Jon and Kate Plus 8

Gosselin Family

Jon and Kate

Kate and Leah

Jon & Kate Plus 8 is a reality television show produced in the United States by Figure 8 Films about the Gosselin family, consisting of parents Jon and Kate and their eight children—a set of fraternal twin girls and a set of sextuplets (three girls and three boys). The show follows the family through their daily lives, focusing on the challenges of raising multiple children. The show originally aired on Discovery Health but starting with Season 3, airs on TLC. It also is consistently one of the highest rated show on TLC (just behind Little People, Big World).Template:Fact The family originally appeared in a one-hour special titled Surviving Sextuplets and Twins. The family lives in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

Story

Kate Gosselin is one of five children. She has three sisters and a brother. The latter, Kevin, is often seen on the television series with his wife, Jodi, and their four children Ashtyn, Braden, Alyssa, and Bennet.

Jonathan Gosselin is the middle child of three boys. His brothers are Thomas Jr. and Mark. His father, Thomas Gosselin, was a pediatric dentist who died in 2005. The couple met on October 5, 1997 at a picnic. According to the "How It All Began" episode, Jon was working at a hotel and Kate had recently graduated from her nursing program. According to Kate, "I never believed in 'love at first sight', but this came really close." They were married on June 12, 1999 in "a perfect garden wedding with equally perfect weather".

Kate's desire to start a family was met with a feeling that she would not be able to conceive. She underwent testing and was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome. The couple decided to turn to fertility treatments and immediately began intrauterine insemination or IUI, a procedure where no embryos are left over from the procedure. By February, Kate was pregnant with twins. The couple was thrilled, admitting to having prayed for twins because they were both baby crazy and feared they would fight over one baby. On October 8, 2000, Cara Nicole and Madelyn "Mady" Kate Gosselin were born, six minutes apart, after a "rough" pregnancy.

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When the twins turned three, Kate began to think about the possibility of having another child, while Jon was not so sure. On the couple's appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show that aired on February 22, 2008, Kate admitted that she had wanted to have another child because she wanted to know what it felt like to not have to split her time between two babies, while Jon was hesitant because he felt like the world is built for a family of four. According to Kate, a Korean infant became available while Kate was an obstetrics nurse. They decided not to adopt the baby boy, but instead return to fertility treatment. By October, Kate was pregnant. Five weeks later (after being hospitalized for over-stimulated ovaries), at the initial ultrasound, the doctor announced that there were six sacs with seven yolks, or embryos. According to Kate, this was very emotional news for them, and left her shaking and sobbing and Jon near tears, unable to look at the sonogram screen. The doctor suggested selective reduction, but the couple was absolutely against doing so.

After experiencing the "worst weekend of [her] entire life", Jon took the girls to the family's church. He asked if he should tell anyone about their situation, and Kate agreed that he should so that the church could start praying for their family. As soon as church was over, Jon and Kate received many calls of encouragement. According to Kate, "I began to feel like we could do this! With God's help, of course!"

In an article written for orato.com, Kate admitted that the video of her when she was pregnant with the sextuplets was actually three weeks before she gave birth. She added: Template:Blockquote

The sextuplets were born on Template:Birthdate at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. All six children were delivered within a span of three minutes with more than fifty doctors, nurses and other specialists involved. Since the sextuplets were born in Hershey, they were called "Hershey Kisses" by the nurses and doctors who delivered them.

Family

• Jon Gosselin
• Kate Gosselin
• Cara Gosselin
• Mady Gosselin
• Hannah Gosselin
• Alexis Gosselin
• Leah Gosselin
• Collin Gosselin
• Aaden Gosselin
• Joel Gosselin

Production

Following the first two one-hour specials and prior to beginning filming on the series permanent light fixtures were installed in the Gosselin's home to facilitate filming and prevent the children from tripping over the wires and cables of temporary lighting. Unlike some reality series in which the stars are filmed at all times, Jon & Kate Plus 8 is filmed three days a week with one day set aside for the interview sessions where Jon and Kate, and occasionally the children, discuss the events which take place in each episode. Jon and Kate also work closely with producers to decide what themes will be presented in each episode. Jon and Kate have remarked that over the years the production crew has become part of the family.

Multimedia

• Jon, Kate, and family friend Beth Carson have written a book called Multiple Blessings is set to be released November 1, 2008. Originally, the book was listed with Kate Gosselin and Beth Carson as co-authors, however the cover credits Jon as a co-author as well.
• Seasons 1 and 2 of Jon and Kate Plus 8 were released on DVD on July 16, 2008 distributed online only by Discovery. It was released to mass market on September 9, 2008 (October 21, 2008 in Canada), to be distributed by Genius (www.hotmoviesale.com). After this, TLC started selling Season 1 and Season 2 on separate DVDs.
• Season 3 is coming out on DVD, February 3, 2009.

• The Gosselins are managed by Media Motion International in Los Angeles.

Episodes

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Music/Soundtrack

• Scott Pearson & David Imhof through Influence Music Publishing, ASCAP

External links

• TLC: Jon & Kate + 8
• Gosselin Sextuplets & Twins (family's official site)
• Surviving Sextuplets & Twins, Figure 8 Films
• Template:TV.com