim, are you happy

with your picture of your butt?

(intense music)

- For starters, people were really surprised

to see Kim do that sexy of a photoshoot and...

And I think people were surprised by that

because it felt like she was trying to distance herself

from how we met her in the first place.

She was trying to distance herself from the sex tape.

She tried to distance herself, even,

probably, from Playboy magazine.

But, instead, she does this high fashion, full nude,

nothing left to the imagination photoshoot

and people had a lot to say about that.

And then you add in,

it was like a duplication of a photoshoot

that a black model did as well,

and people thought that that was culturally appropriating.

- The opening of the champagne was an old photo

that Jean-Paul Goude had done in the seventies

with a model named Caroline Beaumont.

Cultural appropriation is wrong

and we weren't intending to do it and if it insulted people,

I apologise, and...

Yeah, so, I mean, it's...

Those conversations do need to be had.

I certainly recognise that.

- It broke the internet.

But probably not for the reasons that they thought

it was going to break the internet.

(paparazzi shouting indistinctly)

(gentle music)

I started doing a lot of work,

primarily in African-American publications.

And I think that the African-American community

definitely felt a certain kind of way

of the Kardashian's success,

because, by and large, I think the through-line

is that they felt that the success

that this family was getting

was off of the backs of black women.

You know, black women have had plump lips

and big butts and curvy bodies

and darker skin since eternity.

- In the old days, when things happened,

they happened and you wrote about them.

You never then wrote about what people said

about what you wrote about.

That never happened.

But now, a fundamental beat in every story

is the social media outrage to the story.

(gentle music)

So Kendall did an ad for Pepsi.

And it was this ghastly, faux-protest march.

And it was trying to appropriate, you know,

the zeitgeist at the time and social protest.

And it was a total clanger.

I mean, it was just awful.

- [Narrator] Pepsi did apologise

but not before it made world news.

- I remember getting called on an American morning talk show

to talk about this and, again, you could say,

this is victory for the Kardashians.

I'm on a show where I'm tut-tutting

what a terrible idea it was for Pepsi

to have done this ad with Kendall.

Did Kendall suffer any lasting consequences?

Well, maybe by lunchtime they were done.

But because it was a Kardashian,

it was worthy of some kind of commentary.

- For me, the braids were the tipping point.

It was a blatant, like, this is clearly a black girl look

that you've co-opted and then when she called them

Bo Derek braids I was like, "Oh, Jesus."

She later came back and corrected herself,

and was like, "I understand why everyone's upset

because I called it Bo Derek braids."

But that when I was, like, "Okay, this is a little more

than just dating black men or tanning your skin."

- They're Armenian and very strong

and proud in that identity.

So while Kim sort of did apologise for the accusations

of, kind of, almost blackface.

So, blackfishing.

They haven't apologised for various instances.

Wearing corn rows, like, different traditionally black

hairstyles that they've sported.

Like, Kim has black kids and was married to Kanye for years,

I think they just have a very complicated

relationship to race.

(gentle music)

- Their father, Robert Kardashian,

is from Inglewood, California.

Inglewood, California is predominantly black area

in Los Angeles.

For the Kardashian kids, their uncles...

You know, their play uncles,

we have play uncles in the States.

Their play uncles were all black men.

And so, they grew up always adjacent to black culture

and black community.

It wasn't that they woke up one day and said,

"Oh, you know what, hip-hop is cool

and it's cool to be black.

So, damn it, we're all gonna, you know,

try and present as black women in a way

and that's gonna be our road to fame."

I don't think that that's actually what happened.

I think, as they became famous,

they took that embrace of that culture

and made a lot of money off of it.

- One of the things that's always gonna go on

with anybody like the Kardashians,

you're always looking for them to trip up.

Right?

You're always waiting.

So, there's always gonna be that tension.

It's always there.

It's always just, kind of, maybe, a tiny flesh wound.

Right?

Or just a little pin prick.

But people are always waiting to take them down.

(paparazzi shouting indistinctly)

But we really don't want to get them, either.

We might want to trip them up a bit,

but we don't want to fully take them down, 'cause then what?

What happens if that happens?

Then who are we gonna pay attention to?

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] In 2016, the family headed off

to Paris Fashion Week.

Kim posted live updates on Snapchat,

revealing their glamorous locations and outfits.

- [Kourtney] A leather jacket.

- Givenchy.

With Kourtney!

- I think everyone's learnt now.

I know we post in real time.

I know we're obsessed with social media.

We want to feed our fans everything

but there's also a negative side.

You're letting the world know I'm rich.

I'm famous.

Here's my gold.

Here's my jewellery.

Here's everything, and I'm here.

- [Narrator] After dinner with sisters Kourtney and Kendall,

Kim decided to call it a night.

Shortly before 3AM, she was robbed at gunpoint.

(sirens wailing)

- [Reporter] Kim Kardashian has been attacked

by masked, armed men inside this exclusive Paris address.

Bound up before £8 million of her jewellery was stolen.

- They kept on saying, "The ring, the ring."

And I was like, you know, "What?"

Like, it didn't compute to me for a minute.

And then the guy goes, "The ring."

And I had put it up by the side of my bed,

so I handed him my ring.

And then he grabs me and I was wearing a robe...

- [Narrator] Though some people assumed it was

another Kardashian publicity stunt,

Kim gave an emotional account

to the chat show host David Letterman.

- And he grabbed me and pulled me towards him.

But, I wasn't wearing anything underneath,

so I was like, "Okay, this is like the time,

I'm gonna get raped.

Like, just deal, like...

It's gonna happen.

Just prepare yourself."

- Kim! - Kim!

- Kim, how're you doing? - Kim!

- Are you okay? - Kim!

- Are you okay Kim? - Kim!

- [Narrator] The events in Paris were played out once again

in a gloomily filmed and sombre episode

of the Kardashian's reality show,

which included a clearly shaken looking Kanye.

- I just like, don't wanna cry in front of the kids.

Or like, let them think anything's wrong, you know?

- [Speaker] Okay, yeah, so we won't talk about it

in front of the kids.

- It was interesting for it to be such a scary moment,

but it's even weirder, and I do mean weird,

that you have this reality show that has to document it.

So it's like reliving it all over again.

It just felt like the Paris robbery

was definitely affecting Kanye

'cause he was already going through his, kind of,

own mental breakdown and...

That might've been the thing that kind of

pushed him over the edge.

"Did he smoke something before he came out h

The answer is, yes, I rolled up a little something...

- [Narrator] During the 2015 VMAs,

a pumped up Kanye accepted an award,

then made an unexpected announcement.

- I have decided in 2020 to run for President.

(crowd cheering)

(slow intense music)

It's a cycle.

It's the same thing.

We are trapped in a loop.

- [Narrator] Kanye's reputation for erratic appearances

reached a climax during his presidential campaign.

- In the bible, it says, "Thou shalt not kill."

- I thought that the whole Kanye

running for President thing was a joke.

I didn't realise that he was serious about this.

- My dad wanted to abort me.

My mom saved my life.

There would've been no Kanye West,

because my dad was too busy.

- Once he started going out on a campaign trail,

he opened up and talked about his stance on abortion

and that he and Kim at one point, you know,

I guess had had a conversation about that

when they discovered that she was pregnant.

- I almost killed my daughter!

(crowd shouting indistinctly)

- I'm going to guess that Kim probably did not love

Kanye sharing something like with a public audience.

I think that musicians,

in particular ones that we classify as geniuses,

there often is something that they're dealing with

that probably makes them a musical genius in a way that,

you know, it would end a lot of other people.

When the relationship was really starting to crumble

and dissolve,

it made me think that maybe there's always been

something that's been challenging for him

with regards to mental wellness.

(camera shutters clicking)

- [Paparazzi] Hey, Kim!

Are you really upset at Kanye?

Is he really embarrassing you?

- [Narrator] In February 2021, Kim filed for divorce

and an ongoing feud has since played out on social media.

At one point, Kanye accuses the Kardashians

of attempting to take control of his assets

with a legal order known as a 5150.

- If the Kardashian family wanted to put Kanye under 5150,

that is huge because, you know,

we're now really seeing the effects

of what being under that did for Britney Spears.

You know, she had no control over her assets.

No control over day-to-day decisions.

No control over her body.

Like, no control, period.

- Kim tried to navigate through the drama.

"I have a husband who clearly is mentally ill.

And I'm trying to figure this out.

And at a certain point the show takes a back seat

to the health of my family and the health of my kids."

Which I think is what led to the divorce.

Yes, all of that was a drama, and yes,

we all paid attention to it breathlessly.

But I think she managed to kind of navigate that,

as a celebrity, but also as someone fundamentally

who also is a mother and taking care of her kids

and needed to find a way out.

- [Narrator] While her marriage to Kanye unravelled,

Kim kept herself busy with new ventures.

- Soon she'll be one of the most successful lawyers,

I hate to tell all my lawyers back there.

(crowd laughing)

Kim Kardashian-West.

(crowd cheering and applauding)

- In recent years, it's been widely publicised

that Kim has been studying to become a lawyer.

- [Natalie] It really is such an honour to be here.

- [Narrator] First time offender Alice Marie Johnson

was 20 years into a life sentence

for a nonviolent drug offence,

until Kim persuaded President Trump to pardon her.

- I just wanna thank all of the organisations that are,

you know, partnering with everything that's going on

and really being supportive

because it really does mean a lot to so many people

that I've had the pleasure to speak to.

- I think it's two things at once.

You know, I think it's a real genuine interest

that she has in trying to, like,

understand the law and understand how people got there

in the first place.

Or you can look at it cynically and be like ah, it's PR.

Like, it's just her trying to do some good work

to make up for all of these allegations

of appropriation over the years.

And, you know, maybe the truth is somewhere in-between.

- So, thank you.

- [Narrator] While still working towards

becoming a qualified lawyer,

Kim and family signed a deal with Disney,

worth over a hundred million dollars.

(dramatic music)

An explosive title sequence punctuated the arrival

in April 2022 of their glossy, revamped reality show.

- I think I want regular fries.

- [Narrator] It had the same banality as always.

- I'll have regular fries too. - Just a little fries, yeah.

Thank you.

- [Narrator] And, incredibly, a key narrative

revolved around the same topic as the family's

first ever show.

- And then, my lawyer calls about the threats

that there's more footage from the sex tape

that's been out there.

- [Lawyer] Our legal rights are that she could sue.

- [Ray J] Let me see you shake that thang for 23.

Shake that thang for 23.

- [Narrator] The low-quality tape made in 2003

starred Kim and R&B singer Ray J,

performing various sexual acts while on holiday in Mexico.

- (bleep) party man...

- Wait, film me to see what I look like.

- [Narrator] The sex tape had been good

for the original TV show's ratings

and the Kardashians appeared to believe

it could be a blessing once again.

- Didn't we deal with this the first season of Keeping Up?

This is a good omen, you guys.

- What's a good omen?

- Talking about your sex tape in the first season,

I feel like we're back to day one.

- [Narrator] Viewers may have been pulled in,

but it also reignited the uncomfortable question

over who engineered the tape's initial publication.

- Over the years there was a lot of rumours going around

of who was truly behind the Kim Kardashian sex tape.

Was it Ray J?

Was it Kim?

Was it Paris?

Was it Kris Jenner?

Just to put her daughter's name out there.

- [Narrator] In this cunningly produced skit,

from James Corden's chat show,

Kris attempts to shake off the rumours

with the help of a lie detector.

- Did you help Kim release her sex tape?

- It's okay.

No.

No.

- True.

- [James] Of course it's true.

- Thank you!

- Of course it's true!

- Aight, when we was young,

and y'all manipulated us to do this shit.

I take full responsibility for the act...

I was lit.

We made a (bleep) lot of money, I get it.

- [Narrator] Kris's denial prompted this

highly-charged social media response from Kim's ex, Ray J,

claiming she was very much involved.

- Her momma made us go shoot it for safety.

She watched the (bleep) and said,

"Hey, we're gonna go with the first one

'cause the first one is better.

It gives my daughter a better look."

- [Narrator] The Kardashians continue to deny

their complicity to this day.

- You don't come from a place of being

Paris Hilton's assistant to a billionaire

unless you have a master negotiator.

So, whatever happened with the sex tape,

I'm sure Kris Jenner handled it correctly

and got the maximum dollar.

(dramatic string music)

- [Narrator] While navigating the storms of controversy,

the Kardashians continued to expand their influence.

The combined Kardashian-Jenner net worth

is approaching 3 billion dollars,

with a pathway being laid for the next generation.

- I won't say groomed, but I think Kris might have...

Keeps her eye on them.

And is like, who'll be next to, kinda, carry the torch?

- [Narrator] Nine-year-old North is rapidly following

in Mum Kim's footsteps.

Posts like this playful montage of a hair and beauty demo

has helped amass over ten million followers on TikTok.

- For a family that is so famous on social media

it's, like, not surprising to see North

taking it to the newest, coolest platform.

- Like a weird, American royal family,

there are princes and princelings

that are gonna become rising up and, you know,

suddenly we're gonna be reading about one of the grandkids,

and the empire will continue.

- I think for about 19 years we've been thinking

we've reached peak Kardashian

and we keep reaching new peaks.

So, every peak is a new peak.

- I would not say that the Kardashians

are a Hollywood dream story.

The Kardashians have created something wildly different.

It remains to be seen how that changes

the landscape of everything that we know

to be true about celebrity and excess of wealth.

- I can tell you one thing,

having been very close with the Kardashians,

if you think you've had enough of them

in the physical world,

they are about to dominate the Metaverse and Web3

like you have no idea.

(paparazzi shouting indistinctly)

(dramatic upbeat music)

(dramatic upbeat music continues)

(dramatic upbeat music continues)