‘Jon & Kate’s’ ratings return to earth

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TLC’s ‘Jon & Kate plus 8’ ratings cooled from its scorching start last week.

The show, which premiered on Memorial Day to 9.8 million viewers, drew an average of 5.7 million viewers for two episodes Monday night. While that’s a big drop from week one, it’s still drawing a bigger audience than in any previous season.

‘Jon & Kate’ has generated a ton of publicity from the tabloids over the state of their marriage. Last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor weighed in, saying it was investigating whether the show about the Gosselin family was violating any child labor laws.

Barring more rumors of infidelity, expect the numbers to continue to trend downward over the next few weeks. While filming for the premiere episode was not finished until the last minute, many other episodes for this season were already in the can before Jon started getting photographed with a woman who wasn’t his wife.

-- Joe Flint