After the success of two one-hour specials chronicling Kate Gosselin and her then-husband Jon, Surviving Sextuplets and Twins and One Year Later, the series aired on the Discovery Health Channel for the first two seasons before being moved to TLC.

[3] After the Gosselins' divorce in 2009, the final episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 aired on November 23, 2009, announced by TLC three days earlier.

[11] The second season of Kate Plus 8 premiered on April 4, 2011, though on August 15, TLC announced that the series would be cancelled after it reached 150 episodes.

Criticisms were raised regarding Kate's intentions of continuing with the show, as well as whether or not the children were being exploited or were under emotional distress.

At this point there are no clear laws in Pennsylvania (where the Gosselins reside) regarding a child's appearance on a reality show.

[20] TLC released a statement saying that the network "fully complies with all applicable laws and regulations" to produce the show.

The statement also said that "for an extended period of time, we have been engaged in cooperative discussions and supplied all requested information to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry".

Episodes of the series are available for download from the iTunes Store, Google Play, Amazon Video, and Microsoft Zune Marketplace.