Please, someone stop the bleeding! This week’s episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 lost another four million viewers this week. The experts are weighing in on what could possibly be causing this once popular show’s demise.
“I don’t know if the show can make that new transition [from two parents raising eight kids to one parent raising the children],” said Robert J. Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “It’s like if The Cosby Show, mid-season, suddenly became Married With Children.”
Added Marc Berman, senior television editor at Mediaweek: “Once all of this dies down and Jon and Kate aren’t in the news anymore, this could be a problem for the show. They divorce, they move on with their lives and so do the viewers.”
The Gosselin’s need to call it a day. Once Kate became nearly unrecognizable and Jon starting hanging out in St. Tropez, their audience (which I suspect was largely comprised of mothers) couldn’t relate to them. They are no longer the harried parents — a stay-at-home mom and an IT guy –living in a chaotic existence that so many people can identify with.
I used to be able to relate to this family in a “if we suddenly ended up with 6 babies, this is how we’d be” kinda way. But nothing they’ve done since season two even remotely resembles anything my husband or I would do.
My husband and I enjoy money and all, but not at the expense of our family. I don’t even mean the show. I’m talking about the speaking engagements and book signing tour. Nothing but the most dire need would keep me from my family for weeks at a time.
I think a lot of people can’t relate to that.
I agree with Alzaetia. I used to think, “if they can do it with 8, I can do it with 2.” Not anymore. I don’t admire them anymore. Jon and Kate seem self-entitled, and have made a lot of money off their kids. They have been aggressively exploiting their kids to make millions. If you have all their college funds set, and they will probably be financially set for awhile, stop filming. Invest the money, live within means, and be happy.
I’m glad their viewer ship has gone down. I’m no longer watching. Feel bad for the kids that all their family gossip is out there for them to see – sooner or later they will see it.
Jon + Kate = two 16 year olds caught in 30-something’s adult bodies. They are so torn between the norm and the life of hollywood starlets (technically D-listers). They grew so money hungry and eager to grow up and make $ that they got themselves in a horrible situation that neither one could handle. Now their kids have to pay. Unfortunate.
I’m guessing those who watch the show now are not the people who watched it in the beginning. This program is now for a group of people who like to look at train wrecks.
In fact, they could take the kids completely out of the show, rename it Jon & Kate: The Midlife Crisis and get a whole new audience. That audience might be able to relate.
To be fair, almost all television ratings are plummeting, though. I know there are less J&K fans after what happened, but the lack of overall TV viewers still is a factor.
Recent polls show that people have less money to go out for movies, dinner, and what not. People have been staying home and cutting off extended cable packages.
Basic cable has seen an increase in viewers.
I was briefly delighted by J&K+8 by the cute kids and the parents’ struggles to make life work. But even from the get-go, I would cringe just thinking of Kate’s harsh speech to Jon.
When it became clear that Kate was antagonizing their family and friends and finally Jon, and that Jon allowed her to do so, the joy went out of the show. Now it’s just a money machine that they are both tied to.
Their mutual poor judgment about how to handle the consequences of her fertility problems and the resulting high-risk pregnancy and unaffordably large family has been disturbing to watch. Every personal relationship that they had appears to have suffered a serious blow. Some of these relationships may never be repaired.
When the children understand the destructiveness off their parents’ conduct and the irresponsible way that they are spending money that arguably should be in large measure set aside for the children’s future there will be more alienation between the parents and children, if not lawsuits.
This is what so-called reality TV can do – destroy a family while enriching it materially. TLC and Jon and Kate should be ashamed of themselves.
It gets harder to watch with each episode.