 In the autumn of 2009 , independent producers Timothy Gibbons and Christopher Poole approached Figure 8 Films , a North <unk> company , with the concept of a reality series about the Brown family . Bill Hayes , the president of Figure 8 Films , said the company agreed to the idea after meeting with the Browns and deciding their lives would make a great story . Camera crews shot footage of the family in mid @-@ 2010 to be used in the first season , ending in May with the marriage of Kody Brown and Robyn Sullivan . The crews continued to film them afterward in case the series was picked up for a second season . Sister Wives was publicly introduced on August 6 , 2010 , at the Television Critics Association summer media tour in Beverly Hills , California . The series ' first episode , an hour long , was broadcast on TLC on September 26 , 2010 , and the first season continued with six half @-@ hour chapters until October 17 , 2010 . 
