Line #5 Series/JonAndKatePlusEight


1	Controversial [=TLC=] RealityShow about a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin family with eight kids]]. The series focused on the day-to-day lives of Jon and Kate Gosselin, who have eight kids (a pair of twins and a group of sextuplets).
2
3	Beginning with a pair of specials (''Sextuplets and Twins'' and ''Sextuplets and Twins: One Year Later''), the show proper ran for four seasons from 2007 to 2009 before hell broke loose. The marriage of the Gosselins began disintegrating, with accusations of adultery on both sides being tossed around. Of course [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity the scandal paid off for the show]], leading to the fifth-season having record ratings as [[BileFascination Americans turned in to see the train wreck up close]] as Jon and Kate separated. The series was put on a hiatus, undergoing retooling as TLC wished to jettison the soon-to-be-divorced Jon from the show and rename it ''Kate Plus Eight'', showing how the family was doing post-divorce.
4
5	However, the ratings tanked, and things only got worse when Jon fired back with a cease and desist order towards production of the show, saying that it "has damaged the children's lives." Between the controversy surrounding the show and Jon and Kate's divorce and the dwindling ratings, it was canceled after only two additional seasons. The cancellation put the kibosh on a second spin-off entitled ''Twist of Kate'' (which would have featured Kate sans kids travelling across the U.S. and visiting single mothers), and seemingly ended the collaboration between Jon, Kate and TLC.
6
7	Then it was UnCanceled...sort of. TLC revived ''Kate Plus Eight'' as a regular series during the start of 2015 after two successful specials in the middle of 2014. Jon was also not involved with this iteration of the series. The show managed to continue for another four truncated seasons before ongoing custody battles between Jon and Kate led to a final cancellation.
8
9	Kate Gosselin has continued to appear on television in several forms, such as the tenth season of ''Series/DancingWithTheStars'', several stints as a co-host on ''Series/TheView'', an appearance on ''[[Series/WifeSwap Celebrity Wife Swap]]'', and in 2019 a new series titled ''Kate Plus Date'', where she teams up with matchmakers to find a new man after a decade of being single.
10
11	----
12
13	!!Examples:
14
15	* CensorBox: When the sextuplets were potty training, Kate would show off pictures of the kids' results. where pictures of the kids' stool were featured, the production team censored them with black blobs labeled "Poop!" in white letters.
16	* ControlFreak: Kate. She is ''constantly'' ordering Jon around and directing everyone's lives down to the tiniest detail, with mixed results: for instance, she takes kids to the Crayola Factory but refuses to let them play with the markers because they're wearing nice clothes.
17	* {{Crossover}}: Jon, the boys, and one of the twins attended a Phillies game; Kate+Eight went to ''Ace Of Cakes''' bakery as a birthday surprise for Kate; Jon visited the ''Monster Garage'' dudes (TLC wouldn't let him keep the chopper); Emeril Lagasse visited the house to cook dinner during/after the divorce announcement episode.
18	** Kate also appeared on Sarah Palin's Alaska, when the Palin family went camping and invited the Gosselins along. It wasn't a very long appearance, since she left before they were supposed to go home (despite the children having a blast).
19	%% ZCE * DayInTheLife
20	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: Jon's [[IconicOutfit Ed Hardy T-shirts]].
21	* DomesticAbuse: Kate persistently yelled at her husband Jon, belittled him, and repeatedly hit him. On camera. In addition, people who knew the Gosselin family said she kept him on a $5 a week budget, had invaded his office to scream at him in front of colleagues at work, and prevented him from attending his own family's funeral. Make of this what you will. According to Jon, she even pulled a WoundedGazelleGambit on the cops when she was having a tantrum and he wouldn't let her in the house.
22	* DoubleStandard: People sympathized with Jon's situation under the abusive Kate... Until he manned up and got a divorce. Then the media turned him into a douchebag manbastard (admittedly, some of his behavior was suspect and didn't help) and the formerly demonized Kate was made sympathetic.
23	* DownerEnding: The show was canceled amid Jon and Kate's divorce proceedings. When Kate told the twins about the divorce, one [[HeroicBSOD broke down and cried]] while the other was all "Yeah, I kinda figured." ''Ouch''. The sextuplets' reaction was "Okay, when's lunch?", but they were five at that point.
24	* FriendshipDenial: The episode "It's A Book" has the young Leah Gosselin saying this:
25	-->"Don't call me buddy. Call me Leah."
26	* GenkiGirl: A few of the children, but Alexis in particular was one of the loudest.
27	* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Kate refused a selective reduction.
28	* GranolaGirl: Kate insisted on an all-organic diet for the kids.
29	* ImprobableHairstyle: And yet, there it is. You know you've got it when there's a ''Halloween wig'' of your hairstyle and at least two pairs of television personalities (including ''Regis and Kelly'') dress as you for Halloween.
30	* {{Jerkass}}: Let's face it, Kate was a huge bitch to Jon.
31	* KickTheDog: After Collin accidentally gets gum on his favorite toy bear, an annoyed Kate decides to throw it away instead of trying to wash or fix it, while he's sobbing right beside her and begging her not to do it. She then twists the knife by telling him to "kiss [it] goodbye" before she throws it in the trash.
32	* LawOfInverseFertility: Jon didn't want any more kids after the twins. When he agreed to try for one more, he got '''six.''' A ''Good Housekeeping'' article mentions that Kate wants to adopt another boy from Korea.
33	%% ZCE * MassiveNumberedSiblings
34	%% ZCE * MyBelovedSmother
35	* ThePrimaDonna: One of the reasons that TLC was so quick to cancel ''Kate Plus Eight'' was that by 2011 Kate Gosselin had become "impossible" to work with.
36	* ProductDisplacement: TLC has started blurring Jon's [[DesignStudentsOrgasm Ed Hardy]] shirts in newer episodes.
37	%% ZCE * TheProfessor: Aaden.
38	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Jon's self-imposed exile from public life is all thanks to the show. Kate, by contrast, seems to thrive on it.
39	* SiblingYinYang: The girls and the boys (the somewhat bossy girls took after their mother while the more laid-back boys took after their father).
40	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: It started out as fairly ideal, but like all on-screen marriages, it couldn't last. An article in the LA Times pointed out that after the stress of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Family "An American Family"'s]] filming added to the couple divorcing, you'd think people would know better about letting cameras into their homes.
41	* SpinOff: The [[WhatCouldHaveBeen never-made]] ''[[PunnyName Twist of Kate]]'' where she travels the country giving advice to single mothers with children.
42	** In 2019 she did get her spin-off, ''Kate Plus Date'', where she searches for a new man.
43	* TeamMom:
44	-->'''Hannah''': Iw'll take care of da kids!
45	* TooManyBabies: The Gosselin family includes a group of septuplets.
46	* TheUnfairSex: Despite being the victim of emotional and (sometimes) physical abuse in the relationship, Jon was invariably cast as the bad guy for "doing her wrong", and basically was forced out of the limelight because of this. Kate, on the other hand, still continued to get magazine covers and guest appearances on other shows. Weirdly, one could argue that [[{{Unishment}} they each got exactly what they wanted.]]
47	** And, as noted above, almost got her own spin-off show where she would have given other people relationship advice... despite arguably being the one to cause her marriage to destruct so spectacularly.
48	* VacationEpisode: Jon and Kate renewed their wedding vows with a trip to Hawaii.

Context Series / JonAndKatePlusEight