Cable
The word: No more 'Jon & Kate'
By Toni Fitzgerald
Oct 16, 2009 - 8:12:47 AM

Just four months after they smashed TLC ratings records with that uncomfortable separation episode, Jon and Kate Gosselin are getting a divorce -- from the network.

Word leaked yesterday that TLC is moving on from "Jon & Kate Plus 8," the reality show that chronicles the troubled parents, abandoning plans for a new show called "Kate Plus Eight" after Jon Gosselin filed a cease and desist order to stop filming his eight children.

"Jon & Kate" will continue into November, as the network has enough footage filmed from before Jon filed the order last month to fill out the season.

But the network will not pursue plans for the "Kate" spinoff, which was to have shown her life as a single mom to the children, twins and sextuplets.

If the reports are true, and TLC has not confirmed it, the network's decision was likely made easier by the falling ratings for "J&K."

Last week's Monday 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. episodes averaged just 1.28 million viewers, according to Nielsen, barely a tenth of the 10.6 million who tuned in for the episode in June where the couple announced their separation.

Whether the show will return anytime in the future, if Jon drops his objections to having the kids filmed, is not clear.

"J&K" is currently in its fifth season. It began as a family comedy about the trials of raising eight kids, but the parents became tabloid fodder after both being accused of cheating.

Last month, after TLC said it would drop Jon as a regular, the 32-year-old said he'd had an epiphany and realized that the filming was not good for his children.

Still, he's rumored to be considering a pilot called "The Divorced Dads Club" for himself.

Meanwhile, the parents are involved in the beginnings of a messy divorce. They were in court earlier this week hurling accusations at each other through their lawyers.



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