The saying goes that “Any press is good press.” That doesn’t seem to be the case when it comes to “Jon & Kate Plus 8.”
New episodes of the popular reality series premiered on Monday and garnered less than half the amount of viewers that watched episodes earlier this summer, according to Us Weekly. This begs the simple question, “Why?” Well, it’s probably because people are over these two.
On the May 25th premiere, 9.8 million people tuned into the show. That was just as news began to break that Jon Gosselin might be cheating on his wife, Kate. Before that news broke, Jon and Kate were far from household names outside of a handful of TLC viewers. But his alleged infidelity set off a media whirlwind that followed the couple everywhere. Then, a few weeks later, the show aired a cliffhanger episode where the couple decided to split up.
Ever since though, both Jon and Kate – who got the show because of their unique situation – haven’t been portrayed as model parents. The fact that they have eight kids has been overshadowed by celebrity tendencies like jet-setting across the world. Jon, in particular, has been painted as a bad guy. He has been photographed dating several other women including party girl Hailey Glassman and even, in the latest rumors, his baby sitter.
And in the meantime, fans of the show probably kept thinking, “Doesn’t this guy have eight kids at home?”
It seems like the media overkill and negative portrayal of the parents has finally taken its toll on the show. Now with the couple officially separated and “separately parenting” on TV, the show has lost much of its natural, family friendly charm. It was fun for people to watch a happy couple try and manage eight kids. People can relate to that.
What people can’t relate to is being uber famous, which both Jon and Kate have become. And while the show doesn’t really focus on that – and it shouldn’t – all that celebrity gossip baggage is still there. It becomes very difficult to separate the reality from the reality television.
We can turn on E! or VH1 to watch trashy celebrity reality shows. People watched “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ because it was wholesome. And though the new episodes of the show are still wholesome, it’s simply not the same knowing that when the cameras turn off, things are really screwed up. It’s like watching a lie and viewers are responding.
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