As ‘Jon & Kate’ Comes to a Close, What Have We Learned? MSNBC.com

TLC's “Jon & Kate Plus Eight” comes to an end tonight, and MSNBC.com contributor Linda Holmes thinks there are lessons to be learned.

It turned out, she writes, that “nobody wanted to watch miserable, feuding parents taking their kids on day trips to zoos and bakeries in between calls to their lawyers, which you could read about on TMZ. Ratings by September had fallen to between one and two million viewers. As a phenomenon, it was over.”

Among the lessons to be learned, she said, is that “Audiences don't hang around to feel depressed” and “Train wrecks only work if you don't have to picture yourself on the train.”

--Elizabeth Jensen