The Devil Works Hard, But Kris Jenner Always Worked Harder

Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. [Manage newsletters]( [View in browser]( [Image] with Kevin Fallon Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. This Week: - Kris Jenner, the true star of KUWTK. - Chris Harrison was paid how much??? - NBC, you messed up. - An ode to one of my favorite TV stars. - Instant spank bank entry. Kris Jenner: Devil, Saint, Hero, Nemesis, and Friend Kris Jenner, [you’re doing amazing, sweetie](. [Keeping Up With the Kardashians ended]( Thursday night after 20 seasons on TV. I don’t know what happened because I didn’t watch it. I’m willing to bet [none of you did]( either. Despite the media fanfare over the reality-TV juggernaut coming to an end, this has been [the lowest-rated season]( in the show’s history. If pressed, I don’t think I’d be able to reference a single memorable moment from the season, a rarity for a show that has been its own self-sustaining meme factory over the years, not to mention a processing center for the family’s extensive drama. I’d certainly be able to gossip with you about any number of things that have happened off-screen, however, from Scott Disick’s disgusting relationship with 19-year-old Amelia Hamlin, daughter of Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin and 18 years his junior, to Kim Kardashian’s combination divorce and maybe-not-becoming-a-lawyer-after-all drama. And I think all of us became rabid with excitement when [a trailer dropped]( for the [Andy Cohen-hosted]( tell-all reunion airing next week, which teased “he’s really going there” questions. All of this despite not realizing—or perhaps not caring—that the finale was even taking place last night. There have been thinkpieces galore analyzing the end of an era now that Keeping Up With the Kardashians is bowing out, countless odes to its influence and testaments to the ways in which it changed television and culture as we know it. All of this bellowing about how important the show is despite it going out, truly, with barely a whisper. Ain’t that the way: Nobody’s talking about Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and yet we’re all talking about the Kardashians. As the saying goes, the devil works hard, but Kris Jenner works harder. And, by the grace of Beelzebub, she’s done it again. Jenner’s master manipulation skills have become a meme in their own right. And the devil comparison evolved into an ubiquitous, loving homage to her branding skills and the tentacles that seem to guide each of the clan’s desired media narratives and perceptions. And while such an ability and desire for control should seem nefarious in every way, Jenner’s combination of goofiness and warmth—not to mention obvious appreciation for being included in the public gaze alongside her daughters—has made the whole thing lovable. Whatever the legacy of Keeping Up With Kardashians, Jenner, and this about her specifically, may forever be my favorite thing to come out of the show. While momagers, stage moms, and moms craven for their own fame developed into their own, negative reality-TV trope over the time that Keeping Up… has been on air, Jenner has managed to turn that stereotype into a triumph for herself. She’s certainly weathered the jokes and spoofs but, in the end, we all stand in awe of her hustle. It’s not desperation. It’s work ethic. Dissecting Jenner’s acumen for this, [Mariah Smith wrote for Vice in 2019](, “She’s managed to snatch the title of ‘Employee of the Century’ from the ruler of Hell who’s held the title for over 6,000 years. And, somehow, that’s a compliment. If not that, it’s a hat tip to her ability to create drama for her family to serve storylines for their show, as well as her ability to make their more heinous behavior disappear.” Among the drama/distractions credited to, or at least rumored to be owed to, Jenner’s devilish behavior: When Tristan Thompson, the father of Khloe Kardashian’s child, had an alleged affair with Jordyn Woods, a close Kardashian family friend, [Keeping Up… fans gossiped]( that it was all concocted by Jenner to drum up interest—and ratings—in season 16 of the series. When Kylie Jenner broke up with Travis Scott and Scott subsequently released the single “Highest in the Room,” which [seemed to reference Jenner](, it was just a week later that a video of Jenner awkwardly, chillingly [singing “Rise and Shine” to her daughter]( went viral—another rumored Kris Jenner orchestration. When rumors ran rampant that Kylie was pregnant in 2017, an uncharacteristically long time passed before the news was confirmed. [The suspected reason](: Kris wanted to time the news to be advantageous to Kylie’s business, hoping to spike Kylie Cosmetics sales and “make sure no one forgets Kylie is also a businesswoman.” When the family was being dragged through the press and across social media for months over [their flagrant partying and large gatherings]( while the rest of the world was shut down during COVID, news started to leak that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were getting divorced, totally diverting the conversation away from the criticism. Who were the “multiple sources” who leaked the news? If you [scanned Twitter at the time](, you’d see a [flurry of photos of Kris](. We could go on and on with more examples like this. It truly never ceases to be fun. That’s the remarkable thing about Jenner’s ways: She’s so good at this that she’s managed to puppetmaster her family of reality TV stars to the point that they have transcended that very reality-TV platform. There’s been a lot of analysis about that: The rise of social media, at which the Kardashian-Jenners are masters, has replaced the show and its longer production time as the best venue for controlling messaging. The family drama that would play out on a TV show is now better suited for the immediacy of Instagram Stories, TikToks, and TMZ-like online tabloids. The family’s brand is so robust now there’s no value in the TV show as a marketing tool anymore. Whichever of those theories are valid, I suspect there’s a uniting factor behind all of them—and she’s got a short, cropped haircut and a devilish smile. Can I Also Be Paid Tens of Millions to Not Do My Job? This week it was announced that [Chris Harrison](, a department store mannequin who was accidentally brought to life when a teen witch lost control of her powers after a frustrating Jamba Juice experience at a suburban Oklahoma mall, was [officially fired from The Bachelor after 20 years](. Or he and the show “parted ways”—whatever the hooey-speak a boardroom of publicists cracked out on matcha lattes crafted to disguise the scandalous development as meaningless. [Alternate text] In news that was just about as shocking as my decision to skip my workout this morning, reality TV’s foremost haircut in a suit was sidelined amid backlash for [his defense of a racist contestant](, dismissal of people of color’s criticisms, and grinning bolstering of TV’s systemic anti-Blackness. The real twist here, however, is that on his way out the door, he negotiated an exit package worth a rumored $25 million—at least—for his failures. In other words, he is being paid eight figures for being fired. The reason is that he and his lawyer reportedly threatened to [unleash a “Shiva of lawsuits,”]( airing all of the show’s dirty laundry. Laundry so skidmarked, it seems, that it’s worth that much damn money to save embarrassment. To that, I say, when do we go excavating for bodies at the Bachelor mansions? Like, what in the name of God’s green-ish earth happened on that show??? I don’t know why I put so many question marks there, because that insinuates that I actually care. I really don’t. This series should be buried alongside whatever else is being kept hush-hush because it is toxic. What I really want to know is how this keeps happening? How do we live in a world where these people who are fired for morally reprehensible behavior—Matt Lauer, Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly, Les Moonves—are handed paychecks this astronomical on the way out? People may message me annoying “well, actually...” explanations about contracts and such. On principle, I do not care. I consider myself a bargain. I’m occasionally problematic, but I’ll allow myself to be fired for the low, low price of just $5 million or so. Mr. Daily Beast, let me know if I should leave a forwarding address or if we’ll do direct deposit. NBC’s Extraordinary Fail After 15 years of working as an entertainment reporter and covering the television industry, I have come to the conclusion that I have no idea how television works. What may actually be more accurate is that I know better than most how it works, which is that it doesn’t. At all. News came this week that NBC’s standout musical dramedy Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist—a breath of fresh air, a beacon of inclusivity, a tender triumph—was [canceled after two seasons](, with talks of moving to the network’s affiliated streaming service, Peacock, also falling through. (It’s reportedly being [shopped to other networks](.) Sure, big deal. TV shows that people like are canceled all the time. That’s true! And I’m tired of it. My email inbox is a torrent of press releases touting the greenlights of new, dumb-sounding shows and screeners for new, dumb-sounding series hoping to make an impression with audiences or critics in a landscape with so many television options that sometimes when I’m thinking of what to watch or cover next I get so overwhelmed that I instead leave my apartment and go for a slow, moody walk along the water instead of sampling anything at all. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is a show that’s garnered a lot of attention. Critics are huge fans. Its audience is extremely passionate. And instead of sticking with it, executives decided to risk the gauntlet again with more untested material. I hate it all, and I will channel that rage into an Alex Newell Emmy campaign. Have You Appreciated Ana Ortiz Today? What will all deserve this Pride Month, every Pride Month—everyday, really—is to cry while ace actress Ana Ortiz warmly plays the mother of a teenage gay son. The [new season of Love, Victor]( is incredibly charming, and one of the easiest, most pleasant binges I’ve done in a while. Out on Hulu this Friday, the series is a spin-off of the groundbreaking [coming-out teen romcom Love, Simon](, with the series focusing on a working-class Latino boy struggling through his feelings for a cute boy at his high school. [Alternate text] Season two has him adapting to life now that he’s out at school and to his parents, with Ortiz playing his religious mother confronting her own internal battles while working to accept the son she loves unconditionally. She is so, so good in a complicated arc, one that comes 15 years after she played the heartwarming, supportive mom to a gay teen on Ugly Betty. This marks a decade-and-a-half of me quietly weeping while watching her hug gay sons on TV. Ortiz is also on the new season of Special (the taste!) and never misses. This is an Ana Ortiz appreciation post. Truly, Thank You, Chris Meloni Here is a photo [from Interview magazine]( of Christopher Meloni in a crop top lifting a dumbbell while eating a slice of pizza, inventing an entirely new sexual orientation to which we as a society now all belong. We are all homelonisexuals now. Happy Pride. [Alternate text] [Alternate text] - In the Heights: Go see this on a big screen! Laugh! Cry! Dance in your seat! It’s so good. (Now in theaters and on HBO Max) - Love, Victor: There are identity politics to debate, but that is annoying and this show is just plain nice. (Fri. on Hulu) - Tuca & Bertie: This wonderfully oddball animated was canceled but then saved because sometimes we really do deserve good things. (Sun. on Adult Swim) - Dave: In my opinion, one of last year’s most underrated comedies. (Wed. on FXX) [Alternate text] - Celebrity Dating Game: Celebrities don’t need help getting dates, we do. (Mon. on ABC) - Awake: Netflix will bait you into watching this. Resist! 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