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Jon & Kate Plus Eight

Jon and Kate made $22,500 per episode, about $1 million a year

by Andy Dehnart 2 Oct. 2009 | 8:09 am

The Jon and Kate saga continued on CNN’s Larry King Live last night, where Jon appeared with his attorney, where they revealed that Jon and Kate made about $1 million a year for the show, which is $22,500 per episode. That may all be over now that production has stopped.

Filming the kids was suspended yesterday, and Jon and his lawyer said they have “documented proof” that they started moving forward on trying to stop production on the show before TLC dropped Jon from the show’s title on Tuesday. Jon’s attorney, Mark Jay Heller, said “the minute TLC learned we were coming on Larry King’s show and we were going to announce on the show that we were putting the brakes on the divorce and putting the brakes on the show and disclose the reasons why, which would have been very embarrassing to them … they decided to save their face and preempt this individual by coming out and firing him before it became public that he fired the show.”

He said TLC told him “Jon should not proceed with his appearance. And when we told them we were going to still appear and we were going to, in essence, terminate the show, they then said yesterday we’d better do something first.”

But Larry King read a TLC statement that said, “Until the network announced that the show would be retitled, ‘Kate Plus 8,’ Jon’s request to the network related solely to his demands for money and the network releasing him from his exclusivity obligations and to be provided with a motorcycle that had been paid for by TLC and used in an episode of the program.”

Jon’s a screw-up, but he had some interesting things to say during the show, like this: “I had an epiphany one day. I just looked in the mirror and I said I don’t want to be this person anymore. I made mistakes. I know I messed up.” Jon also said that he and Kate “know we’re not going to be husband and wife anymore. But we’re always going to be mom and dad. We have to work together against this. We have to pull our kids off of television and work this out as a family.”

Interview with Jon Gosselin [CNN]

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TLC stops filming Jon and Kate’s kids after Jon threatens to have crews arrested

newer >

Kate says kids “are angry” that TLC stopped production, says Jon took $230,000

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about Andy Dehnart

Andy Dehnart’s writing and criticism about television, culture, and media has appeared on NPR and in Vulture, Pacific Standard, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He has covered reality television for more than 18 years, and created reality blurred in 2000.

A member of the Television Critics Association who serves on its board of directors, Andy, 41, also directs the journalism program at Stetson University in Florida, where he teaches creative nonfiction and journalism. He has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing and literature from Bennington College. Learn more about reality blurred and Andy.

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reality blurred is your guide to the world of reality TV and unscripted entertainment, with reality show reviews, news, and analysis. It was created in 2000 by Andy Dehnart. He's still writing and publishing it today.

reality blurred is regularly updated with highlights from the world of reality TV: news and analysis; behind-the-scenes reports; interviews with reality TV show cast members and producers; and recaps and reviews of these reality TV shows, including Survivor, Big Brother, The Great British Baking Show, Shark Tank, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor, Project Runway, Dancing with the Stars, Top Chef, and many more.

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