Each of the major networks have at least one "big family" they follow in fly-on-the-wall fashion over a period of years to yield two specials per annum. With their reality-show veneer of the joys and sorrows of raising a lot of kids, these shows are guaranteed ratings monsters.
TBS is taking a chance with "Gekito Daikazoku" ("Intense Struggle, Big Family"; Tues., 7 p.m.), which introduces a 34-year-old woman in Kyoto Prefecture raising eight children. It's the first time a TV "big family" is headed by a single mother, who in this case had her first baby when she was 17. She's been married and divorced three times.
If viewers like it, then she could become a superstar in her own right, though the "big families" usually have to remain nominally impoverished for the sake of dramatic interest.