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- Jon and Kate plus Eight divided by six times twelve, who cares?
Jon and Kate plus Eight divided by six times twelve, who cares?
- By Chris Thorn
- Published 10/15/2009
- Commentary
- Unrated
From the inception of the television show, “Jon & Kate plus 8,” I didn’t understand what all the hype was about.
My wife watched the show up until the recent meltdown of their marriage so I caught a glimpse or two of the show in that timeframe and I really wasn’t impressed. It seemed like Jon rarely spoke, for whatever reason, and the kids, from what I saw, weren’t enjoying having their lives on full display like, “The Truman Show.”
Let’s face it, who would like it? I know I wouldn’t and sure as heck wouldn’t put my family through that kind of stress, who knows how all this will affect them down the road.
The other shows my wife watches regarding real life families on television, “Little People, Big World” and “18 Kids and Counting” were a lot better in my opinion.
Why you may ask?
Mainly because they didn’t, and still don’t, have all of this crazy drama in their kids lives. In these shows the families seem to be simply living their lives with cameras there.
The other kicker in my mind is the other families don’t seem to really need the money from the filming, nor did they seem to get into doing the show for that reason. If I recall correctly the parents on “Little People” own a large ranch in Oregon and the husband still works and was the co-founder of some software company.
In the other show, “18 Kids and Counting,” the father is a former politician and it is reported that most of their income comes from commercial properties they own.
Jon and Kate on the other hand seem to have done it, whether it was one or both of them, for the money.
The telling sign for me was this recent trauma in their life.
Why else would you as parents, when you know for sure you’re going to be separating or getting a divorce, put your kids through that torment on national television and consider continuing it in another season let alone another episode?
I can’t think of any other reason except for dollar bills.
CNN reported that the couple makes between $50,000 - $70,000 per episode. That would be a total of between $1.5 million and $2.1 million if you figure on 30 episodes per season. If you move that total up for the four seasons they’ve gone through that’s $6 million to $8.4 million and that doesn’t count whatever other promotions they receive.
That should be enough, if they saved any of it (I tend to think not), to take your family out of the spotlight and focus on finding real jobs and healing the gaping wounds created in the family.
My wife watched the show up until the recent meltdown of their marriage so I caught a glimpse or two of the show in that timeframe and I really wasn’t impressed. It seemed like Jon rarely spoke, for whatever reason, and the kids, from what I saw, weren’t enjoying having their lives on full display like, “The Truman Show.”
Let’s face it, who would like it? I know I wouldn’t and sure as heck wouldn’t put my family through that kind of stress, who knows how all this will affect them down the road.
The other shows my wife watches regarding real life families on television, “Little People, Big World” and “18 Kids and Counting” were a lot better in my opinion.
Why you may ask?
Mainly because they didn’t, and still don’t, have all of this crazy drama in their kids lives. In these shows the families seem to be simply living their lives with cameras there.
The other kicker in my mind is the other families don’t seem to really need the money from the filming, nor did they seem to get into doing the show for that reason. If I recall correctly the parents on “Little People” own a large ranch in Oregon and the husband still works and was the co-founder of some software company.
In the other show, “18 Kids and Counting,” the father is a former politician and it is reported that most of their income comes from commercial properties they own.
Jon and Kate on the other hand seem to have done it, whether it was one or both of them, for the money.
The telling sign for me was this recent trauma in their life.
Why else would you as parents, when you know for sure you’re going to be separating or getting a divorce, put your kids through that torment on national television and consider continuing it in another season let alone another episode?
I can’t think of any other reason except for dollar bills.
CNN reported that the couple makes between $50,000 - $70,000 per episode. That would be a total of between $1.5 million and $2.1 million if you figure on 30 episodes per season. If you move that total up for the four seasons they’ve gone through that’s $6 million to $8.4 million and that doesn’t count whatever other promotions they receive.
That should be enough, if they saved any of it (I tend to think not), to take your family out of the spotlight and focus on finding real jobs and healing the gaping wounds created in the family.