Last week we heard that Kate Gosselin had some competition on TLC by way of nearly two year-old sextuplets born to an impoverished NY city area couple that many of you said had no business getting fertility treatment in the first place. TLC is doubling-down on the new shows featuring multiples, with a young attractive family in Texas trying to raise 19 month-old quintuplets and sell a house they can’t afford at the same time. “Quints by Surprise” premiered last night and airs Mondays at 10pm, right after “Kate Plus 8.” No wonder Kate is going into diva overdrive lately.

The network that introduced you to the eight Gosselin children and the 19 Duggar kids has a brand new show about a Texas family with quintuplets and their trials and tribulations. TLC premieres Quints by Surprise on Monday night and RadarOnline.com has a sneak peak of the new show and how the family deals with their big brood.

Casey and Ethan Jones have a six-year-old daughter Eliot and were surprised by the quintuplets, four girls and one boy: Brooklyn, Ryan, Britton, Lila and Jack.

The addition of five little ones has increased the family expenses so the Jones’ decide to put their house on the market.

“We love this home, we’ve made so many memories here but we need to downsize and find something more affordable,” mom Casey says. The little ones are shown playing in the house while the parents decided to sell.

“We built the home as an investment,” dad Ethan says. However selling their house in this economy isn’t exactly a good time.

“Having a house on the market sucks,” he admits.

Here are some fun financial facts about how much money the Jones family spends a year on basic necessities:
$10,000 a year on diapers
$1,500 a year on milk
$1,000 a month on groceries

Check out the Jones family on Quints by Surprise on TLC Mondays at 10pm.

[From Radar Online]

Now that this family scored a TV show it would seem like they could afford to stay in that house instead of downsize. They need some kind of non-kid drama for the show, though, and moving house is a decent plotline. This family has a website and blog, and they’re as religious as they are self-promoting. Dad Ethan recently penned a long blog entry about their decision to do the show, and how they know they’ll have critics but they’re doing it for themselves, etc. It seems self righteous but it’s so long winded that I only skimmed it. It sort of sounds like he’s trying to convert people to Christianity, especially in the last paragraph where he writes:

Why are we doing this? Well of course we are doing it for ourselves. And we are doing it for others. Most importantly we are doing it for our faith and we are even doing it for the M&M’s – the cynics, the holier-than-thous, the judgmentals, the moralists, and the pessimists. Because we know you’ll be reading these words and rolling your eyes. We know you’ll be watching the shows and shaking your head. You’ll be paying attention, waiting to pounce when we stumble. We know this, I can’t explain why you would want to spend your time doing this, but you’ve proven time and again that you will always be with us. And so, yes, we also do this for you. To hopefully show you a different way as well. I am not guaranteeing anyone that we will be successful in our pursuit, but I will guarantee you that there is no stopping us from pursuing the life that we believe we are called to lead. Pursue life…to me, there is no other way to live!!

[From Jones Life.net]

So this life they’re “called to lead” involves starring in a reality show? Life just isn’t the same when there’s a camera crew documenting your every move. They seem to partially realize what they’re getting into but think they’re more solid than the Gosselins or won’t fall into the same reality show trap. We’ll see.