Gosselins, Octomom inspire 'Law & Order'

The executive producer of Law & Order has revealed that an upcoming episode was inspired by Jon and Kate Gosselin and Nadya 'Octomom' Suleman.

Speaking to Access Hollywood, Rene Balcer admitted that the reality families had influenced next week's instalment of the NBC drama.

"Two families with multiple kids [compete] to land a reality TV contract," he explained.

"Out of that, a murder occurs and then, as the episode goes on, suddenly our lawyers get roped into the reality TV show."

Balcer went on to say that "in order to get some evidence, one of [the regular cast] has to agree to be interviewed as part of the TV show. It's kind of about the insidious nature of reality TV and kind of our fascination [with it]."

However, he insisted that the events and characters in the episode were purely fictional and were not based on the real lives of the Gosselins or Suleman.

"We're not patterning either family on them, it's sort of inspired by the phenomenon - shows about multiples."

The Gosselins are parents to 8-year-old twins and 5-year-old sextuplets, while Suleman hit the headlines when she gave birth to octuplets in January.

Law & Order airs on Friday on NBC.