NEW YORK – "Jon & Kate Plus 8" will soon be simply "Kate Plus Eight."
That's the word from the TLC network, who announced Tuesday that its hit reality show is adapting to changes in the Gosselin household, which has been disrupted by the split up of Kate and Jon.
The renamed "Kate Plus Eight," which begins Nov. 2, will continue to chronicle the lives of the Gosselin kids (5-year-old sextuplets and 8-year-old twins) but will also focus on Kate's role as a single mother.
"It's not a huge shift, but it's reflective of where the show was already going," said Eileen O'Neill, TLC's president and general manager.
"Jon's going to be involved in the show," she said, adding that he will be seen less often than before. TLC retains an exclusive arrangement with him, as well as the rest of the family, O'Neill said.
The couple made their separation official on a "Jon & Kate" episode that aired in June and was seen by 10.6 million viewers.
The rupture came after weeks of tabloid reports of marital strains and infidelities, which both spouses denied. On the show, the parental co-stars barely spoke to each other.
Since then, media coverage of the squabbling exes has continued full-bore, and both Jon and Kate have made separate he-said-she-said talk-show rounds. They are in divorce proceedings.
It's quite a change since the series clicked with viewers two years ago for its heartwarming look at the challenges of raising eight young children.
Going forward, O'Neill said, "We hope for the sake of the family that things are more manageable. I don't think anyone asked for that amount of attention."
She spoke hopefully of a bright future for the series and dismissed a report circulating Tuesday that Kate Gosselin had posted a tweet that this season might be the last: Kate doesn't have a Twitter account, O'Neill said.
Although the audience for recent "Jon & Kate" airings has dropped below two million viewers, the current season has averaged a robust 3.2 million (even omitting its two record-setting "event" episodes), which represents an increase of 300,000 viewers over last season.
Discussions are under way with Kate Gosselin for another series that might debut in 2010, O'Neill said.
"I think there's an opportunity for Kate beyond her role as a supermom to explore her other interests," O'Neill said.
Meanwhile, with reality-based programming that also includes "Little People, Big World," "What Not to Wear" and "LA Ink," the network is boasting a year of consecutive month-to-month audience gains.
"We're not a one-hit wonder," O'Neill said.
The series airs Mondays at 9 p.m. EDT.
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TLC is owned by Discovery Communications, LLC.

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On the Net:

http://www.tlc.com

LOS ANGELES – So much for ladies first.
Eight celebrity male contestants took the floor Monday on the premiere of the ninth season of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." The women make their debuts Tuesday.
"I'm a little intimidated actually," said pop star Mya after watching the men perform. "I'm glad that we sat this one out, but it's very informative how the process works. ... The judges are very hard."
Aaron Carter came out on top, earning 32 points out of 40 for his two dances. The 21-year-old singer credited his professional partner, Karina Smirnoff, with keeping him calm before their opening performance.
"She took the pressure off of me completely for this," he said. "She was holding it all in and keeping it from me."
"I was freaking out," Smirnoff said later.
Ashley Hamilton (son of George Hamilton), who tied NFL star Michael Irvin for the night's lowest score of 19, said focusing on Irvin's nerves distracted him from his own.
"I had to talk him off the ledge," Hamilton said. "He was more scared than I was, and he helped me not be so nervous."
The football star said preparing to dance in front of a national audience was "a million times worse" than taking the field for the Super Bowl.
"I've always said I would never sing and dance in front of anybody, so overcoming those fears and coming out here, I consider that to be a successful night," Irvin said.
Donny Osmond, who finished in second place with 30 points, earned rousing applause, but head judge Len Goodman criticized the entertainer for being "too theatrical."
Osmond's professional partner, Kym Johnson, said she's tried to tone down the fun during rehearsals by wielding a cane.
"I have duct tape, as well," she said.
"It's like I'm getting lessons from Tony Soprano," Osmond quipped.
Mixed martial artist Chuck Liddell impressed the judges — and the audience — with his dance moves. He made his way through the fox trot, keeping a (sometimes forced) smile on his face.
"I'm known for not getting nervous, but I haven't had that much adrenaline running through me for something in a long, long time. I don't have that much adrenaline before I go fight," he said.
He acknowledged that ballroom dancing is "something I'm not real comfortable doing," but said he wanted to prove that "just 'cause we're fighters, we're not Neanderthals."
"I have a college degree. I have a family. I'm a normal person and we do normal things," he said, adding, "hopefully we can get more fans for our sport."

Liddell finished with 22 points.

Former House Republican Whip Tom DeLay also surprised the crowd. The 62-year-old politician performed a cha-cha to the 1960s hit "Wild Thing."

"Parts were magic, parts were tragic," judge Goodman said.

DeLay even wowed his professional partner, Cheryl Burke.

"I just busted out laughing because I was, like, I can't believe this old man is here on his one knee playing the guitar and doing exactly what I told him to do, no questions asked," she said after the show.

"I have to say I nailed it," said DeLay, wearing orthopedic shoes to help alleviate the bruising and near stress-fractures on his feet after weeks of rehearsals. "I felt good. My hips were working. Cheryl held me up and I really, I did it. I nailed it."

DeLay finished with 20 points.

"Iron Chef America" host Marc Dacascos earned 29 points. Professional snowboarder Louie Vito, who did a flip as part of his cha-cha, finished with 27.

Next, it's the ladies' turn, and the pressure's on.

"When you hear the crowd and there's an orchestra behind you and you just want to be fabulous and you only have one take, so I'm nervous," said actress Debi Mazar. "It's a natural feeling to have. I'm first up."

Two contestants — one male, one female — will be eliminated during Wednesday's episode.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

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On the Net:

http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars/

NEW YORK (AFP) –
The Obama administration has promised to discuss a controversial deal on US military bases with Japan's new left-leaning government but stopped short of saying it would renegotiate it.

The administration also sought to get off to "a good start" with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held her first meeting with her Japanese counterpart Katsuya Okada.

Clinton's assistant secretary of state for public affairs, Philip Crowley, told reporters Monday that the top US diplomat and Okada agreed there would be more discussions on an existing plan for the troop presence on the southern island of Okinawa.

"The new government has questions about this plan, and the secretary pledged that we would continue the discussions with the new government and to answer any question that they might have," Crowley said.

"There is a plan, clearly we're going to have discussions about it but where the discussions go, at this point I can't predict," Crowley said.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said August 31 that the United States would not revisit a deal finalized just months ago by Japan's long-ruling conservatives that also includes moving troops to the US territory of Guam.

After exhaustive negotiations, former president George W. Bush's administration agreed to dismantle the Futenma Marine base and shift the facilities to reclaimed land in a quiet part of Okinawa.

Some Okinawan activists -- backed by Hatoyama's Democratic Party while in opposition -- want the United States to remove the base from Okinawa completely.

Clinton looked forward to working with Okada in order to build a stronger partnership with Japan, an alliance she called a "cornerstone" of US foreign policy and "indispensable to the security and prosperity of the Asia Pacific."

Clinton, in New York for the United Nations general assembly meeting this week, held talks with Okada after dispatching her top official on the region to meet with the new Japanese government.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, said Monday that the United States wants "to underscore how important it is for us to get off to a good start in the US-Japanese relationship."

Campbell said he had promised that the United States would listen to how Tokyo now intends to undertake a review in the relationship.

"We told our Japanese friends how we're going to conduct our business in public. We are going to be very clear about how important it is to respect each other as equals," he said.

"The United States intends to underscore its support of a strong and independent Japanese foreign policy," Campbell said.

But he added that in private the US administration would "underscore areas where we think continuity on policy is important."

Okinawa, he said, is one such area.

US President Barack Obama will meet with Hatoyama for the first time on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN general assembly.

Hatoyama was sworn in as prime minister last week after his center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won the country's elections by a landslide.

The DPJ's victory ended more than half a century of almost unbroken rule by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and party leaders have already signaled they want a "more equal" relationship with the United States.

The new coalition government sworn in Wednesday is seeking to strike a balance between the demands of some of its own left-leaning and pacifist members, and the desire to maintain the traditionally strong US alliance.

TAMPA, Fla. – A Florida woman slain along with her five children endured regular abuse from her husband but seemed overwhelmed by trying to raise the kids herself and wanted him around as a father figure, Department of Children and Families records show.
Police in Haiti on Monday detained Mesac Damas, wanted for questioning in the slayings of his wife, Guerline Damas, and the couple's three boys and two girls in their Naples, Fla., apartment. A relative said detectives told them their throats had been slit.
Collier County Sheriff's deputies have called Mesac Damas a person of interest in the slayings. The 33-year-old boarded a flight to Haiti from Miami International Airport on Friday, a day before police found the bodies.
Mesac Damas told The Associated Press at the police station where he was being held in Port-au-Prince that he had planned to surrender and that he returned to his native Caribbean nation "to say goodbye to my family."
"I was going to turn myself in. You see I've got my suit on and everything," Demas said as police led him from a backroom where he was interrogated to a jail cell.
He did not respond when asked if he killed his wife.
Just days before he left the country, a Department of Children and Families caseworker assigned to the family had made an unannounced visit to the apartment and noted in a report that the children, ages 11 months to 9 years, seemed healthy and safe.
Mesac Damas was home and dinner was cooked. The toddler was wearing a sundress and playing with her doll while the older daughter, dressed in pink, asked the caseworker if she had brought her a pink book bag, because she was going to school next year. The boys were in T-shirts and shorts and the worker didn't see any bruises or marks.
Mesac Damas was due to finish a court-ordered battery intervention course in November.
"There is no safety concern," the file reads. "Children are doing fine."
But relatives of Guerline Damas, 32, said her husband was a "loose cannon" who would take away his wife's cell phone and be rude to her family.
"You'd never know what he'd do," said her younger brother, Mackindy Dieu, 23, who lived with the couple several years ago.
Dieu said his sister wasn't open about the details of her personal life and her family didn't know she was being abused until January, when Mesac Damas was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery after he hit his wife as she held their baby daughter in her arms.
According to DCF records, he choked her and ripped her shirt off.
"As this is occurring, the child slipped out of the mother's hand and fell to the floor," the report states.
It was one of a handful of times that sheriff's deputies had been called about domestic disputes between the couple. But this one was different: Mesac Damas was taken into custody and a restraining order filed.
The other children had been outside playing and were terrified by what had happened, a caseworker noted. In interviews, two of the older boys described seeing their parents fight regularly. The oldest, 9-year-old Michzach, told the caseworker that he would try to take all the children in a bedroom when the abuse happened.
"If he tries to call 911, dad hits him on the hand or in the head," the file noted.

When it was especially bad, Guerline Damas would sleep in her car. She hadn't had an easy life — she immigrated to Florida from Haiti as a teenager after her father was murdered in their home. She went to high school and later found work in a Publix supermarket.

"What are you doing with this guy?" Dieu said the family told her when they learned about the abuse. "You need to leave."

The couple separated — for two months. Guerline Damas began counseling at a shelter for abused women. A caseworker noted she seemed overwhelmed at the thought of raising five children by herself. She started pushing for the restraining order to be lifted.

"She believes that a father should be with his children and she has faith in him, that he will not repeat domestic violence against his wife," records from a visit in late March state.

Mesac Damas pleaded no contest to the battery charge and was given 12 months probation and ordered to take parenting classes and enroll in a battery intervention program. Around April, he moved back in.

The family seemed to make progress. Mesac Damas said he was learning to control his anger and talk with the children more. The children said they had missed their father.

The caseworker described observing a "loving relationship" between the father and children.

"This clinician believes that this family will be a solid family unit once again," the file states.

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Associated Press writer Jonathan M. Katz reported from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.