Anthony Hemingway defended “All’s Fair” and its embattled star, Kim Kardashian, after the legal drama was slammed by critics and saddled with a dismal 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The director, who helmed four episodes of the Ryan Murphy-produced series, addressed the backlash in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, saying, “You’re not going to please everybody.”
The show, which also stars Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts and Niecy Nash-Betts, has been widely panned despite its high-profile cast. Still, Hemingway stood by the project, emphasizing that personal taste plays a major role in how viewers respond to content.
“You may have certain criticisms, while there are a million others who love it. I think the show holds a mirror up to each person who watches it,” he said. “It’s just about: Can you connect to it or relate to it, and see yourself? It may be out of your league, it may not be anything you can connect to, and I think that goes for anything that gets presented on screen.”
Hemingway, who also served as an executive producer alongside Murphy, Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner, acknowledged the show might not resonate with everyone.
“It may not be for you, and that’s OK, but I personally enjoy the show,” he said. “I had a lot of fun relating to it in my own way. Not everything is for everybody, and you can’t also expect one person to define something and for that be the totality of what it is — I don’t agree with that.”
Drawing from his own experience, Hemingway pointed to the slow-burning success of The Wire, the acclaimed HBO series he worked on in the early 2000s.
“I also think sometimes things may take time,” he said. “I did The Wire. No one liked the show when it was out. They hated it. They didn’t watch it. Two people watched it every week. But it got to a point where it found a moment.”
He clarified that he wasn’t directly comparing the two shows but used The Wire as an example of how public opinion can shift over time.
“It becomes something totally different in another time,” he added.
All’s Fair premiered in 2025 and has struggled to gain traction with both viewers and critics.