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After six years on TLC, the Gosselin kids will finally find out what their house looks like without a video crew. TLC has announced that Kate Plus 8, the reality show that chronicles 36-year-old Kate Gosselin's life as a single mom, has been canceled. The final episode will air on Sept. 12.
"By the end of this season Kate Plus 8 will have hit the 150 episode mark (including Jon & Kate Plus 8); an exceptional milestone," says a network rep in a statement. "TLC hopes to check in with Kate and the family periodically with specials in the future."
Beginning in April 2007, Jon & Kate Plus 8 followed the day-to-day lives of Kate and Jon, a lovely young couple with 6-year-old twins and 2-year-old sextuplets. As the show became a media sensation, the Gosselins were increasingly criticized for using their children to obtain wealth and fame. Then in 2009, a one-hour special chronicled the disintegration of Jon and Kate's marriage. Amid heavy tabloid criticism of Jon, the show's name was changed to Kate Plus 8 and it continued without the Gosselin dad. The third and final season of the new show -- the eighth, if you count the Jon years -- is currently airing.
So what happens now for the Gosselins? With her children now 7 and 11 years old, respectively, Kate will be looking for new ways to support her large family. In a statement issued via Twitter, Kate says that she is excited for what the future may hold.
"We've had a great run! Six years of whirlwind funfilled adventures thanks to TLC and our many many supportive &diehard fans!" writes Gosselin. "While it is very sad for me and the kids (there were many tears at the breakfast table this morning!), we are looking forward with great anticipation to our bright future!"
Gosselin writes that she is choosing to look on the bright side, "as is very typical for me."
"I am excited to consider the many more invigorating opportunities that may come my way!" she tweets. "I poured my entire self in2 last 6 yrs of 'Kate+8 & I can't wait 2 have the chance 2 challenge myself again w future endeavors!"
Those future endeavors, she says, may include "motivational speaking, book writing &other fun work opportunities" -- and "maybe even some dating??!!"
Gosselin was a nurse once upon a time, but since becoming a celebrity, she has shown no interest in leaving the entertainment world. She recently suggested that she may be interested in a career as a TV producer.
"I know when things translate into TV and what’s not quite as accurate as you want it to be. I'm good at it 'cause I live this life," says Gosselin. "I have had people come to me and say 'I have this great idea for a reality TV show... I actually, in my mind, can play it out and see it happening."
But we're not convinced that Kate is done being on camera, either. After Dancing with the Stars, she was supposedly trying to score a gig as a talk-show host (which obviously hasn't happened... yet). And she's shown no indication that she wants her kids to have a normal, camera-free life. On the Today Show this month, Gosselin indicated that she'd be fine continuing Kate Plus 8 into her children's high-school years, ominously promising that "we'll still be on TV as long as you're watching us." Now that the show has been canceled, will she take the hint?
Regardless of what Kate does next, we hope that she lets the kids take an early retirement. It's high time for the Gosselin eight to get away from reality TV, and back to reality.
