TLC president Eileen O’Neill has confirmed several production companies affiliated with the network have contacted the 33-year-old Californian mom Nadya Suleman — who gave birth to octuplets last month — about the possibility of developing a reality series.
“We’re certainly watching [Suleman’s] story unfold,” O’Neill told EW. “There are a lot of decisions that go into greenlighting a family for any of our shows. What kind of characters are they? How would they come across on TV?”
Nadya’s story has received a lot of media attention and public scrutiny since she already had six other children under the age of 7 before having the the octuplets. All of her children were conceived via in vitro treatments and she also receives food stamps.
The network knows that their audience is vocal, so they have a [waiting] period to see if there’s something that we as a network feel makes good sense.
Know for their projects involving large families, TLC is expected to premiere Table for Twelve — another reality series about a New Jersey couple with sextuplets and two sets of twins — sometime next month.
I hear a boycott coming. The world is NOT fond of this woman. The last thing anyone wants is to see her benefit financially from this horrible situation.
The sad part is that the kids will be ones to suffer from the backlash. The octuplets are going to need a lot of care, a clean environment and lots of space when they come home. This money could definitely provide that.
This is such a crummy catch 22. All of these kids deserve to have every opportunity to succeed, but instead they will spend the rest of their lives competing for their mom’s time.
The sad part is that the taxpayers are paying for this million dollar birth and they will continue to pay and pay and pay. This is welfare fraud. I am a case worker and see women have one baby after another on welfare. I aid prison babies and it is appalling how many babies are born to prisoners. Some as many as 13 births by the time they are 30, so this picture needs a wide screen and perhaps a discussion on birth control. It’s not right to produce babies and then hand the bill to your working neighbor.
PLEASE do not create a program for this woman! I like TLC but I would definitely boycott it; it’s not right for this woman to profit from her stupidity, and on the taxpayers’ dime to boo. I don’t even understand WHY TLC is doing yet ANOTHER reality series about a family with sextuplets and twins; was Jon & Kate Plus 8 not enough? I would like to see something more original, rather than cookie-cutter.
I hope a show featuring this family is produced. As popular as the videos Nadja makes are, I can’t believe the show wouldn’t also have a large audience; right now Nadja is the woman people love to hate but they are also fascinated by her, and the babies and their older siblings are all very photogenic. I am looking forward to seeing a lot more of them.
Dear Ms O’Neil, love TLC’s programming of “Little People Big World” and “Table for 12″…..excellent lessons learned even at my age of 80….However, have had my fill of the “Jon & Kate Plus 8” even before the marital problems started…..Kate had taken her controlling a step too far….and Maddy for sure needs councelling……I believe the continuence of the show is not good for those children viewing with the negative attitude from the show from the family…..especially when Maddy stomps off screaming and yelling to her parents…..of course these are my thoughts….I’m sure you have had many comments sent your way and will make the right decision..Thank you and keep up the excellent work of the “TLC Programing”