With the fate of Jon & Kate Plus 8 — or Kate Plus 8 as TLC recently said it would rename the reality series — hanging in the balance thanks to a very public feud between the now-estranged parents of the supersized Gosselin brood, The New York Times today reports that should the show be scuppered, Kate Gosselin may have a future as a talk-show host.
TLC recently stopped production on the newly minted Kate Plus 8 following a demand by Jon Gosselin and, the NYT says, Kate Gosselin is planning to parlay her reality-show fame into a slightly different line of work.
According to the Times, one weekend last month Kate recorded a test episode of a syndicated talk show tied to Momlogic.com, the Warner Brothers-owned Web site, alongside Food Network host Paula Deen, author Lee Woodruff and other potential co-hosts.
Unidentified sources told the paper that executives at Warner Brothers were enthusiastic about her performance in the episode. The studio has not acknowledged the test publicly nor has it said if it will order a series.
“I’ve been given the gift of gab, so why not use it?” Kate told a North Carolina newspaper last month.
She is also working with TLC on a new show that will not include her family, the Times says.
Kate remains eager to pursue a TV career, and TLC appears to be taking her side, repositioning her as a sympathetic figure. The network expects to introduce another show starring Kate next year.
What are her talk-show host prospects? “She seems very capable, frankly,” View co-host Joy Behar told the Times.
Still, although Bill Geddie, the executive producer of The View, called Kate “beautiful and intelligent,” he said she had yet to show whether she could stand on her own as a host.
“Being a great guest and being a great host are two very different things,” he said.
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