We heard in February that the Bates Family of Tennessee, with 19 children who range in age from six months to 23 years, were getting a reality show on TLC. The Bateseses (deliberate typo and it stays) previously appeared on The Duggars’ reality show, and are now getting their own spinoff, to air this month. So which show do you think will get more viewers: “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” or “United Bates of America”? Here’s more:
On Monday, August 13 at 9 PM ET/PT, TLC welcomes another supersized family in UNITED BATES OF AMERICA, an all-new series following Gil & Kelly Jo Bates and their large brood of 19 children, ranging in age from six-months to 23-years old. Audiences will recognize the Bates family from several episodes of the hit series 19 Kids and Counting, as they are close friends of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s clan. Each thirty-minute episode of UNITED BATES OF AMERICA explores a new adventure with the Bates family as they manage everyday life in the hills of Tennessee—and the inevitable chaos that ensues with 10 girls and 9 boys running around under one roof.
This eight-part series begins with newborn Jeb’s emotional homecoming from the hospital—and the unavoidable adjustment of adding another child to the family—along with the children planning for their much-anticipated annual Valentine’s “I Love You Day” gift exchange soiree. Over the course of the season, Kelly Jo and Gil share their love of music and family values—from homeschooling their children, to goofing off while building chicken coops and whitewater rafting. Second oldest daughter Erin, heads off to college for the first time to continue her education beyond her many years of homeschooling and the gang goes to hang out with the Duggars at the biggest social event of the year—the annual ATI homeschooling conference.
While the Bates family makes the country life look easy, they aren’t without their struggles. See how the family copes with the older boys working at Gil’s dangerous tree-cutting business, and when Kelly Jo is hospitalized, can the family function smoothly without her?
[Press release from TV By The Numbers]
“Duggars Without Pity” has a list of all the Bates kids and their ages. Their names are normal and non-alliterative. Mom Kelly-Jo, with the Michelle Duggar lookalike 80s hair, is 45 and dad Gil is 47. I just spent some time I won’t get back watching preview clips on TLC’s site. The show looks very much like The Duggar series in that the kids are sweet and wholesome, they’re very religious and homeschooled, and they do family activities like singing and playing instruments. Kelly-Jo’s last child was born premature and with health problems, which will be covered on the show from what I gather. He seems to be doing well now at six months old.
I find the Duggars’ show, “19 Kids and Counting” kind of dull, but people must enjoy it because it’s still airing. Season 10 premieres on August 28th. “United Bates of America” premieres on August 13th.
So “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” will get more viewers, right? What should “TLC” stand for, since “The Learning Channel” is in no way accurate. How about “The Lowest Common denominator” channel? They could also just change the acronym, and “WTF” comes to mind*. Not necessarily for The Bateseses, since they seem comparitively normal when we’re talking about “Honey Boo Boo,” “My Strange Addiction,” and the show I just discovered – “My Teen is Pregnant And So Am I.” This really exists. Here’s a profile video (below) of the show from ABC News. They need to be more skeptical of this whole concept. Just because something happens, doesn’t mean there needs to be a TV show about it.
Here’s a clip from “United Bates” with more on TLC.com
*I do like “Say Yes To The Dress,” though and “What Not To Wear” is also decent. “Cake Boss” isn’t my thing, but it’s not bad. So some of their shows aren’t trash.
Why do they all have to rock that creepy “Big Love” hair. It’s so Juniper Creek.
Exactly. Big, dated hair and ugly clothes – what is wrong with these people who have too many kids?
+1. LOL. I was wondering the same thing.
GAH!! I know! The bigger the bang, the closer to God? Maybe mall hair is a sexual turn-on to Quiver-Full men? Maybe Aquanet is a fertility enhancer?
That’s big HAIR for JESUS! *said in best southern televangelist voice* 😉
The taller the hair, the closer to God
HAHAHA! if aquanet was indeed a fertility enhancer, new jersey in the early 90s would be full of huge families. haha. (i’m from jersey, so i feel like i can.)
I forgot the guy’s name again, but he’s some big authority in the Quiverfull movement and he tells these women that THIS is how their hair has to be. They don’t get to cut it (except for the bangs, obviously) because of all the Biblical passages about long hair being a sign of feminine modesty or something. And the “acceptable” haircuts for women are dictated by this guy.
They belong to an organization called ATI. Women are required to ask their husband how they want them to wear their hair and what colors to wear as well. Apparently Gil Bates likes her hair huge and dated. On the Duggar’s website, they had an actual list of things wives should do to make their husbands feel respected and deferring to them on hairstyle was one of the musts.
I feel the same way about this as I do about the Duggars: I don’t necessarily agree with their mindset in regards to just having as many kids as “God sees fit,” but at the same time, they seem like decent people. Their kids seem to be realtively intelligent (if not religiously brainwashed) but I would venture to say that most, if not all of them will grow into adults that will become productive members of society. That is more than a lot of our country can say.
I don’t agree with anyone who uses religion and the Bible as a scapegoat for ridiculous, illogical behaviour they deem “Godly”. Not only is the Bible man-made, and therefore not direct written instructions for the big man Himself but a collection of human accounts, but to follow it literally makes no sense bc you’d have to do things that would put you in jail or a mental institution. These whackos seem to think that as long as they can point the blame finger at God (“he made me do it!!”) or the Bible, then they are justified in whatever insane practices they follow.
And P.S., Duggars, if God is really the be-all and end-all of everything, everywhere, for everyone, then you should be home-birthing and shunning the evil modern science called “medicine”. Go sacrifice a goat and pray for that gallbladder instead.
Easy, Canda. I didn’t say I agree with their reasoning for having so many (in fact, didn’t I say that I DON’T?? Anyway…) so you can cool your jets a bit.
My only point is that these people have every right to have as many children as they want, and being that they seem to have the financial means to care for them and the children seem happy and as well adjusted as possible under the circumstances, things could be worse. There are many, many large families in our country that do NOT have the financial means to raise many children, and those children do not grow up studying hard, learning music, playing sports, etc. Those children (or at least a large number of them) will get cycled through the system, and most will never learn to be productive and functional memebers of society. My only point was that at least the Duggar and Bates kids will most likely develop into adults that are able to maintain jobs, buy homes, pay their bills, etc. If you are going to bring 19 new lives into the world, one would at least hope that those lives can give something back someday.
I couldn’t agree more.
“these people have every right to have as many children as they want, and being that they seem to have the financial means to care for them”
But a comment below suggests that Mr. Bates has said that they do not have health insurance. They think that is ok because the Emergency Room has the best staff, so there is no need to have health insurance! If you can’t cover your family’s medical expenses, then maybe you can’t really afford a family that big!
Ah, yes, Gil Bates said they haven’t had insurance on their interview with ABC’s Nightline program.
“For the last 10 children, we have not had health insurance,” Gil said. “When there’s a medical emergency, we just go to the doctor and America’s been the greatest health care in the world. When you walk in the emergency room, I don’t care what your status of living, they give you the best care possible.”
How about the Povich/Springer Channel, since everyone on there could easily be a guest on either of those shows.
TLC is such crap these days.
Those two families alone could populate a small town. And if you need a wide lens to do a family photo…
I flatly refuse to watch any of these “maga-family” shows; it’s just crazy. In fact, I just turned the channel from GMA because they were profiling this new family. In a world with dwindling resources and where so many have nothing I won’t be a part of rewarding humans who breed like rabbits.
I agree with you tooey!! This is irresponsible behavior no matter how you look at it.
While I don’t have children and never wanted to have that many, I have more respect for such parents who have a large family and are completely able to support that family without having their hand out for public money. I used to work for a child welfare agency and was amazed at people who just kept pumping out kids even though they had NO ability to support them. The only role model those parents provided was how to spend your life on welfare. Their kids never have a role model who works, pays their bills, etc. Those are the kids I feel sorry for, not the Duggars or the Bates’ kids.
But they DON’T support themselves. The Duggars are all on government healthcare because of Jim Bob’s short term in the Arkansas (?) senate. They also didn’t pay for their house to be finished (TLC did that). They make a huge deal about living debt-free and being self-sufficient, but they conveniently forget to tell people about these things. We ARE paying for those kids’ healthcare. They also registered their home as a church so they could get out of paying all kinds of taxes, and act like every family should be able to do all of this. I don’t know about the Bates family, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that yet another “self-sufficient” family isn’t really self-sufficient at all. These people also push the idea of small government while at the same time accepting handouts. It doesn’t make any sense to me. They’re living a lifestyle of “do as I say, not as I do.”
“These people also push the idea of small government while at the same time accepting handouts. It doesn’t make any sense to me. They’re living a lifestyle of “do as I say, not as I do.” ”
I agree Shannon.
Elizabeth, Gil Bates said that they haven’t had health insurance for years. Is that really being able to support your family?
From their interview on Nightline, “”For the last 10 children, we have not had health insurance,” Gil said. “When there’s a medical emergency, we just go to the doctor and America’s been the greatest health care in the world. When you walk in the emergency room, I don’t care what your status of living, they give you the best care possible.”
Thanks for putting it so perfectly, Tooey! +10000
Thanks for putting it so perfectly, Tooey!
Oh it’s on like donkey kong. Bates V’s Duggars. These women won’t stop until their vagina’s fall out.
I can honestly say I do NOT need to see that!
They seem like happy well adjusted people. So what if our views aren’t the same. Heck, they are way better than the ghetto and trailer trash ppl that pop babies out and collect welfare. They work, dont collect any government assistance and best of all–are happy.
I think ppl who knock it have deep down issues bc they didn’t have such a happy childhood.
The Duggar were collecting welfare until thier cash cow TLC gave them a show. Why do you think that they have there own church so they don’t have to pay taxes.
They were never on wefare. Do you have proof that they wete?
Intellectually, I know that people can have as many or as few children as they like, and that it is their own choice – especially as the number of children that a family of strangers choose to have has no effect on my life whatsoever.
That being said, I fail to see why anyone would want to have this many children – or how it could be healthy to be raised in such a large family. It’s hard giving even one or two children all the love and attention you’d like to – how on earth can you do this for 19? And how do you homeschool 19 kids? Surely they’re all at different developmental levels?
To each their own. But to me, this jsut seems completely bizarre.
I have 3 kids and feel like I don’t give each of them enough attention. As far as homeschooling goes, if my 3 don’t get back to school soon, I’m going to self-medicate. September can’t get here quickly enough.
Jen34 – 😀 You owe me a keyboard.
I agree Ramona. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to give enough quality time to 19 children. What you get is children raising children (their brothers and sisters).
I do like that they don’t all have names starting j or g. But with all the older children helping and most of them seem to do the lions share of the workload at least at the Duggars household it isn’t that hard. The mother seems to organise after all she is pregnant most of the time. I do wish they would stop having children after a certain time. Little Jeb is lucky and let’s hope he is their last. I gave up on the Duggars having any common sense!
I have read that the Duggars homeschool the children but the girls do not get schooled in math or science, just heavy on their faith. They say they won’t need it because the girls are raised to be wives and mothers. No outside jobs for them. Jim Bob has to approve all “dates”. UGH!
That’s really interesting. What are your sources?
It kills me when people ask for sources, like you’re writing a PhD thesis or something.
I’m not going to go around repeating stuff that doesn’t have sources. I’ll read it but I’m not going to repeat it.
I wonder if they have health insurance or did the mother use medicaid to pay for their kids?
They pay into Samaritan health share
I remember an episode where Gil Bates mentioned that they (the Bates) didn’t have health insurance, but that it was ok because the emergency room had the best health care professionals. He seemed pretty proud about the fact that they didn’t have to pay for health insurance and would just use the hospital E.R. for any family medical need.
And that right there is the problem. People with that mentality drive up the costs and clog the ERs, and make a mess of the whole system.
Not that I doubted you, but I had to look it up to see if it was true. Turns out Gil said they haven’t had health insurance in an interview with Nightline.
“For the last 10 children, we have not had health insurance,” Gil said. “When there’s a medical emergency, we just go to the doctor and America’s been the greatest health care in the world. When you walk in the emergency room, I don’t care what your status of living, they give you the best care possible.”
Why must one adult in each family have a two-part name that people call them by? Kelly Jo? Jim Bob? Really irks me for some reason.
Both families are southern. It’s not uncommon.
I grew up in Texas and I know their are names like this, it just irritates me that both families are so eerily alike.
More to the point, those people sort of creep me out even though it’s none of my business. Considering the world is in a serious case of Global Warming I think it is imprudent to have extremely large families. Never mind the women’s hair we have a planet what can accommodate approximately 1 billion people and we have 7 billion people. We should have a serious discussion about about the lack of responsibility this demonstrates. The thing is that after the affects of the drought happening now, which will effect most of us, people need to learn that the bounties of the earth are finite and that they have been stretched to the limit. Stories like the Duggers are not cute and funny.
Dear TLC,
Mega families are over.
Sincerely,
The World
I always thought TLC should stand for The Living Carnival or something with carnival in it. It always seems like the people in are people you would have seen in a sideshow 75 years ago. Almost every show seems to say, “Look at how weird and different these people are!”
I mean come on, they even have a fortune teller! That’s a carni channel.
The Lurid Channel.
“the living carnival” and “the lurid channel” are both good!
Thanks, CB. I really like The Lurid Channel too. Or maybe the The Lurid Carnival. 😉
Anyone else find it creepy or weird to see younger siblings exchange Valentines with older siblings? That little boy was so concerned about picking out the right gift. Well, I guess they don’t know anyone else with them being homeschooled and all.
Hey, for years I’ve been saying that TLC is the cable equivalent of KFC! Both are now only known by their acronyms because they’ve both totally perverted what they once stood for…so I guess shows that exploit awkward adult virgins, hicks who put their kids in beauty pageants, and religious people who count breeding as a hobby are somehow TV’s mutated beak-less rubber chickens : (
I don’t understand how these people still find time for sex with all those children and babies around, my boyfriend & I only have one (1!!) between us & it is hard to find energy for sex somewhere between work, school, sports, time, & energy. Tell me how the Duggars and Bates do it!!!
PS: TLC’s programs now resemble episodes of Maury that have been dragged out and made into their own shows.
It’s not hard when as soon as the newest baby is weaned, you hand it off to it’s “buddy”, one of the older daughters, to raise. Once school is done for the day, you have plenty of time to relax & play bedroom bingo.
The daughters do all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and looking after the smaller children. Since mom doesn’t work, and the kids don’t attend the local schools or participate in sports, there’s nothing to drain your energy and make you fall into bed exhausted at night.
Ok, so I think the Bates show will be more interesting than the Duggars. The Bates are so hardcore creepy quiverfull that it even weirds out the DUGGARS. Its so funny, the Bates will show up in matching country time jamboree outfits and playing the fiddle all hillbilly style and the Duggars are all like “Uhhhh, we don’t do that.”
Plus the oldest Bates son’s accent totally reminds me of the “Squeal like a pig” scene from Deliverance.
Oh I can’t wait for this show it’s going to be epically ri-di-cu-lous. I saw the special they did earlier at some point and Marie-Jo (I think that’s her name, the mother) is SUCH a lunatic. She is constantly smiling, has weird googly eyes like she is on some powerful drug, you can just picture her thoughts: “unicorns and rainbows!” She is such a quiverfull stepford wife it is ridiculous.
Duggars creeped me out but for some reason the Bates make me laugh because they are so ridiculous. On the special one of their eldest sons was asking a girl in another quiverful family to “court” with all the families watching, which was just beyond embarassing. He looked like he was ready to pass out from stress, literally sweating buckets and then started crying when she said yes. This is how awkward these poor kids are. I repeat this was for authorisation to court ie TALK with a view to marry. They couldn’t even hold hands as that would lead to temptation!
They are completely nuts but the little ones are cute and well behaved which is refreshing to see on reality tv…
I am impressed that the Bates are sending their daughter off to college. To me, that shows they are open to having their kids experience the “outside” world and open to higher education for boys and girls. I don’t see that with the Duggars. Who knows? Maybe their daughter will meet/marry a non-Baptist! (clutches pearls!)
Re : the big hair – the saying is “the bigger the hair, the closer to God”. People in the South joke about this!
Sorry, but the “college” they allow their daughter Erin to attend is an unaccredited Mickey Mouse institution that Gil and Kelly Bates allow only because of its hard-core fundamentalist credentials. AND poor Erin has to take a “chaperone” with her when she goes, even though she’s over 20. Erin WAS offered a REAL scholarship for musical studies, but her parents put the kibosh on that. Erin has been criticized on other boards for having a princess complex. Fankly, in her place, if my moron parents were holding me back like this, I’d cop an attitude too. It’s probably her only outlet for rebellion.
Trashy Living Channel (hello “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding).
ITA. TLC stands for The Learning Channel but I’m not sure what anyone is learning from it now! It used to be about documentaries and science shows. It’s become a reality show disgrace filled with dumbing-down programming. I see stuff like this article on the Internet and I think I made the right decision to get rid of my TV! I watch season DVD’s of TV shows that I like on my computer.
I would be all for people having tons of kids if they did not get government assistance. I support enough people with my tax dollars as it is. people have no shame anymore. i guess their mindset is, why try to support your family on your own when taxpayers can do it for you? whatever happened to taking care of your own responsibilities?
if someone is getting temporary help, I have no problem with it. but when you keep on having kids you can’t afford or lying about what you make so you can keep getting benefits, that’s when I get mad. i worked my butt off at my last job and didn’t have money for groceries. So i swallowed my pride and applied for food stamps. and got denied. meanwhile, the women at work with kids got their food stamps, wic, etc, and managed to get their nails done and buy brand name clothes.
As i said in my comment below, finaicall reosurces are no excuse to have large fmailies. The Duggars use to get help from the church which show they couldn’t support that many kids but they kept having them. It is no different from welfare. You can find good deals on name brand clothing at thrift shops. Who knows if someone didn’t give them the money for nails? It is easy to judge. Welfare comes in other forms like bailouts, corporate welfare, and medicaid. I am pretty certian Josie long hospital stay would be on Medicaid if it weren’t’ for the show. I think the reason these families turn down assistance is because the max wouldn’t be enough to take care of all those kids. Besides, $600 or less monthly will not exactly make you rich. It harldy compares to the $700 billion bailout.
why do these families get rewarded with money for being irresponsible idiots? UGH.
More religious nut-jobs with a litter of children, how many of these people are out there??? Actually with 19 children, that’d be more like THREE LITTERS.
I think that people following Gods ways is the best thing. God said be fruitful and multiply and that is what these family’s have done and God only gives people what they can handle. I am not sure what I think of government help but I know many receive it that do drugs and don’t deserve the help. I think people should stop judging them all and start looking to finding the Lord and following Jesus he will lead everyone where they should be and give everyone the amount of children He wants them to have. I feel life should be trusted to God no matter what.
God or whatever you believe gave you a brain to use.”be fruitful and multipy’ was said to Noah because the Earth needed replenishing at the time. Even if you have financial resources, it isn’t an excuse to have a large family. There is no way to meet the emotional needs of kids in a near double digit family. I read the Duggars use a sign up sheet to schedule time with parents. Then there is the privacy issue. Some people really need privacy. It is possible for larger families to be well-off financially but you have to consider other issues.
It is easy to look down on those who get welfare. People have drug problems of all socio economic classes and faiths, and backgrounds. More money means they can get more drugs. It is harder for those on fixed incomes to feed their habit as opposed to a celeb. Spekaing of addictions, I think Michelle and Kelly Bates both have a baby addiction.