“Jon & Kate Plus 8,” later rebranded as “Kate Plus 8” for its sixth and seventh seasons, is a reality TV show from the United States that aired between April 4, 2007, and September 12, 2011. The show emerged after the popularity of two one-hour specials, “Surviving Sextuplets and Twins” and “Sextuplets and Twins: One Year Later.” Initially broadcast on the Discovery Health Channel for its first two seasons, it was later transferred to TLC. The series documents the everyday experiences and hurdles faced by the Gosselin family, which includes parents Jon and Kate and their eight children: a set of fraternal twins and sextuplets.

Throughout its broadcast, the show became one of the network’s top-rated programs. The premiere of its fifth season attracted a record-breaking 9.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched show of that evening across all television, including broadcast networks, and doubling the viewership of its previous highest-rated episode.

Following Jon and Kate Gosselin’s divorce in 2009, the last episode of “Jon & Kate Plus 8” aired on November 23, 2009, with TLC announcing the end of the series three days prior. The show was rebranded as “Kate Plus 8” on June 6, 2010, shifting the focus to Kate as a single mother raising her children, with Jon making fewer appearances. However, production was halted when Jon’s attorneys sent letters to TLC on October 1, 2009, demanding they stop filming and prohibiting production crews from entering the couple’s property in Pennsylvania. This interruption delayed the show’s reformatting. TLC considered producing “a series of specials” if the regular series did not resume.