Kate Plus 8: Reality TV Series

Jon & Kate Plus 8, named Kate Plus 8 from the sixth season on, is an American reality television series airing on TLC. It is produced by Figure 8 Films about the Gosselin family, consisting of parents Jon and Kate and their eight children: fraternal twins and sextuplets. The show follows the family through their daily lives, focusing on the challenges of raising multiple children. The show was one of the highest rated programs on TLC during its run, with the fifth season premiere seen by a record 9.8 million viewers, the most watched show of that evening including broadcast television, twice as many viewers as the show’s previous series high.
The family originally appeared in two one-hour specials titled Surviving Sextuplets and Twins and Sextuplets and Twins: One Year Later. The show originally aired on Discovery Health, but then aired on TLC from the third season on.
On September 29, 2009, following the Gosselins' separation, TLC announced that as of November 2, the program would undergo a name change, to Kate Plus 8, focusing on Kate as a single mother raising eight children with Jon appearing less frequently. However, filming was later suspended due to Jon's lawyers delivering letters to TLC demanding that they cease and desist production and barred production crews from the couple's Pennsylvania property on October 1, 2009. This led to putting the show's revamping on hold. TLC planned for "a series of specials" if the series did not go into production.
The final episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 aired on November 23, 2009, announced by TLC three days earlier. The revamped Kate Plus Eight format premiered on June 6, 2010 Kate Plus 8. The second season of Kate Plus 8 (the seventh season total) premiered on November 28, 2010.
This show's implicit endorsement of large families and population growth was cited as one of the causes of the 2010 Discovery Communications headquarters hostage crisis.