The only way is out of Essex: is it time for Towie to bow out?

As the real world continues to grapple with our “new normal”, seismic shifts also threaten the status quo of the reality TV world. The Only Way Is Essex (Towie) turned 10 last month while Keeping Up With the Kardashians called it quits after 14 years and 20 seasons.

Reality TV shows come and go, but a select few become their own form of, only slightly less scripted, soap opera – expected to continue ad infinitum. Many fans of the Kardashian clan half anticipated watching the next generation grow up on the show, accompanying a cyborg Kris Jenner as she played grandmomager to North West. But end it has – calling into question the future of other shows like it, including Towie, that have survived this long. In hindsight, Towie’s triumphant celebrations at reaching a decade have started to look like a final hurrah.

As with Towie, the Kardashians’ ratings continued to drop year on year, despite their lives remaining consistent tabloid fodder. But it was not a lack of viewers that finished it off, but a pay dispute. It has been reported that the sisters asked for a pay rise, a request that was turned down by E! television network. “Kylie is making billions of dollars through her makeup line and product endorsements – she doesn’t need the show,” said a source close to the family. With Kendall reportedly preferring life out of the public eye and Kim choosing to focus on her family, the money isn’t worth the enormous emotional demands any more. E! can no longer keep up with the Kardashians; Kim and Kylie are worth a whopping $900m (£700m) each and aren’t reliant on the series for money or attention any more, with nearly 200 million Instagram followers each.

The cast of Towie may not have reached Kardashian/Jenner levels of fame or wealth, but several participants who have long jumped ship became millionaires. The sustainability of the show must be in question. Payment by way of visibility sufficed in the pre-influencer 2010s, but bosses were recently forced to give the show’s cast a pay rise after they threatened to strike over their £100-a-day rates. There are easier routes to cash and celebrity now.

You can’t blame the Towie cast for being disgruntled, with shows such as Love Island churning out the magazine cover stars of tomorrow, when, even after just a handful of episodes, its stars accrue enough followers to make a decent living as an influencer. Towie may be an institution – it paved the way for Made in Chelsea and spawned a spate of household names in the form of Joey Essex, Sam Faiers and Kate Wright – but as time goes on, former cast members continue to distance themselves from the very thing that made them famous.

ITV marked its decade on telly with a much-hyped reunion show and guest appearances in the latest series, both of which were littered with no-shows. Fan favourites such as Mark Wright, Lucy Mecklenburgh, Lauren Goodger and Ferne McCann were nowhere to be seen. Their time on what was once Britain’s biggest reality TV programme is something they look back on with more remorse than they ever felt for nicking each other’s boyfriends.

Their lack of enthusiasm is matched by the public. A strip of shops owned by cast members on Crown Street in Brentwood was once a tourist attraction, but was already struggling before the pandemic hit. The “Towie curse” has seen shops from Harry Derbidge, Joey Essex, Jessica Wright, Charlie Sims and his sister Chloe Sims, all shut down. There are only two left standing in the area; Gemma Collins’ Boutique and Minnie’s, co-owned by Sam and Billie Faiers. These are all cast members who left the franchise to continue their own spin-off series years ago. Like the Kardashians, many of the Towie lot simply outgrew the show.

Towie has tried to turn the tide in typical Essex fashion; with an injection of something to make it appear more youthful. After 10 cast members left last year, eight shiny new faces came on to the scene, some as young as 17 years old. But at the risk of sounding like Denise van Outen’s pun-laden intro to the show, there’s only so much filler that can smooth out the show’s cracks. Often, the new cast simply felt like modern versions of the OG crew, acting out scenes from the show’s heyday. Chloe Brockett, a pocket rocket Lauren Goodger, Saffron, a more demure Gemma Collins and Joey, a cattier Derbidge. There is potential in the bright-eyed, bushy tailed newbies, but it is curtailed by the abiding presence of veteran cast members that no longer “live for the drama”.

A quick fix would be a spin-off for the remaining OG cast who remain above it all, an onscreen retirement home where their show can die peacefully. Perhaps then, the more reckless, haven’t-yet-made-it cast can roam free and be given a chance to make the franchise their own, giving new life to Towie. Brockett carries the current run on her back, but if the first few series all those years ago are any guide, the rest of the cast may come into their own. They just need our patience and a lot of fake tan.