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In an interview with ET Canada ahead of Thursday’s season premiere, which featured a heated argument between Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, executive producer of “The Kardashians” Ben Winston discussed the season’s most shocking, humorous and heartwarming moments.
Despite the fact that the two looked to have resolved their fashion-related argument last season, a heated phone chat soon results in Kourtney making a defiant declaration: “You’re a witch and I hate you.”
“When we started filming the fourth season, they were deep into watching cuts of season 3 and watching the cuts was affecting them more than the argument ever did,” Winston tells ET. “We’d dealt with that issue at the end of season 3, then it blew up on a bigger scale. On one hand, you think you’ve moved past that, but in season 4 it’s probably our most dramatic scene of that entire storyline.”
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Khloé Kardashian’s intense dread of whales being tested while on vacation, a taco chip food brawl in Mexico, and some marriages in Las Vegas are just a few of the season’s lighter and amusing highlights.
“They were deep into watching cuts of season 3 and watching the cuts was affecting them more than the argument ever did.”
“There’s an episode where Kim officiates a wedding in Vegas, which is lovely,” says Winston, whose favorite episode involves Kim’s 10-year-old daughter North West.
“One of my favorite scenes is North on the sofa watching her mum on TV and reviewing people as they come down the Met Gala stairs,” he shares. “I always like our Met Gala episodes because it’s such a fuss and panic over outfits and it’s all so silly, yet great to watch!”
The first episode of the new season features a fun-filled girls’ trip to Cabo, but next week’s episode will tug at the heartstrings as fans learn more about Khloé’s support of her ex, Tristan Thompson, with whom she has two children. Many fans have always questioned Khloé’s choices, such as asking Thompson and his younger brother, Amari, to live with her after their mother Andrea passed away in January, due to the obstacles between the couple, such as Thompson’s alleged adultery.
— Photo by: Disney+
In coming episodes, fans will learn more about Amari’s battle against severe epilepsy. Winston says the compassion Khloé, 39, shows towards the brothers is a testament to her giving nature.
“Khloé is genuinely a jaw-droppingly, remarkable person [and] her capacity for love is ginormous,” he says. “Something will happen to her that’s difficult to cope with, like when cancer was found in her cheek and she was more worried about her family’s reaction. With Tristan going through the tragedy he faced, immediately she goes, ‘How can I help?’ She puts herself definitely not first, but probably not second either.”
“It’s almost like she’s overworking herself and that’s something that some of the sisters are concerned by — what is too much? But Kim’s a worker bee. She never stops.”
“It’s really tough to handle the grief [Tristan’s] family were experiencing, plus the fallout,” Winston continues. “I’ve dealt with something similar in my life recently and you’re first dealing with the grief hitting you, but also with, ‘Who’s going to look after this? Or fill this void?’ So, when you have people like Khloé around, as Tristan did, I think he feels fortunate to have her.”
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Viewers will also get a closer look at aspects of Kim that don’t usually draw a lot of attention from the media, such when her success with the shapewear company SKIMS leads to an invitation for her to appear as a guest speaker at Harvard Business School. Additionally, she meets with Ohio prisoner Kevin Keith, whom she thinks was wrongfully convicted of murder and is working to release.
With so many obligations, Winston claims Kim is less interested in the highly publicized romances that have frequently dominated her life and more interested in the single life this season. He says that her tendencies as a workaholic worry a number of family members.
“[She’s] throwing herself into work, juggling everything from social reform, being a hands-on mother, her billion-dollar Skims brand and taking on a role in ‘American Horror Story,’” Winston says. “It’s almost like she’s overworking herself and that’s something that some of the sisters are concerned by — what is too much? But Kim’s a worker bee. She never stops.”
Nor does the riveting drama stop as season four unfolds, but Winston points out that behind the frequent controversies, it’s the family bonds which remain the heart of the series.
“Yes, there’s the arguments, the intense moments and the controversy we read about in the papers, but the reason why this show has had so much longevity is that it’s about something we all love, which is family,” he says. “It’s about that connection with your people and how it doesn’t matter what happens in the world — they’ve got your back and you’ve got their back.”
“And although their lives are so mad and exaggerated, there’s still relatability because they’re mothers who are juggling issues with co-parenting, running businesses, friendships and sisterhood,” Winston continues. “Weirdly, there is real relatability in them and their storylines.”
“The Kardashians” season 4 premieres on Disney+ in Canada on Thursday, Sept. 28.
