Although media coverage of Jon and Kate Gosselin's relationship problems is continuing, the ratings pop it brought to their Jon & Kate Plus 8 reality show appears to be over.
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Monday night's TLC broadcast of Jon & Kate Plus 8's fifth fifth-season episode averaged 2.9 million viewers -- a little more than the show's fourth season average but well below the record-setting 9.8 million viewers that tuned in for the fifth season's May 25 premiere, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This week's broadcast marked Jon & Kate Plus 8's third-straight week of ratings declines since the fifth season's special one-hour premiere, which TLC had heavily promoted as the couple's first side-by-side interview since reports that Jon allegedly had an affair with a 23-year-old schoolteacher had surfaced in April.
The fifth-season premiere had blown away Jon & Kate Plus 8's previous ratings record -- the 4.6 million viewers that had tuned in for the show's fourth-season finale on March 23 just as the initial tabloid reports that the couple's marriage was on the rocks began emerging.
Following the premiere, TLC's June 7 back-to-back broadcast of Jon & Kate Plus 8's second and third fifth-season episodes averaged 5.5 million and 6 million viewers respectively. Last week's half-hour broadcast of Jon & Kate Plus 8's fourth fifth-season episode then averaged 4.3 million viewers.
About The Author: Steven Rogers