Does “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ divided by 2 equal nothing _ or more?

Jon & Kate take a break

NEW YORK — Jon and Kate Gosselin are barely speaking.

They’re separating and getting a divorce — the latest twist on their hit TLC series, “Jon & Kate Plus 8.”

They couldn’t even see eye-to-eye on where to install their children’s new playhouses out in the yard, as viewers witnessed on Monday night’s show.

But there’s one thing Jon and Kate can agree on: The reality series that has made them stars, along with plaguing their family with tabloid scrutiny and scandalmongering, will continue.

Will viewers agree to keep watching?

They watched in record-breaking numbers Monday. The audience of 10.6 million beat the huge “Jon & Kate” season premiere a month ago by 800,000 viewers.

In separate on-camera segments, the Gosselins clearly sized up the show as a good thing for them as well as for their kids — 5-year-old sextuplets and 8-year-old twins, who both parents repeatedly identify as their top priority.

And while retaining their expansive home in southeastern Pennsylvania, the estranged couple seemed reconciled to a future of taking turns living there with their children.

“We interview separately, we’ll film different things,” Jon explained on Monday’s episode. “Me and the kids, her and the kids.”

Elaborating on those plans in an e-mailed response to questions posed on Tuesday, Gosselin said he and Kate expected to spend “about equal time with our children at home in Pennsylvania.

“On days when I am with them, Kate will make arrangements to stay elsewhere. And when Kate is with the kids, I will make other arrangements. We know that this is the right decision. The kids love our home, and I am happy that they will be staying there.”

Also in the e-mail, he repeated his denial of tabloid allegations that he cheated on Kate.

“I did not have an affair,” he declared.

With the changes in the lives of the shows’ co-stars, the show will remake itself accordingly.

Yet to be determined: Whether a broken family will hit home with the devoted fans of “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” which began as a chronicle of home life for a busy mega-family.

Will “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ divided by 2 equal nothing? Or will it (in show-biz terms) “open up” the series, even paving the way for some kind of spinoff series? How about “Jon Minus Kate Plus 8 Half the Time, With a New Romantic Squeeze and Even More Kids Thrown In”?

“I have a new chapter in my life,” Jon said on Monday’s show. “I’m only 32 years old. I really don’t know what’s gonna happen.”

Expanding a TV franchise has paid off handsomely for such established shows as “Law & Order” and “Crime Scene Investigation.”

A new, souped-up version of “Jon & Kate” starring Kate and the kids could be in the cards.

“I don’t really want to be alone,” Kate said. “I don’t want to do this alone.”

As TLC’s biggest hit, the show — however it adapts to the Gosselins’ new game plan — is a valuable commodity.

In a statement Tuesday, TLC president Eileen O’Neill said the network “continues to support the Gosselin family and will work closely with them to determine the best way to continue to tell their story as they navigate through this difficult time.”

The network announced that a retrospective of Jon and Kate’s 10-year marriage would air next Monday, followed by a hiatus until Aug. 3. During that break, “the family will take some time off to regroup, and then a modified schedule will be in place to support the family’s transition,” the network said.

Meanwhile, the Gosselins were a hot topic on “The View” Tuesday morning. Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck said the show should end and that Kate Gosselin should “get a job” and that the reality show was “not healthy for the kids.”

Barbara Walters, the only member of “The View” who acknowledged watching the show, summed up, “If you have more than five children, you shouldn’t be allowed to get divorced.”

Associated Press Writer Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Pa., contributed to this report.

TLC is owned by Discovery Communications, LLC.

On the Net:

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