Kim Kardashian and the rest of the Kardashian–Jenner clan helped Disney score a ratings win with the premiere episode of season five of their eponymous reality series.
The Kardashians had the best ratings for an unscripted premiere episode of 2024 so far for Disney’s streaming services, including Hulu, where the show streams in the US, and Disney+ and Star+, which show The Kardashians internationally, Deadline reported on Thursday.
Season 5 premiered on May 23 and had 3.9 million views globally over its first four days streaming, Disney claimed.
But The Kardashians didn’t just perform well among unscripted content.
According to Deadline, the season five premiere currently is the second highest–rated premiere episode of an entertainment program for the year, with only Shogun’s premiere besting it.
A show’s ability to maintain its audience or grow are also important concerns, and The Kardashians appears to be more popular than ever.
Disney, which doesn’t appear to have released easily verifiable ratings numbers, said that viewership for the first season tripled after the season five premiere.
That suggests that some viewers may be going back to the start to catch up on episodes they missed or to fill in some of the famous family’s recent backstory.
Other viewers may also be intrigued enough by the series to want to start fresh with it before making it to the present day.
Other previous seasons are apparently getting attraction new views, with Disney claiming that seasons two through four saw viewership increases of between 99 and 187 percent following the season five premiere.
The Kardashians is the second flagship reality series for the Kardashian–Jenners, following the series that helped cement their fame, Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
The reality stars have only been working on their Hulu series for five seasons, but the outlet notes that this is their 25th season of television when combining their two main shows.
The Kardashians hit the internet in 2022, but the Kardashian–Jenners had already been filming KUWTK since 2007.
The move to the Disney-owned streaming services translated to bigger budgets and higher production values — including a less cliched score and more film-like cinematography — for the newer show compared to its predecessor.
The Kardashians has documented much of the controversy following Kim’s divorce from her husband, her buzzy relationship with Pete Davidson, her sister Kourtney’s romance and marriage to husband Travis Barker, the birth of their son Rocky, and the births of Khloé’s son Tatum with her ex Tristan Thompson and the birth of Kylie’s son Aire, whom she shares with her ex Travis Scott.
Kim and her sisters have also had several spin-off reality shows in recent years, and the SKIMS mastermind has lately taken a stab at acting with a lead role opposite Emma Roberts on the latest season of American Horror Story.
Kim stars with her sisters Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian and Kendall and Kylie Jenner, as well as their mother Kris Jenner.
All six family members are also executive producers on The Kardashians.
