Please, someone stop the bleeding!  This week’s episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 lost another four million viewers this week.  The experts are weighing in on what could possibly be causing this once popular show’s demise.  

“I don’t know if the show can make that new transition [from two parents raising eight kids to one parent raising the children],” said Robert J. Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “It’s like if The Cosby Show, mid-season, suddenly became Married With Children.”

Added Marc Berman, senior television editor at Mediaweek: “Once all of this dies down and Jon and Kate aren’t in the news anymore, this could be a problem for the show. They divorce, they move on with their lives and so do the viewers.”

The Gosselin’s need to call it a day.  Once Kate became nearly unrecognizable and Jon starting hanging out in St. Tropez, their audience (which I suspect was largely comprised of mothers) couldn’t relate to them.  They are no longer the harried parents — a stay-at-home mom and an IT guy –living in a chaotic existence that so many people can identify with.

Kate Gosselin has been doing her tour of talk shows this week where she shares more details about her marriage and how it went wrong.  Yesterday she taped Live with Regis and Kelly and the interview, slated to air tomorrow, took an unplanned and emotional detour.

Insiders say that the interview, which airs Thursday on “Live with Regis and Kelly,” was meant to be light and fluffy in the wake of Kate’s “Today” show breakdown this week. But it turned serious when Philbin went off-script and bluntly asked whether Kate could see herself reconnecting with hubby Jon.
“I can’t and won’t answer that,” the uncomfortable octomom said, stating firmly, “I keep certain things private, and that’s one.”
Perhaps the 77-year-old host should have kept his opinions similarly discreet, but he didn’t. “I think you [and your husband] will get back together and live happily ever after,” Philbin said. “I think everything is going to work itself out — he’ll say he’s sorry, that he loves you and everything will be good.”

A shocked Kate had no response as the show cut to a commercial break.

Later in the interview, Kate confessed her hope that she and Jon can get past their animosity, despite his recent extracurricular activities. The 32-year-old has squired wild child Hailey Glassman and former tabloid reporter Kate Major — and last weekend, reports surfaced that he’d spent the night with a 23-year-old baby-sitter who’d been caring for his kids. Regardless, Kate said her goal is to enjoy holidays and family time together again — unmarried.

“I didn’t expect my life to be like this,” Gosselin said, her voice cracking.

Says one audience member: “The only thing that seemed to be holding Kate together was Kelly [Ripa]. They really clicked — you could tell Kelly was completely sympathetic. Kate seemed so down. Even during the break, she appeared to be on the verge of tears.”

You know, Regis just joined the “It’s Time to Retire or Die ” club that Larry King founded.  Is he really so out of touch as to think that an “I’m sorry” would mend the Gosselin marriage?  A mea culpa isn’t going to cover Jon’s schtupping of the daughter of Kate’s plastic surgeon.

In the meantime, while Kate continues to bare her soul to any talk show host who will listen, Jon has been in NYC Porsche shopping – who knew they made a 10-seater? — with Hailey.  Which makes me wonder:  If Kate’s on TV and Jon’s at the car lot, who’s with the kids?

Jon Gosselin talked to In Touch magazine to set the record straight on how his marriage ended.  I thought they were taking a 45-day break from talking about each other to the media?  Oh, he’s such a man of his word.

I tried to parse the most important parts of the interview from this week’s edition, but it’s all truly so good.  He wanted to work on his relationship with Kate (the original Kate) and she wanted no part of it.  That’s when he decided to start dating multiple women.  You know, I’m calling bullshit on that.  All Kate does is sit in their front yard — and by the way, don’t they have a back yard? — looking sullen while he works on his suntan in St. Tropez.  I’m sure the reason she decided to be done with their marriage is because she learned of his wayward dick.

But you know, it’s not his fault, guys!  It’s not his fault!  

Okay, here’s the interview:

What is the biggest difference in your life now, compared to a year ago?

Let’s go back to October of last year — that’s when all of this happened. Kate basically came to me out of the blue and said, “I am done. You are going to live your life, and I am going to live my life.” I was like, “What?” I didn’t really know what was going on. When she said that, I was really upset and nervous.

Why did she want to break up?

I think she initiated the split because she wanted a career. Maybe I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and she was going to move on regardless. I said, “Are you sure about this?”

Did you want to work it out?

Yes, I asked, “What do I have to do to mend the relationship? What did I do wrong?” I was beating myself up about it. So I read a lot of books about personalities, like The Five Love Languages. Throughout the marriage, I felt like my personality had changed a lot. In December, I went to therapy. I asked Kate to come, but she didn’t want to. She said, “If you have a problem, go fix it.”

When did you and Kate start living separate lives?

We went to Utah on January 1. On January 12, she flew back with security and I stayed. That’s when I started to just hang out and meet people, and feel free. Not too many girls, just with my guy friends. I couldn’t do that for nine years. When I came back on the 17th, Kate and I weren’t talking. So I just said, “I’m moving out of the house,” and that was it.

I really think TLC needs to give up on J&K+8 and move straight into production for Jon Minus Nine. Audiences seem to have a dwindling interest in the reality TV family — last night’s back-to-back episodes, the first since the divorce announcement, saw average ratings of 3.6M. While this is a very good number for cable TV in general, it’s a huge dip from the May season opener (9.8M) and June’s “big announcement” episode (10.6M). Audiences loved watching the bickering between Jon & Kate while they were still together, but perhaps it’s less intriguing to watch a broken family attempt to soldier on, especially when TLC doesn’t seem to want to actively involve any of the drama surrounding Jon’s dating life.

Do you think ratings will perk up over the rest of the season, or will Jon & Kate sputter to a close?

As TLC prepares to air the new episode of Jon & Kate on Monday, the talk shows and the morning shows are scrambling to turn the excitement into ratings, and, as such, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jodi are back on TV to complain. This time, though, they’re very clear about blaming TLC rather than Kate or Jon. They say they’re on TV “for the children,” and they want a politician “with a heart for children” to step up and introduce legislation to prevent the kids from being filmed so often.

I’m kind of bored of all this Jodi and Kevin nonsense. These kids are just fine — as fine as any young children in the middle of their parents’ divorce can be. Both their parents love them and spend time with them, and they have opportunities in life they never would have had if it weren’t for the show’s success. What do you guys think? Are Jodi and Kevin doing this for the kids, or are they just trying to reclaim the spotlight they lost when Kate kicked them off the show?

Is everyone SO EXCITED for the bloody mess that will (hopefully!) be the return of Jon & Kate Plus 8 to TLC on Monday? I KNOW I AM. There’s a preview clip from E! above. Do you LOVE the body language or WHAT??

Says the President of TLC: ““You’ll see Jon struggle in the kitchen trying to make pizza for his kids. You’ll see what its like when Kate has to put a tent up for the first time for her kids, who love to camp in their backyard. And she gets a little advice from her daughter who doesn’t think she does it quite as well as dad.”

And as to whether or not we’ll get to see Jon running around Manhattan with his new barely-legal harem? “As far as new people and places that may be cycling into Jon and Kate’s lives, we’re taking it on a case-by-case basis,” she says.

Ooooh, don’t let us down, TLC!! DRAMA! DRAMA! DRAMA.

The prodigal son returns! Jon Gosselin and his rapidly expanding belly dragged their hungover selves back to Wernersville today, where Jon promptly lit up a cigarette and did his best impression of the Loch Ness monster for the paparazzi. This guy, I’ll tell ya. All class. I’m sure Kate is BEYOND DELIGHTED that he’s smoking cigarettes outside the house while he’s not busy traipsing around the world sucking face with every recent college grad who’ll have him. This is exactly what she had planned for her life.

While Jon nabbed an NYC bachelor pad for his kid-free time, Kate has recently picked up a condo in Rockville, a wealthy part of of Maryland. Why Maryland, you ask? Wellllll, her bodyguard and rumored side-squeeze, Steve Neild, lives there and works just a block away from her new place. (Wait, doesn’t he work for her?) As we exclusively reported yesterday, Jon’s been telling people that Kate was cheating on him before the divorce. This move on Kate’s part only lends credence to the rumors that she was fooling around with Steve.

Oh, man. These Gosselins. When I first tuned in years ago to watch the eight adorable youngsters, I had NO IDEA how much fun the PARENTS would turn out to be. Love it, love it, love it.