The Kardashians almost didn't make it. Ted Harbert, former head of Comcast Entertainment Group, remembers a video that producer Ryan Seacrest passed around in Hollywood in 2007. The recording showed Kim, Khloé, Kourtney and Robert Kardashian having a Sunday barbecue in Calabasas near Los Angeles - by the pool, for almost seven minutes, with mother Kris Kardashian and stepfather Bruce Jenner. Seacrest's plan to turn the family into reality stars à la “The Osbournes”, the entertainingly dysfunctional clan around Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne, had already failed due to various idea scouts. “When Seacrest sent me the video, I took it home and watched it. The next day I told my people that we were going to make a series out of it, ”recalled Harbert at the PA news agency.His staff were surprised. "They said the Kardashians had no talent." Harbert's assertion is a piece of American television history. In October 2007, the station E !, part of the Comcast group, showed the first episode of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”, or KUWTK for short. This Thursday the reality series says goodbye with the episode "The End, Part 2".

What makes KUWTK so attractive remains a mystery to many critics even after 20 seasons. Comcast boss Harbert believed in 2007 to recognize the formula of a classic family drama: "They argue, they scream, but in the end they love each other." Especially Kim Kardashian, unofficial leading actress, left nothing out. Her sex video with rapper Ray J, the short marriage with professional basketball player Kris Humphries and the relationship fiasco with musician, Sunday preacher and presidential candidate Kanye West were discussed in front of the camera, as were handbags, cosmetic surgeries and the new Lamborghini. Every week up to ten million mostly female viewers tuned in to let the sisters whisk them away into a southern California world of mansions, palm-lined streets and private jets.

Family dramas such as the infidelity of Kourtney's partner Scott Disick, Khloé's weight problems, Robert's depression and the siblings' attempts to keep mother Kris in check as a "momager" created the opportunity to identify with the aloof clan.

The cultural theorist Meredith Jones sees Kim, Kourtney and Khloé as well as their half-sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner as champions of a new ideal of beauty.

“You have curves, are brunette, not fair-skinned and not particularly tall.

They almost look like Latinas, but they're not.

You don't look like your typical white American.

That makes them very appealing to the new demographics in the United States. "

It did not remain apolitical

With the self-confidence of Southern California Valley Girls, the clan also takes on politics. Again and again Kim, Kourtney and Khloé reminded of the Armenian roots of their late father Robert Kardashian and called on the White House to condemn the attacks on Armenians during the First World War as genocide. Khloé's connections with Canadian-Jamaican basketball player Tristan Thompson and Kim's freshly failed marriage to African American West were hailed as a commitment to multiracial connections. Former decathlete and Olympic champion Jenner, who went from "Bruce" to "Caitlyn" in front of the camera, is arguably the most famous trans woman in the world. A few weeks ago, the seventy-one-year-old announced that she would run for governor of California this fall. Kim, too, is drawn to higher things.After the forty-year-old was able to persuade President Donald Trump to release a grandmother who had been sentenced to life for drug offenses, she wants to campaign for future prison reforms.

The Kardashians have surprised not only critics and audiences for the past 14 years, but also themselves. As Mother Kris admitted, the series was initially supposed to help promote the clan's boutiques ("Dash"). With a mix of marketing, well-dosed appearances and the use of social media, Kim & Co. have now built a small empire of cosmetic companies, fashion, tequila and dental care products. "Kim was the first female entrepreneur to sell her products through her body and her own life," says Jones. “She was the first to understand that this is the most lucrative way to sell products.” No talent? Not only Hollywood has underestimated the clan.