TLC Fires Up 'Jon & Kate' Memorial Day Weekend Marathon, Fifth-Season Premiere
Network Says Controversy Over Husband's 'Affair' Will Be Addressed During Episode
Thomas Umstead & Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 5/25/2009 3:09:00 AM
TLC, dealing with a real-life controversy stemming from its real-life reality series Jon & Kate Plus 8, will put the show back on full display over Memorial Day weekend.
The network, which is running a marathon of Jon & Kate Plus 8 this weekend, is scheduled on May 25 at 9 p.m. to air the fifth-season premiere and 100th installment of the now-controversial series, which focuses on the lives of Jon and Kate Gosselin and their eight children.Click here for a sneak peek of the new episode.
TLC is continuing the show despite reports that Jon is having an affair. Network executives would not comment on recent photos published by US Magazine of Jon leaving a bar at 2 a.m. with third-grade teacher Deanna Hummel.
But Jon released a statement, saying his late-night jaunt "showed poor judgment" and that he is not cheating on his wife.
Kate Gosselin, during a May 7 appearance on NBC's Today, said she's "very hesitant" to believe Jon is cheating, according to the New York Daily News.
Now, there are more recent reports that the show will continue for two more seasons if marriage counseling is involved and that the show is actually more scripted than real because the couple has an open marriage.
Jon and Kate Plus 8 is a major hit for TLC: the show's fourth season averaged 2.4 million viewers for TLC, and the season's March 23 finale drew a record 4.6 million viewers.
A TLC spokeswoman had said the controversy will be addressed "in some way" during the fifth-season premiere episode, but did not provide further details.
A descriptor for the May 25 installment says the couple will appear "side by side" to "address what the future" holds for the family.
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I think that AT FIRST kATE AND JON WERE SINCERE AND DOWN TO EARTH PEOPLE. i FEEL THE FAME AND MONEY CHANGED WHO THEY ARE. AND THAT IS SAD. BECAUSE NOW THAT THEY ARE IN THE PUBLIC EYE, tHE Children are the ones who are going to impact from it. Is that fame and forturne really worth having your kids being involved in this terrible outcome. I refuse to watch the show now because moral issues have taken place that have placed those wonderful kids lives in a terrible scandel!
Carolyn Ford - 5/16/2009 10:22:50 AM EDT -
Don't kid yourself. The network is loving all this attention.
Lizzie - 5/8/2009 9:26:46 AM EDT
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