"Jon & Kate" Ratings Record: 9.8 Million For Season Five Premiere

The tabloid attention to Jon and Kate Gosselin's troubled marriage drove a record audience Monday night to the season five premiere of TLC's "Jon & Kate Plus 8."

Broadcasting & Cable's Alex Weprin reports that the show drew its best ratings ever, averaging 9.8 million total viewers and 4.3 million viewers in the Women 18-49 demographic, and beating everything else on television Monday night. Further, the premiere delivered the highest ratings in TLC history in three demos (Women 18-34, Men 18-34, and Persons 18-34).

Read a summary of the premiere episode here.

Kate's sister-in-law Julie had urged viewers not to watch the show Monday night, suggesting that TLC would be stringing along the Gosselins' marriage drama in an effort to boost ratings:

They will only show what they think people want to see and it isn't real anyway. They will probably drag this out (J&K's 'relationship') for the entire season. They just string the viewers along hoping that they will come back for more."

Comments

[zukervati]

Well, the ploy worked. All of the crap they were putting out in the rags, etc. was for one and only one thing - publicity, and it worked like a charm! Let this be a lesson for people who get caught in the over hype.
I've never watched this show, but had a suspicion when they kept popping up in the media everywhere. To me, watching this show would be like get a capsaicin enema!

[leftLibertarian]

Please watch my new reality series on TLC.

Watch me blog about my twitter while I twitter about my blog.

[happycat]

Throw in Elizabeth Hasselbeck, and you have yourself there the makings of one crap show!

[BluebirdofUnhappiness]

I'd rather watch a how-to on plumbing repairs or composting. The Learning Channel my asters.

[viewfromuphere]

just when you think the run of the mill tv viewer (including me from time to time) can't sink lower....we do..

although I've never have or will watch this particular slo mo train wreck.....

[Leslib]

Not I. Quite frankly these two yo-yos can't get their mugs off of the tabloids at the checkouts fast enough for me.

[Bariis]

It's what they wanted though, isn't it?

[johnnygoodwud]

i was NOT one of the 9.8 mil. and for those of you that did watch, you've been played, plain and simple. it's ratings time, and it's all about the numbers. i guarentee before the season is over, they will be hunkie-dorie, or they'll leave you with some cliff hanger. thank god for netflix

[teron678]

heh .. they got what they wanted ....

[vickskat]

Makes you wonder if all this was an elaborate scheme to get their names out there. Because you know only 4 people were paying attention before this.

Now Kate can get her talk show!

[Sooner Bob]

Kate with a talk show? Isn't Oprah, Dr. Phil and The Doctors bad enough?

[hotseat]

People watch this drivel?

[nunzia]

My sentiments exactly.
This is why we got that feckless slacker in the WH for 8 years.
this is what Americans do every night, they watch trash on tv, instead
of putting any effort into understanding what the hell is pulling down the country.
disgusting.+

[Defunct]

oh that hair, darlin' that hair. it's not making you as hip and cool as you think.

[JScott]

Sad and crappy attempt at trying to look like Victoria Beckham and apparently just as b*tchy.

[onwisconsin]

I watched this show a couple of times while recovering from surgery this winter. I couldn't believe how this woman treated her kids and her husband. I don't like abusive, controlling, and self-centered people. I had my husband watch one of the couch scenes with me and he was similarly unimpressed. The smaller kids were cute but seemed behind in language development for their ages and also didn't seem to get any one on one attention from either parent, though the dad seemed more connected to them than their mom. The older girls seemed troubled to me (one was very quiet, one was acting out) probably from not getting enough attention on their own either. But I just saw it twice. I could not stand it more than that for two reasons: 1) that woman is annoying and 2) it just felt too voyeuristic. Private family time should be just that: private.
I sincerely hope they stop filming this show for the kids' sakes. Divorces/marital discord are difficult for kids in the best of circumstances but when the world is watching, it's got to be a special kind of hell.

[lmvd3]

I saw about fifteen minutes each of two shows. I could not STAND how this woman treated her husband, particularly in front of the children. She was beyond rude--she was abusive to him. I had to turn it off both times because of her nastiness. She has real problems, and needs therapy. She comes across as arrogant and completely impressed with her unimpressive self, and treats her husband as if he is subhuman. Not sure why anyone would watch this woman create a generation of dysfunctional children, as her husband grows more and more emotionally removed. He can barely stand to look at her--no wonder. So sad that they're both doing this to the family-- further, under the voyeuristic eye of an America that loves public trainwrecks.

[poaster]

I feel so awful this had to happen. A family of 10 that is struggling to make it on $75k an episode. Snif snif.

[Blurp]

Boring.

[Wanjiru]

...why do people care so much about this couple???...This just beats me!!!....

.

[PoliticalAmazon]

I think it's like watching a trainwreck. You know it's going to happen, you know it's going to be awful, and you know you should not look...but you just cannot turn away.

[JScott]

Me too, what's so remarkable about them, there are families suffering more and may have more or less kids, jeez my mom was from a family with 9 kids and my grandparents raised em in the depression.