Hulu gambled big on the Kardashian family. Now, it seems that the bet is paying off.
During Wednesday’s much-anticipated Disney earnings call, CEO Bob Iger mentioned that The Kardashians, the reality series about the family famous mostly for being famous, has become the most-viewed unscripted series ever on Hulu.
The development is significant for a lot of reasons, not least of all because Hulu is about to become a fully Disney-owned property, more than a decade after it was launched with backing from the major TV networks during the early days of streaming.
Kardashians has quickly become a signature series for Hulu, yet the scandal-plagued, high-drama family is hardly consistent with the squeaky-clean Disney family-friendly formula found on Disney+. It’s an interesting dichotomy as Disney readies a beta version of a combined Disney+-Hulu app, which will launch in December.
Iger said Wednesday that the beta launch will offer families time to set up parental controls on the new app, restricting the content younger children have access to. The official version of the app will then launch in spring of 2024.
A Huge Investment Pays Off
The Kardashians debuted on Hulu in 2022 and is currently on season four, with each season consisting of 10 episodes. It chronicles the adventures of Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner and the rest of the brood (including Kylie Jenner, one of Forbes’ 2023 America’s Richest Self-Made Women), who first rose to broad fame on E!’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
That show, which bowed in 2007 and ran through 2021, helped usher in the era of celebrity reality shows. The final contract with E! paid the family a reported $100 million. While viewership was never huge (averaging a few million at its peak), the social platforms and influence of the Kardashian and Jenner women provide incredible value for any media organization. And they fit perfectly within the E! brand gaga for celebrity everything.
Neither Disney nor the Kardashian/Jenner clan have ever confirmed how much they received for the Hulu deal, but it’s rumored to be a nine-figure deal. It came under a lot of scrutiny in light of how Disney (and many other media conglomerates) has struggled to reach profitability for streaming—it continued to lose money in the most recent quarter, though the losses have narrowed sharply from last year.
Kim, Mickey And Marvel?
Now the question is how will The Kardashians and other, more adult content integrate into the Disney brand now that it is taking full control of Hulu, with a deal announced in early November with Comcast, the sole remaining partner.
Iger didn’t say if the two platforms, Disney+ and Hulu, will fully integrate into one brand in the future, though that would seem to make sense. It would follow the lead of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, which launched as HBO Max but shed that moniker earlier this year when it began to house content from the media giant’s other brands.
Certainly nothing will change about The Kardashians and their sexy, glamorous image, so it will be interesting to see how Disney chooses to promote them and market them across the beta platform alongside more wholesome family fare like Mickey Mouse cartoons and PG-13 Marvel movies.
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