Yet what the Kardashians must be given credit for is breaking the curse of ephemeral reality fame; for close to a decade they have sustained a multimillion-dollar empire. The family demonstrated a reality TV version of synergy—should audiences grow tired of the tedious antics of one family member, another quickly jumped in to provide a new hot mess, like lipstick-wearing tag-team wrestlers. Meanwhile, over the 2010s the Kardashians’ earnings increased at a pace to make a banker jealous. The family made $65 million collectively in 2010, while Kim’s individual earnings had reached $28 million by 2014 and $52.5 million by 2015.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 850