Kate Gosselin: Was Reality Show Scripted?

Kate Gosselin is in the news quite a bit lately, with recent claims that her nanny outed her for maintaining a strange rule book and now word that the reality TV show on which she starred with ex-husb...
Kate Gosselin: Was Reality Show Scripted?
Written by Kimberly Ripley
  • Kate Gosselin is in the news quite a bit lately, with recent claims that her nanny outed her for maintaining a strange rule book and now word that the reality TV show on which she starred with ex-husband Jon Gosselin and their six kids was scripted. This claim comes from Robert Hoffman, an author who really seems out to get Kate Gosselin, and has printed many such claims in his book, Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World.

    The latest claim was even a topic of conversation between Kate Gosselin and the ladies on The Talk back in 2011.

    “We’re not scripted. You heard me. We are not scripted. We’re living. The kids run in and out of the frame and they just live,” Kate said at the time.

    Robert Hoffman begs to differ. He says that after some digging–yes, he has in fact even admitted to digging through Kate Gosselin’s garbage–he has found evidence that the Jon & Kate Plus 8 was in fact scripted.

    The following are what Hoffman says are “‘scripted,’ voice-over assignments, written for and given to Kate, telling her exactly what to say” on the hit TLC show during two early episodes of the series.

    EPISODE #7
    “So we thought it might be fun to take them to have their head shots taken.”

    “But before we left for the photo shoot, we had our Saturday pancake breakfast, which has now become a Gosselin family tradition.”

    “After pancake breakfast, there was a bit of a potty training party happening in the laundry room.”

    “After pancake breakfast, a potty training session began, that was somewhat supervised by Mady and Cara.”

    “Not surprisingly, Joel didn’t manage to use the potty that day.”

    EPISODE #8
    “Aunt Jodi, my brother’s wife, is coming over today to get the twins suitcases.”

    “Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jodi are coming tonight. They’re bringing Cara and Mady with them. And our friend Beth will be there as well.”

    “I had planned the dinner for after the babies went to bed, and a neighbor came over to sit while they were sleeping.”

    “We had a plane to catch to Florida, and there we were stuck in the snow.”

    “Jodi and Kevin have 4 kids of their own, and Cara and Mady really love spending time with their cousins.” (or something like this)

    “So Jodi helped them bake cobweb cookies and meringue puffs” (is that what they were?)

    Robert Hoffman admits that the entire show didn’t appear to be scripted, but that it definitely didn’t appear to be completely off the cuff, with cameras viewing completely unscripted footage either. He says the shows were “totally scheduled with story lines planned in advance” and adds that Kate Gosselin was given her schedule for the week to let her know where her family would be going.

    “There was absolutely nothing ‘organic,’ normal, or natural about the Gosselin children being filmed,” Hoffman writes.

    Maybe the notion that the kids were used to the show being scripted helps explain how two of Kate Gosselin’s daughters completely embarrassed her on national TV when their talk wasn’t scripted?

    Kate Gosselin described Jon & Kate Plus 8 as being unscripted during a Q & A special that included the show’s producers. She was asked then if their show was ‘realistic.’

    “Yes. It’s very realistic. There’s no scripting,” Kate quickly responded. “There’s a plan about this is what we want to get. Right, that’s important for us to let people know we aren’t hiding anything. Our goal is to show people how hard this job is.”

    Has Kate Gosselin been caught in yet another lie or is Robert Hoffman simply better than she is at telling tall tales? Which one of these two do you believe?

    Image via YouTube

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