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The 'Earle Meets World' trailer promises drama, but is the Earle family ready to become the next Kar...

Earle Meets World Could Turn The Earles Into The Next Kardashians

If they play their cards right.

by Hannah Kerns
Netflix

On July 30, Netflix dropped the highly-anticipated first trailer for Earle Meets World, which officially releases on Sept. 4. Fans have been clamoring for an Alix Earle-led reality show since the Miami-based influencer took over their FYPs in 2022. Her glamorous life, full of celebrity friends and A-list events, is obviously part of the appeal. But her family dynamic adds another layer of intrigue.

Earle’s mixed family — including her mom and her boyfriend, her father and step-mom, and her fleet of younger siblings — ground her story in real life. It’s still not exactly relatable (one look at their sprawling New Jersey farm confirms that), but the overall effect *could* be reminiscent of early seasons of Keeping Up With The Kardashians if the Earles are up for the challenge.

The first look featured clips of sibling squabbles (featuring Ashtin Earle), celeb cameos (ahem, Jake Shane and Val Chmerkovskiy), and a Deuxmoi post heard ‘round the Earles’ group chat. Plus, there’s a moment where Alix calls out the rest of her family for being “Team Braxton” — presumably filmed after her breakup from NFL player Braxton Berrios. It looks promisingly messy, but only time will tell if the family is willing to do what it takes for a Kardashians-level reality show.

In the early days, a reality show’s success is often a direct reflection of the cast’s commitment to making it work. Being interesting and beautiful is not enough. They have to be hungry — whether it’s for fame, financial stability, or something else entirely. But the Earles don’t seem to need their show, which might be its biggest problem.

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Back in 2007, when the first season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians aired, its cast was all on the cusp of celebrity, but not quite there yet. For years, the KarJenners dutifully broadcasted their family’s best and (more importantly) worst moments for the world to see. In the process, they became TV gold and bonafide A-listers.

The Kardashians’ current Hulu show is a noticeably diluted version of its former self (likely because the family is now executive producers on the project). As a legacy program, it still works, but not because it’s amazing TV. It’s simply because the family has entered an ether of celebrity where they no longer need to be messy to generate interest. At this point, just existing on camera is enough.

The Earles have all the means to replicate their success. The question is: Are they willing to? For Earle Meets World to work, they need to harken back to those early Kardashian days. But the Earle family is closer to the 2026 Kardashians than their 2007 selves — they’ve already built a loyal audience based purely on content they’ve created themselves. And until now, they’ve protected their private lives accordingly.

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As a habit, Alix keeps pretty quiet about the messiest parts of personal life. Online, she teases drama, but usually keeps things vague, refusing to name names or give her followers a true deep dive. Case in point? In April, Alex Cooper called out Alix’s “passive-aggressive reposts” and asked her, “What’s the beef?” Alix left a cheeky reply — “on it!” — but three months later, she still hasn’t shared her side of the story.

On TikTok, her method of circumventing the drama worked, and her followers quickly stopped asking for an update. But on a reality show, that kind of coy sidestep won’t fly. When audiences are tuning in for hours of content (rather than minutes of a TikTok), they expect more — whether it’s a bigger payoff or a steeper cliffhanger.

The good news? The Earle family is not executive producing their show. The better news? Alix has confirmed that her feud with Cooper will be featured. The bad news? She initially wanted to ignore her Unwell breakup entirely — a rocky sign for how she might navigate future drama. “That was one of the things in the beginning they wanted me to talk about, and I really wasn't comfortable sharing. Then everything unfolded the way it did while we were filming,” she told Time in July.

The newly-released trailer doesn’t explicitly mention Cooper, but the success of the show will likely depend on how the Alix vs. Alex feud is portrayed. A sanitized, PR-ified version of the story won’t work, and might indicate a larger problem when it comes to how Earle Meets World handles buzzy, unscripted drama. What we need is an instantly memeable “don’t be f*cking rude” moment — here’s hoping the Earle family delivers.