Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. (Reuters)
Coupling up in Hollywood can be a business arrangement, one that bolsters the brand value of both parties.
That all goes out the window if collectively, two individuals raise the ire of the American public even more than they do separately.
Meet Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
Last week we learned there may be a burgeoning romance between reality television star and the polarizing rapper after the pair were all over each other at an after-party following a Jay-Z concert on Tuesday night. Celebrity number crunching experts tell Fox411 this pairing could possibly result in the most toxic celebrity couple of all time.
“We are starting out with two individuals with the deck stacked against them, and when you put the two of them together, they will be a turn off to the majority of the audience,” explains Steven Levitt, the President of Marketing Evaluations.
Levitt’s company measures Q scores, a measure that quantifies the likability of a particular personality. They poll a cross section of the American public on how warmly or coldly they feel about a particular celeb.
Using the scores, Levitt can objectively show that a Kanye-Kim Kardashian union would be unfavorable to the extreme.
Levitt tells us that Kanye West has a positive Q score of 15. The average for personalities in the rap and hip hop community among Kanye’s peers is an 18. That’s not terrible. What is bad is his negative Q, which is a 58, where the average negative score for the rap community is a 40.
“While his positive rating isn’t dreadful his negative is way beyond the average for the category,” Levitt said.
The last time Levitt’s company ran the numbers on Kim Kardashian was in August, before her disasterous 72 day marriage to Kris Humphries further soured the public against her.
“My guess is the numbers would not improve if we ran them now,” Levitt said. But even in August, Kim’s likability was low, generally and amongst her reality starring cohorts.
Kim’s positive Q score is a 12 and her negative is a whopping 53. The average in the reality television category is a positive score of 18 and a negative of 32.
“When you look at Kim and Kanye together you see that the audience does not favor either of them,” Levitt said. “For the most part they turn off the general audience."
Even the tabloid magazines, who typically love celebrity couplings, say they don’t want to see a West-Kardashian union.
“Right now Kim needs to focus on repairing her image and winning back the public's approval and their trust in her. Kanye West is a horrible choice. Those two would be the most hated couple in America if they started dating,” explains In Touch Senior Editor Dorothy Cascerceri. “He's extremely outspoken to the point of self-absorbed and conceited in the eyes of many. She needs to go with someone who the public already loves.”
Qualitatively and quantitatively Kim and Kanye are a bad match. The real question is whether there is any more toxic coupling?
“Only if you threw Lindsay Lohan into the mix,” Levitt said.
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