Jon & Kate Should be Off the Air
I’m a little embarassed to come out of blog hiberation with a Jon & Kate post. Oh well here goes. Yes professors can be quite superficial. Sarah and I watched the season opener the other day and my reaction is similar to most – really depressing. Disclaimer: I’ve not been keeping up with the tabloids so I didn’t know this was the season opener and would be up to date on their present marital problems. I.e., I assumed it was filmed months ago and wouldn’t reflect all the problems that they are currently going through. Halfway through I realized that it was quite current and I was shocked to discover that they plan on filming a whole season with all they are going through. I’ll admit Sarah and I were amused with the first season. I quickly got turned off to them though when I heard that their relatives objected to their decision to not only continue filming but expand their commitment to the show.
I guess I still can’t get over the fact that they still chose to film last week’s episode and plan on filming a whole season. Contract or no contract if in their shoes I’d refuse to film another clip. So America is going to watch their marriage possibly implode over the next couple of weeks as they unsuccessfully attempt to put on this facade of joy in front of their kids? This is insane! Now Jon and Kate have expensive tastes and with the impending divorce they individually have to make long term financial plans for the kids so I’m assuming they believe they need to milk TLC for whatever they can get while they still have the chance. Kate’s short lived celebrity career will soon end. She has nothing to market after this season. Meanwhile TLC is exploiting them and raking in mucho $$ since their rating s have shot through the roof because of their marital problems. For the execs at TLC this is best thing that could have happened to Jon & Kate.
Please someone sound the alarm and say that this show should be taken off the air immediately. Yes what is happening to Jon & Kate is nothing new in Hollywood – most reality shows with a married couple end in divorce. But Jon & Kate aren’t Hollywood. Perhaps in the course of this season they will be able to patch up their marriage and this will all be an inspiring success of a season. Even then they should get off the air if they hope to heal their marriage. This is madness.
Hey Bo! I couldn’t agree with you more. During that episode, those two couldn’t stop saying how they are only thinking of what’s best for the kids. It’s amazing to me that what’s best for the kids is for them to watch their family disentegrate before their eyes while America watches. I decided to stop watching so I wouldn’t support the exploitation of these kids. It’s too heartbreaking.
Lisa, thanks for stopping by. Yes, all the “it’s for the kids” talk seems disingenuous when everyone knows the best thing for the children is investment into the marriage. Since I first posted this, as you know, they’ve filed for divorce. Recently Eugene asked how hypothetically Christians ought to counsel the two. Here’s my take on their faith:
Given that they have exploited their family for $$, I wonder if they did the same with Christianity. Let’s face it, evangelicals make a good market. Church speaking events, book deals with Christian publishers, this is all part of the job. Perhaps a similar analogy would be those who use the Christian music industry as their initial step to make it big (recall Jessica Simpson started off as a Christian singer). So do they even consider themselves Christians? I can’t help but wonder if this was all part of the business strategy.