October 17, 2010 and strong ratings according to Nielsen Media Research. Season two of Sister Wives returned to TLC on September 25th.
Brown and his wives have claimed they participated with the show to make the public more aware of polygamist families and to combat societal prejudices. Brown has claimed his polygamist arrangement is legal because he is legally married only to one woman, and the other marriages are spiritual unions. Nevertheless, the series led the Brown family to become investigated for possible prosecution.
Concept
Sister Wives is an unscripted television series that started with following the lives of advertising salesman Kody Brown (43), his wives Meri (39), Janelle (40), and Christine (37), and their thirteen children among them. In the first season the show also televised Brown's courting and eventual marriage to a fourth wife, Robyn Sullivan, 31, who herself has three children. Sullivan is the first new wife to enter the family in 16 years. The only legal marriage is between Kody and his first wife, Meri, while the others' marriages are considered spiritual unions. As of the September 2010 debut, Kody has been married to Meri for 20 years, Janelle for 17 years, and Christine, who is the homemaker, for 16 years. Kody and Meri have a 15-year-old daughter named Mariah. Kody and Janelle have six children: daughters Madison (15) and Savanah (6) and sons Logan (16), Hunter (14), Garrison (12), and Gabriel (9). Kody and Christine have six children: daughters Aspyn (15), Mykelti (14), Gwendlyn (9), Ysabel (7), and Truely (1) and son Paedon (12) Robyn had three children from her first marriage, which was monogamous: Dayton (12), Aurora (9) and Breanna (7). Meri, Christine and Robyn were all raised in polygamist families, but Janelle was not. On April 9, 2011, Robyn confirmed to People magazine that she is pregnant and due in mid-October 2011. On Wednesday, October 26, 2011, Kody and Robyn Brown welcomed their first child together, son Solomon Brown. Solomon was welcomed at 2:02 am weighing in at 9 pounds 10.5 ounces and 22 inches long.
The Browns are a fundamentalist Mormon family (not to be confused with the mainline "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"), belonging to the Apostolic United Brethren Church. The title of the series, "Sister Wives", refers to a concept prevalent in Mormon fundamentalism that the wives in a plural marriage not only marry the husband, but are eternally united to each other. For years prior to the series, the family kept their polygamist lifestyle what they called a "quasi-secret". Both Kody Brown and his wives have claimed part of the reason they are participating in Sister Wives is to make the public more aware of polygamist families and to combat societal prejudices often associated with polygamy.
Critics
Sister Wives drew national media attention after its first season, and garnered generally mixed reviews from critics. Washington Post staff writer Hank Stuever called it "refreshingly frank", and found most interesting the small details of the family's everyday life, such as the food supply, division of labor and minor arguments. Los Angeles Times television critic Mary McNamara said she was intrigued by the matriarchal nature of the polygamist family, a unit which is traditionally considered patriarchal. McNamara said the wives form the center of the family, and that "their bonds appear far stronger and more vital than the casual fondness with which they all treat Kody". Salon.com writer Schuyler Velasco praised Sister Wives for introducing viewers to unfamiliar subject matter, and called it "refreshingly modest" considering its controversial subject matter. Velasco said it has "a natural, honest presence in a genre fabled for the camera-hogging antics of Jersey Shore". Shelley Fralic of The Vancouver Sun called it fascinating and surprising, and was impressed with the sensible and articulate way in which the family defended their lifestyle. When the Brown family made an October 2010 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, talk show host Oprah Winfrey said she found particularly fascinating the relationship between the sister wives.
Mark A. Perigard of the Boston Herald criticized Kody Brown for opening himself and his family up to potential criminal prosecution by appearing in the series, describing him as "a lawbreaker who is risking himself and the family he claims is so precious just to star in his own TV show". Elizabeth Tenety of The Washington Post called the series "one part domestic drudgery, another part sensationalism", and claimed it relied on a "familiar reality TV recipe" shared by other TLC series such as 19 Kids and Counting and Kate Plus 8. Religion Dispatches writer Joanna Brooks shared Tenety's perspective criticizing the show for presenting polygamy in a manner that "is about as interesting to me as Kate Gosselin’s latest makeover." In this vein Brooks criticized the show for not engaging the theology of plural marriage, and for letting Kody Brown's superficial comments about the dissimilarity of Fundamentalist and mainstream Mormonism pass onto the viewers without any critical scrutiny or added nuance. Shari Puterman, television columnist with the Asbury Park Press, felt the sister wives had issues with jealousy and self-worth, and compared Kody to a cult leader. Puterman added, "I can't speak for everyone, but I believe in the sanctity of marriage. It's sad to see that TLC's capitalizing on people who don't." Former prosecutor and television personality Nancy Grace criticized the show and said she believed Kody Brown should go to jail, but expressed doubt he would based on Utah's history of overlooking polygamy. Christine Seifert, an associate professor of communications at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, said the show could give viewers who are unfamiliar with the LDS church the incorrect assumption that polygamy is accepted by the mainstream church. Several commentators have taken notice of the fact that the family's religious convictions are downplayed in Sister Wives.
Ratings
According to Nielsen Media Research, the September 26, 2010, one-hour premiere episode of Sister Wives drew 2.26 million viewers, a strong rating for the network. It marked the biggest series debut for TLC since Cake Boss launched in 2009, and was a stronger rating than any of the season premieres for HBO's Big Love. The remaining episodes of the first season were each a half-hour long, with two broadcast together each Thursday. In the second week, the first episode drew 1.88 million viewers, while the second drew 2.13 million. The third week drew similar results, with 1.89 million viewers watching the first episode and 2.05 million watching the second. Sister Wives drew its strongest ratings during the fourth and final week of the first season, with 2.67 million viewers for the first episode and 2.74 million for the season finale. As a result of the 2.7 million average viewership for the two episodes, TLC ranked first among all ad-support cable channels in the 18-49 and 25-54 age groups. The series drew double- and triple-digit ratings gains in all key demographics and ranked second in ad-supported cable network shows during its time period.
Litigation
Kody Brown and family
Even before the show debuted, legal experts opined that the Browns could open themselves up to criminal prosecution through making their lifestyle known. Kody Brown has claimed the family is breaking no laws because only the first marriage is a legal marriage, while the others are simply commitments. However, experts claim the fact that the family has been a unit for 16 years and includes children from all three wives could lead prosecutors to characterize the non-marriage unions as common-law marriages. On September 27, 2010, the day after Sister Wives debuted, police in Lehi, Utah, announced they are investigating Kody Brown and his wives for possible charges of bigamy, a third-degree felony. In response to the investigation, the Browns released a statement: "We are disappointed in the announcement of an investigation, but when we decided to do this show, we knew there would be risks. But for the sake of our family, and most importantly, our kids, we felt it was a risk worth taking." The Brown family hired constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley, a vocal critic of anti-polygamy laws, to prepare a legal defense in the event that charges are filed.
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