On Monday night, the big “announcement” promised by Jon & Kate Plus Eight will be revealed. The prevailing guess is: divorce. When TLC began promoting this hour-long special earlier this week, I started hearing from some people that they thought announcing one’s divorce via a TV show was crass and reprehensible. My first thought was, well, sure, most of us were taught that grave private matters like this should remain just that: private. But… really? In an age of stuff like Rock of Love, Celebrity Rehab, Big Brother, and other reality-TV that doesn’t exactly have much in the way of dignified reserve or moral uplift, I have a hard time mustering outrage that Jon and Kate are doing something contemptuous.
Whether you view it as a business decision or a matter of honesty, when you’ve become public figures the way Jon and Kate Gosselin have, information about changes to the fundamental nature of their show need to be addressed. (Let’s face it, even if they don’t announce a separation or divorce, this is not the same happy-happy-joy-joy family-show it was when it premiered in 2007.) So there’s a level on which announcing their news on their own TV show — the only forum left for them to release information the way they want it disseminated, rather than letting it leak to entertainment-news shows or have its context spun by an interviewer in a print or TV outlet — is just plain common sense, if you look at it from their point of view.
But these instant complaints about the Gosselins only make it more obvious than ever how quickly Jon & Kate Plus Eight went from being a heartwarming little cable TV show to a litmus test for how you feel about child-bearing and -rearing, and about the role and responsibilities that an “ordinary” person takes on when he or she becomes a celebrity. It’s undeniable that the more successful the show became, even before the couple’s marital problems, the more ramped-up and heated the criticism of its subjects.
For most of its history, Jon & Kate operated under the pop culture radar. That’s because the demo it attracted wasn’t the one most mass-media outlets are chasing these days: It was enjoyed primarily, I’d guess, by non-twentysomethings with kids of their own. Just as people in their teens and 20s watch The Bachelor and A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila for the romance and the risque campiness, so did Jon & Kate viewers enjoy comparing parenting styles and saying a silent, “Thank goodness I don’t have that many kids, as cute as they are.”
And right from the start, there was an undercurrent of anti-Jon & Kate sentiment. It sprouted on blogs like gosselinswithoutpity and kateisashrew. These sites were among the first places that started taking the Gosselins to task for Kate’s bossiness, the couple’s willingness to accept free household items and trips in return for having their lives taped. After a while, these sentiments seeped into more mainstream places, including Entertainment Weekly. I reviewed the first couple of seasons of the show postively — so positively, TLC quoted from one of my reviews in their TV ads. Like a lot of viewers, however, I also began to think that Kate’s bossiness toward Jon sometimes seemed more like bullying or humiliation, and occasionally wrote about that element as well.
But when the pair started having marital problems, everything exploded. The backlash now seems to have gone way too far and cruelly against the Gosselins. It’s one thing for a viewer to worry — and this is the hallowed phrase you read, over and over — “about the children.” It’s another thing, however, to call Kate a “fame whore” and worse.
Meanwhile, the tabloids discovered Jon & Kate with a real vengeance, building the narrative that has now taken over the show… and, perhaps, the Gosselins’ lives. Late-night talk shows make jokes about the show, even as the hosts act as though they have no idea who the Gosselins are. (“What is the deal with the Jon & Kate?” asked David Letterman just last night.) The implied message: these people aren’t worth knowing.
Well, you could probably say that about 98% of the people on reality-TV shows. I still maintain that, once upon a time, Jon and Kate and those eight kids were lots of fun to watch, and not in a jeering, let’s-make-fun-of-them way, but as a portrait of a complex marriage, and as a light-hearted chronicle of the growth of those kids. But now, who knows where it will end? Maybe Monday night, we’ll get some clues to the answer to that question.
What do you think?
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What do I think, Ken? Very simple. At whatever financial cost, J&K should shut down the show and go back to obscurity. There is no other solution, it has spiraled out of control. If they don’t, I have no sympathy for the continued bashing they will receive. It’s the way of the world.
I agree with Dianne. What good is served (except to TLC and Discovery’s sponsors) to have this family expose it’s private business to the world. Your comment makes it seem like a) because other reality shows are worse and exist, this one is fine, b) there is some due to the viewers to keep them included in the Goselin’s business, and c) that there is some ‘control’ they exert by sharing their family news this way. The whole thing is carefully orchestrated for viewership. If TLC and if the Goselin’s cared about the welfare of their family, they would pull the plug and heal in private.
If this family and the soon-to-be twilight family don’t just dissapear from the radar I might just go insane.
watch them -
http://watchcelebrity.com/john_kate.html
I think your assessment is spot on, but I have to ask just how much of this they brought upon themselves. I loved the show in the beginning however, I honestly feel like now it’s more of a cash cow for Kate than anything else. That is shameful because they are pretty much airing their dirty laundry which, in my humble opinion, should still be handled privately no matter how low society has sunk. Their are certain things that should not become entertainment fodder, particularly when one’s children are involved. Affairs and divorce should be in the category. I won’t be tuning in on Monday night for the “big announcement”; I would feel as though I were somehow lending credibility to this train wreck that has become Jon & Kate. I enjoyed reading your thoughts very much. This is probably one of the more balanced opinion pieces I’ve read on this whole deal since it started.
I hope the announcement is they aren’t doing another season and they are going to work on their relationship. That’s what I hope, but I think it’s going to be a divorce. Imagine those kids when they get older seeing their family crumbling on reruns and announcing the end of their marriage. Lots of therapy in the future for these kids and it’s a shame. I loved the show because I could relate to raising kids (not that many) and the struggles you have within a marriage while raising a family. It quickly turned into something I couldn’t relate to…I couldn’t relate to getting the plush box at the Phillies game, getting a paid vacation and renewel of vows in Hawaii, cooking w/Emeril, getting a bike from the Chopper guys, etc. They’ve changed as we all do and I think raising a family of 8 puts a lot of strain and add cameras and money and fame into the picture, we should have seen this was coming. We’ve seen it before w/reality tv. I just had hopes they’d beat the reality tv curse.
As always it will be the kids who suffer the most.
I can’t help but to feel sorry for Jon & Kate. Thngs got out of hand and I don’t believe that either of them every wanted their “fame” to end up this way.
I still watch the show and will be watching Monday to hear the “big” announcement.
I think Kate is an emasculating ball crushing b—h. If Jon doesn’t divorce her, he’ll have a miserable life and so will the kids. It’s obvious from some of the comments Kate has made that she doesn’t think counseling is needed — for her. Without both of them being willing to have some counseling and really examine what is tearing their relationship apart, there’s really no hope in keeping the marriage intact. Quit the show and get divorced. It’s best in the long run for ALL the Gosslins.
Mock “it’s about the children” if you want, but the concerns raised by Paul Petersen and others about the exploitation of the “8″ by Jon and Kate, as well as the show’s skirting of Pennsylvania’s child labor laws, are valid and important. The parents are selling their kids’ childhoods and collecting all the cash as if the children aren’t working in front of those cameras too. Media critics and too many viewers delude themselves into thinking that the only things that are real are what they can see on the screen. It’s usually the exact opposite.
pray for these people, thats what they need, that is what we all need
who are we to judge? we need to stop acusing, judging, critisizing and PRAY
Ken–you said it all perfectly. The sad thing is that once the “little ones” were past the infant stage, the show became “The Show”.
I heard from someone that Jon is going to announce that he is gay. Has anyone heard about this rumor? I sort of suspected it, but I guess he is coming out.
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