"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

[ABCD]

"TLC would be stringing along the Gosselins' marriage drama in an effort to boost ratings"

Na Duh! That's what they do with T.V. shows LOL -

[skippy20008]

God....can you imagine when the ratings start falling? You just know Kate will get pregnant again.

[Charity]

i don't have cable, so i've never seen the show and barely know who these people are, but it sure is fun reading that this couple now is complaining that their privacy has been invaded. hello? earth to whomever you are that has a bunch of kids taped hourly for tv cable consumption....the only reality you need is a reality check.

[ModerateMouse]

And they say people envy our freedom. I think pity would be the more apt emotion.

[PoliticalAmazon]

I'd like to know if their children's earnings as part of the program is being protected by an independent guardian.

Paul Peterson, who used to be on the Donna Reed Show decades ago, started a group for child actors to work to make sure that child actors don't end up like many of them did in the 50's-70's...without a dime when they turned 18 becaus their parents had blown it all.

Peterson and Gloria Allred recently filed suit to get an independent financial guardian for the octomom's kids. She's selling their pictures, and that money is legally theirs.

[lillibelle]

Wow, that is very good to hear. Let's hope the children's earnings are being properly monitored. They are going to need it for therapy somewhere down the line.

[drkazmd65]

My only question,... as one that has never watched or cares to watch this particular brand of freak-show,...

What is the fascination with watching the lives of two average idiots, who have produced a litter of kids they can't otherwise afford to feed & clothe, pimp their lives out on TV?

"Cause I just don't get it.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Good for this show. I wish them much success.

[AudiGuy]

TLC has to be paying you. The wife is horrid and the husband is weak. Making $75,000 per show has made a somewhat sketchy relationship fall off a cliff.

This is the typical "reality" show - build them up to watch them cash and burn. Too bad for the kids, as they will watch this train wreck later in life. Just hope the two losers were forced to establish trust funds for the kids.

[ReesieKitty]

I think glorifying these people is gross. They have an army of paid employees raising their kids, taking care of their huge house and letting them try and make themselves into celebrities. All these people who can't believe the 'changes' they've gone through, etc- hello! obviously that woman has gotten a tummy tuck along with her Posh Spice haircut ( getting her roots done that often must cost $200 a month - does the network pay for that?) and her husband goes from having wispy no-hair to thick hair. How does that help their kids? They are both self absorbed and more concerned about image than about being good parents. They are a bad bad example. I just feel sorry for the kids.

[PoliticalAmazon]

I'm disgusted at the number of breeder shows they have on TV. I see nothing glorious about a woman having 6 kids. If I wanted to see a littler of babies, I'd visit a new litter of puppies.

[OhComeOnNow]

Go, girl - right on!

[fdrdemo]

You're ridiculous. Who cares if they've had work done? I don't think anyone would argue that parents should forgo all creature comforts -- that's another easy way for them to make themselves miserable. Plus they're on tv. It comes with the territory.

I think the bigger issue is that America's obsessed with elevating couples with too many children into tv stars in the first place. Most couples stuck with so many kids -- most of whom are the same age -- would also struggle. Yet we want these tv shows to show us that it can somehow be effortless, and that children don't ever impact a marriage negatively. Pure fiction!

And as for that other enormous television family -- the Duggers -- the only reason their marriage is still intact is because they're a part of a fringe religious movement in which women are brainwashed into believing all of their personal self-worth derives from being a fruitful wife and mother. Plus they train the older daughters to take over child-rearing duties for their younger siblings. It's sick and unfair to everyone involved, except the patriarchs of course, who're given liberty to imprison their own wifes within a cycle of endless pregnancy. Compared to them, I'll take Jon and Kate. At least they give a comparatively realistic example of the toll multiple births can have on a relationship.

[Halfwit]

Well, we know that there are 9.8million brainless gits in this country.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Well, more than that listen to Limbaugh (or so he says). People find entertainment where they may. T

[learntofly]

Sounds like all this talk and controversy about this couple was hyped just to boost ratings. If I had kids of that viewing age, I would never let them watch this show. Garbage.

[JerseyDee]

What the heck is the matter with the American viewers. Here's a tip go watch Orangutan Island on Animal Planet. They show a much more caring mothers than Kate and their hairdos are better looking too.

[Mattie]

Yours is the absolute best comment today, I love the hairdo comment, thanks for the laugh.

[fdrdemo]

Why must all attacks on women on these boards devolve into criticisms of their personal appearances? Also, why are these attacks always from women? Someone should do a program on animal planet about that.

[66rock]

This from the Learning Channel. What exactly do they want the youth of America to Learn from this show?? How not to get a job? That woman as baby machines get a pass? Shame on TLC.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

Being on TV is a job for this family.

I imagine that they want the youth to know how difficult and challenging it is to raise children, how hard it is and how joyous.

Way to go TLC.

[houseboat67]

Are you working from a script?

[GreatNews27]

The woman is a MONSTER! Those poor children.

[rwext]

Yikes thats a weeks worth of Olbermaddow viewers ,,, combined

[houseboat67]

The shallow end of the gene pool is always more crowded.

[FoonTheElder]

Couples should need to pass a test in order to take fertility drugs.