Kris Jenner Reportedly Hated 'The Soup' Joking About 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians'
After ending his social commentary and satirical series in 2015, the former host of E!'s comedy [...]
After ending his social commentary and satirical series in 2015, the former host of E!'s comedy series, The Soup is finally speaking out and revealing how Kris Jenner would complain to the network about Kardashian jokes.
In an interview with Variety, former Soup host and Community star, Joel McHale said the series ran into some problems due to complaints from Kris Jenner, who would call the network and complain about him making jokes about her and her family.
"Way back when, Kris Kardashian [Jenner] would complain about our jokes, and Ted [Harbert, former E! Networks President] would literally go, 'Hey man, Kris called, can you just lay off of her for a week?'" McHale said.
The series, which started in 2004, was renowned and well known by many as a satirical, social commentary on TV. This commentary included many reality shows while a green screen and plethora of clips accompanied his criticism and jokes.
"It was like our softball went into our yard and they were like, 'Just don't throw it over the fence,'" McHale continued. "So that was cool and that's as far as it went with him, but when he left, things changed and they definitely had a different feeling."
When Harbert left the network, McHale said the new leadership put in a strict mandate of no jokes about the Kardashians.
"The next administration, the president said to my face, 'Don't make fun of the Kardashians. We don't want you to make fun of the Kardashians anymore,'" McHale said. "So I was like, oh this show is doomed because that's why the show worked, because we would make fun of ourselves. It's like when Letterman made fun of GE in the '80s. You have to bite the hand that feeds you.
"The network really did not like when the Kardashians first came out and then we just said Kim Kardashian was only famous for having a big a— and a sex tape."
Variety reported that they reached out to E! for a comment on this claim, but received no response.
The Soup concluded its 12-season run with 618 total episodes in December 2015. McHale debuted the show's spiritual successor, The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale on Netflix Sunday, Feb. 18.
McHale said if something noteworthy happens on KUWTK, he'll have no problem joking about it this time around.
"That is a week-to-week thing," McHale said. "If the clips are good and engaging, absolutely, we will cover them. Even on The Soup, if we didn't have a good Kardashian clip, we wouldn't just do it. So I don't know. It could be a lot and it could be very little.