What's Next For Jon, Kate And The Eight?

Did you miss the apocalyptic Jon & Kate divorce announcement last night? Well, let us catch you up. Our Lady of the Backward Mullet and her consort, Sir Ed Hardy de Tiger Pants, have decided to go their separate ways. People confirmed yesterday that Kate has filed divorce papers at Bucks County Courthouse in Pennsylvania. "I'm looking for friendship with Kate and we don't have that now," Jon said in last night's episode. "We don't have anything now. We're just like two people that happen to live here."

Of course, divorce isn't unusual, except that Jon and Kate's split is complicated by their octet of spawn and, more troublingly, the TLC series built around the ten-headed monster that is their family. So basically, their team of divorce lawyers will have more on their hands than these UMD doctors.

There are several factors at play in the Gosselin breakup. The first, of course, is how they'll continue to raise those eight kids. TLC already provides the family with child-care assistance, so any visions you might have of the sextuplets cavorting madly while one exhausted parent sits, catatonic, in the middle of a living room strewn with dirty laundry will probably not come true. But making sure all eight get enough time with both parents when they're no longer living in the same house will be tricky. 15 Common Divorce Mistakes

While most family courts prefer to award custody to the mother in divorce cases, it's likely Jon and Kate will share custody, according to Entertainment Weekly. And the pair said last night that the kids will continue to live in the family's Wernersville, Penn., home, and that the parents will trade off spending time with them. No word on who will get the dogs.

Another matter in the separation is the fate of the TV show. TLC ordered forty episodes for the show's fifth season, of which six have aired. The channel announced today that the show will be on hiatus until August 3, presumably while they figure out what to shoot other than the kids plaintively asking, "Mommy, why is Daddy staying at that lady's house?" and "Daddy, why are you wearing those ugly jeans?" We think the best thing to do right now would be to get the kids off TV during what will be a really difficult time in their lives, so it's good that the parents are doing just that. But divorce is rough even on kids who aren't on TV, so we could look at this as an economic stimulus plan for the family therapists of eastern Pennsylvania.

Via E!, Entertainment Weekly, and the LA Times. Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel.