It's pretty lucky that "Kate" still rhymes with "Eight."
However, it's not so lucky that Jon and Kate Gosselin's personal divorce drama had to play out in front of millions of viewers.
While we've never seen the TLC reality show, it was a winner with moms across the country as a heartwarming tale of a family trying to raise an insane number of spawn in a wild and wacky world. Now things are just plain sad.
After a series of tabloid rumors about infidelities and marital strain, Jon and Kate are no more.
But, according to TLC, the show, or shows, will go on.
"Kate Plus 8" will now cover the sad and depressing adventures of a single mom with an unmanageable number of offspring. It will debut Nov. 2.
While the split was probably unforeseeable when the Gosselins first signed their exclusive contracts with TLC, the network should let up on them in light of recent events.
Going through a divorce is no walk in the park, and no one should have to do it in front of the 3.2 million viewers "Jon & Kate" averaged over the last season of the show.
Not only that, but things are already in the works for a Kate solo show that focuses less on the kids and more on Kate's "other interests," according to Eileen O'Neill, TLC's president and general manager.
Sounds like the channel already knows that "Kate Plus 8" is going to be hard on viewers' eyes and heartstrings.
TLC should release Kate and the family from their contracts and let them get on with their lives instead of trying to parlay them into other reality television scenarios.
Reality TV works on the premise that it can exploit its stars, but this is taking things to a whole new level of indecency.
