JOURNAL ARTICLE

The Kardashians, Live! Fabricating Liveness in the Sex-Tape-Derived Reality Series.

  • Published In: Television & New Media, 2024, v. 25, n. 7. P. 673 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Beaver, Blake Karsten 3 of 3

Abstract

This article analyzes how the reality series *Keeping Up with the Kardashians* and *The Kardashians* construct the concept of liveness—defined as affective urgency and narrative motivation—through their intertextual relationship with Kim Kardashian's sex tape scandal and her live TV appearances. It argues that these series use live television formats, such as Kim's appearances on *The Tyra Banks Show* and *Saturday Night Live*, to compensate for the sex tape's incomplete liveness, while also employing artificial and simulated techniques (e.g., editing, narration, roleplay) to fabricate a sense of immediacy and emotional intensity. However, the article also highlights a reflexive critique within *Saturday Night Live* itself, which parodies and questions live TV's declining cultural authority as the primary medium for liveness. Overall, the study situates the Kardashian reality programs as a case illustrating live TV's evolving rhetorical role in contemporary media, especially in prerecorded genres linked to scandal and celebrity.

Additional Information

  • Source:Television & New Media. 2024/11, Vol. 25, Issue 7, p673
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Biography
  • Publication Date:2024
  • ISSN:1527-4764
  • DOI:10.1177/15274764231221764
  • Accession Number:180151537
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