Kim Kardashian’s All’s Fair Moment Comes With One Unfair Twist

Remember that All's Fair trailer that everyone watched on loop? It racked up a ridiculous 134 million views in its first week. That looked like the start of a juggernaut. Then the show actually dropped, and the critical response came down like a piano. The whiplash here is real.

How this came together (and why expectations were sky-high)

Ryan Murphy built All's Fair specifically around Kim Kardashian after an unexpected pivot. He originally took a reality show idea to Kim and Kris Jenner. Kris had a different thought:

"You should write a role for Kim"

Murphy did exactly that. He even consulted Kim's real-life divorce attorney, Laura Wasser — yes, the same lawyer who helped inspire Laura Dern's character in Marriage Story — to shape Kim's character, Allura Grant. On paper, it sounded like a slam dunk: an all-female Los Angeles law firm handling nasty, high-profile divorces, with Kim front and center and a stacked supporting cast that includes Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson, and Niecy Nash.

The hype vs. the hammering

The numbers and reactions tell two completely different stories. Here is the split, clean and simple:

• Trailer views (first week): 134 million (per Deadline), topping Hulu's previous record of 47.2 million set by The Kardashians
• Rotten Tomatoes critics score: launched at 0% and later crept up to 6%
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 66%
• Metacritic: 19/100

Critics were ruthless. The Times handed it a zero-star review and basically called the show tacky and outright revolting. The Guardian's Lucy Mangan said she was surprised TV this bad could still get made. The Hollywood Reporter said Kim's performance felt stiff and not particularly authentic. A viral post on Nov 4, 2025, even flagged that 0% debut on Rotten Tomatoes and quoted a reviewer calling it the worst TV drama ever.

And yet, the audience response is... not that. Viewers are clearly into the glossy chaos, the fashion, the swagger, and the camp. That 66% audience score suggests a lot of people are watching this as a high-gloss guilty pleasure. If you come in expecting razor-sharp legal drama, you might be baffled. If you're here for spectacle and mess? Different story.

The irony of star power

One awkward wrinkle: surrounding Kim with heavy hitters like Glenn Close and Sarah Paulson only made the contrast sharper. Several reviewers said the writing was the deeper problem anyway, so it is not just about the lead performance — the bones of the show took plenty of hits too. The result is a strange paradox: the exact elements that make the show instantly watchable (big names, big looks, big tone) are also the ones getting it dragged by critics.

So what is All's Fair, really?

Right now, it is a case study in how virality and acclaim do not always shake hands. Kim delivered what her brand promises — aspirational vibes, headline-ready moments, couture for days — and still got hammered by reviewers. Whether this settles into a Showgirls-style reappraisal or vanishes after the finale is up in the air. For now, it is living two lives: disaster to critics, catnip to a big chunk of viewers.

If you want to see what all the noise is about, new episodes of All's Fair drop every Tuesday on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ internationally. The season finale lands December 9, 2025.