Rob Kardashian almost didn’t appear in Keeping Up with the Kardashians

Keeping Up with the Kardashians has always been a family affair, but there’s no denying that not every member of the Kardashian-Jenner family has been spotlighted equally on the show.

The entire family has been a part of the show since the beginning and made appearances across the show’s 20 seasons; however, the fact is, there are certain members of the family who have appeared more frequently and in more of the central storylines than others. Among those who have often taken a back seat to others in the family is Rob Kardashian.

While fans were able to enjoy Rob’s presence often in the show’s early seasons, in later seasons, Rob eased out of the spotlight with fewer appearances as the years rolled by. However, as it turns out, Rob wasn’t part of the original conversations with the network when pitching the show and there wasn’t even a certainty he’d appear on the show!

Did Rob Kardashian want to be on Keeping Up with the Kardashians?

Although Rob Kardashian indeed appears on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, it wasn’t anticipated that he would appear on the show’s first season. In fact, he didn’t even accompany his family to the original pitch meeting with the E! executive team!

When the family originally met with executives in the summer of 2007, Kris, Caitlyn, Kim, Kourtney and Khloe all sat down with production and network execs but Rob was unable to attend the call for good reason.

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As Keeping Up with the Kardashians executive producer Farnaz Farjam revealed during an interview with the LA Times reflecting on the meeting that changed forever changed the TV landscape, Rob did not attend the meeting as he was off at college at the time.

Furthermore, Rob wasn’t even expected to have a role in the show because of the uncertainty of whether his college schedule would provide him with time to appear on the show.

“[The meeting] was minus Rob, because Rob was in college at the time, so we weren’t fully sure how involved he would be [with the show],” Farjam shared.

Luckily, Rob managed to make it work and had a sizable role in the show’s early seasons. Sure he never had quite the sizable role as his sisters, but we can’t imagine not having Rob appear at all, and am happy we were able to get as many appearances as we did in those early seasons before he stepped back!