However, we do have the earlier episode with Jodi and her husband jumping the interview bandwagon. Much debate has hit the internet airwaves as to the sincerity of their interview. Many folks think that they only did it so as to catch some of that slammin’ fame wave that is hitting the Gosselin coast. Who’s to really say? That is one of the many problems that come tacked along with a celebrity status. People will come out of the woodwork in order to tag along on the fame train.
But I digress. Here is Canada.com’s article, posted in its entirety:
Kate Gosselin’s sister-in-law Julie is not a fan of her TLC show Jon & Kate Plus 8. In fact, Us Weekly reports she was asking viewers to boycott the highly anticipated season premiere that aired Monday night and has blogged about how staged the reality show really is.
On her blog over the weekend, Julie wrote: “Since TLC is airing the old episodes, I thought I shed some light on how the show works…
“When the show first started, Kate made a wishlist of things that she wanted, and that became the theme of each episode–the carpet, twin’s room, bunk beds, cow, hairplugs, teeth whitening, trips, etc. EVERYTHING that you see them do or buy is completely paid for out of the budget for the show or traded for free advertising. Kate went on and on about saving up for special days, you saw her paying for things, she talked about budgeting, etc. It is all for the appearance that they are a struggling family with 8 children. They needed to be relatable. They didn’t pay for any of it.
The shocking revelations continue: “The episodes are also staged. Here’s how it works…there is a staff of people reading these blogs and they base the shows around what people are talking about…
“The Christmas episode from 2007. Producers told Kate that the viewers wanted to see her show appreciation to their helpers. They told her what the episode was going to be. I think they baked cookies and then went caroling (of course this was probably one of their many ‘traditions” — those are all fake too). Kate threw a fit. She didn’t want to do it, but she did…because they were trying to pacify the viewers.
“Another example is the ‘Games Gosselins Play’… After the episode, I called Jodi [Kreider, who is married to Kate's brother Kevin] and said, ‘what was that?.’ She hadn’t watched it, so I explained that it came across so fake (at least to me). Jodi was with Kate when she got “the call” about the theme [of a family games night] for that episode. Kate said something like, ’so now I have to pretend that I play with my kids.’ They also wanted her to pay special attention to the boys.
“Don’t believe everything you see. The children are also being prompted to say or do certain things. They signed their lives away to TLC and they will continue to spin the show to keep the viewer’s interest.”
Julie then asked viewers to skip last week’s season premiere, which is set to “deal” with the Jon and Kate dealing with the accusations of various alleged affairs and tabloid drama that have surrounded the family in recent weeks. “Please don’t watch on Monday,” she wrote.
“You’re not going to learn anything new by watching. 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.”
]]>]]>“TLC snatched this family out of their little lives and placed them into this fishbowl and provided contracts and freebies that they could not pass up. Therefore, now all of this is being played out, and the children are not the priority,” she [Jodi] said. “That is why we’re here. We want to call out for change.” (source)