Kailyn Lowry on How New Show ‘Crashing Out’ Differs From ‘Teen Mom’ and Her Kids’ Request Before Filming

Kailyn Lowry is ready to document her life again — but in a much different way than viewers saw on Teen Mom.

The former 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom 2 reality star is now a podcaster embarking on her international Fatherless Behavior tour. She’s filmed the journey for a new show, Crashing Out With Kail, which debuts Tuesday on ShortVydz, “a talent-forward new mobile-first streaming platform for shortform reality television.” (It’s one of two new series launching the platform; the other, Abby vs. Cathy: Hit the 8, reunites former Dance Moms stars Abby Lee Miller and Cathy Nesbitt-Stein as judges of a dance competition. Read more about that show here.)

Crashing Out With Kail follows the reality star on her tour and promises to feature hotel room chaos, green room tension, business decisions made on the fly and a relationship playing out in real time while seven kids wait at home. Each stop on the tour plays as its own story. Both Crashing Out and Hit the 8 unfold in “fast-paced” two-to-four-minute episodes that are designed for mobile viewing.

“The whole idea of the show is, ‘Where is Kale now since Teen Mom?’ Which I love,” Lowry tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Ahead of the show’s premiere, Lowry spoke with THR about her return to reality programming, how it differs from Teen Mom and what viewers can expect to see.

Could you describe the show in your own words to our readers?

Crashing Out With Kail shows my entire life from a completely new perspective. Teen Mom was really focused on my relationships more, I would say than my motherhood, and this kind of focuses on my work and what goes on behind the scenes while I’m being a mom. I really love that it’s drama-based but not about my kids’ dads.

It seems there is a lot of inherent drama while you’re on embarking on this big tour. You kind of see that on the show, warts and all.

I don’t think that anyone could have predicted the amount of chaos behind the scenes. All of us at the KILLR Podcast Network [which Lowry founded and serves as CEO of] have different podcasts, not just the ones with each other. So with that, there are going to come a lot of challenges and trying to find our way. I’s been really fun to be able to film this with my friends and obviously the people that I work with. But there’s been a lot of ups and downs though for sure.

The series also shows you faced with some tough business decisions.

It’s been a learning curve with who to bring on, who to keep, who not to keep. The people that I have on my team are people that have worked with me for a really long time and so they know how I work, and I know their work dynamics and how they work. So for me, everything is not about a dollar, but it kind of has to be about a dollar.

You also work alongside your significant other, Isaac “Ike” Knighton. Can you talk a little bit about the pros and cons of that?

This is the first time I’ve ever worked directly with my partner, but this is also the first time I’ve ever had a partner where I would want that in the first place. And so it’s been really nice. I think at first it was like, how will this work? Because we’re in a new relationship. But he has to know Kail “on,” and by “on” I mean the public-facing [side of] work. But if it was not for my partner, specifically, if it wasn’t for Ike, I don’t think that I would be able to do this. He’s the one that keeps the balance between work and home, and he doesn’t bring the work home into our relationship or into our after hours. If it was anybody else and I was in charge of that, I don’t think I could do it because I would in fact bring work home with us. So I think it’s a combination of the balance in the relationship that I’m able to do that. I truly don’t believe that I could do it if it was anybody else.

Can you take me back a little bit and talk about how this show came about and how you got involved?

[ShortVydz co-founder] Lindsay Schwartz actually reached out to me years ago. I was under contract, and Lindsay had some stuff going on on her side and I just didn’t think anything was going to come of it. And then we reconnected and she’s like, no, I’m ready to get this project going, and I was like, OK, like I’m down.

Lindsay has always been on my side. She was like, “You know, I see the potential here outside of Teen Mom,” and so she’s kind of always believed in me. From the time I was out of my Teen Mom contract, she kind of knew that there was something there, and so just gave her the rundown of what Kail’s world looks like outside of Teen Mom and outside of podcasting — and being a mom of seven and having one of my kids’ dads is my literal neighbor — and so I think just explaining all of this to her, she was like, “OK, yeah, let’s get started.” So we did. And it’s been incredible working with these producers specifically because I get to see the stuff before it comes out well in advance. If there’s something that I don’t like, they give me the opportunity to speak on it. If we collectively decide that it should come out or stay in or more of this or more of that, they give me the creative freedom to express that to them. I really love working with them for a lot of reasons, but specifically that because I’ve had a hard time with reality TV in the past ,and so this has been really, really nice to work with them.

It sounds very collaborative. Was there any hesitation on your part of about putting your life in front of the cameras again?

There were a couple of years right after I left Teen Mom that I did feel like I would never go back to reality TV, and then after talking with Lindsay … I was like, I trust her and I trust her vision. I do think that it does have to be a collaboration, but I think that she does have my best interests at heart. So I had hesitation yes, but not with [production company] L.A. Story.

One of the unique aspects about this is obviously the episodes are short. They’re designed for mobile viewing, which is how people are watching their content now, especially the younger generation. Can you talk a little bit about that format?

A former Teen Mom producer had reached out to me about doing this format as well and so when I heard a little bit about these micro-dramas, unscripted micros, I was definitely intrigued. I didn’t understand it necessarily at first, but I do think, especially after coming from reality TV, where it is a longform format, like Teen Mom and other reality shows, they’re kind of grasping at straws to get us to do certain things to make good TV. In retrospect, I do think that’s sort of why I had to talk about my kids’ dads as often, as long, and as frequently as I did. Where this time it is so bite-size that we can fit everything that we need without dragging scenes out, without talking about things that are not relevant, without talking about things that are truly just like a blip in my life and not making something bigger than it actually is. I really like this format and I think that this could change the way that we watch TV.

I think that is the whole key to these micro-dramas, whether they’re scripted or unscripted, is that we are getting exactly what is happening in very short [bites], like, OK, this is what’s happening here, here, here and here. It’s not about making something digestible to the audience over 45 minutes without having to add filler content. There’s no filler content here. This is exactly what’s happening and we’re able to grab those really dramatic and high-intensity moments and bite-size content pieces. I think that people will really like that.

Can you tease what viewers are going to see throughout the season?

There is drama with the podcasts and podcasting with all my friends — who’s cut, who’s getting cut, who’s not getting cut. Eventually we’ll see some of the chaos at home with my seven kids, with my partner, my family. We will see some of that and kind of what goes on, and then we’ve already been talking about season two. If there’s a second season, it will be even more dramatic than season one.

Is there going to be a season two?

We’re talking about season two, so I am hopeful.

As a working mom myself, I have three kids, and I’m juggling a lot, and I can’t even imagine having twice that plus one more. I’m very impressed with how you can manage all this.

I don’t want to sit here and take credit for things that I’m, I have help with, right? My partner is incredibly helpful. My team is incredibly helpful, but before I got on this meeting, I’m like, OK, which kid needs what for school next week for like the holidays? So I completely understand when you say like you’re juggling it all, whether you have one kid or seven, it’s always chaos.

Did you kids have any thoughts about you going back on the show?

Their No. 1 thing was just continuing to ask for their permission to film, like not forcing them to film, and I respect that. I want them to have full autonomy of what they’re featured on, and so, I just ask them, “Hey, we’re going to film today. Do you have any interest?” And they’ll say yes or no. So I appreciate that, and I think that they can also appreciate that this is not a bash fest about their dads. This is not meant to be Kailyn Lowry and her exes. We all kind of collectively can appreciate that.

The show also is one of two that launch the new platform ShortVydz.

We’re like a pioneer of some sort. It’s cool that I get to be one of the first ones. I don’t know if Abby [Lee Miller] remembers, but I did get to meet her at an event. It was the American Reality TV Awards, at the end of 2024. So it also feels like a full-circle moment because we were on the red carpet at the same time.

Crashing Out With Kail debuts Tuesday on ShortVydz.com and the ShortVydz app.