NEW YORK — You might say our national nightmare is over. Or is it just a TV series?

In any case, TLC's reality show "Jon & Kate Plus 8" will end its spectacular but stormy run at 9 p.m. Monday.

During this final hour, Jon and Kate Gosselin, the estranged parents of young twins and sextuplets, will venture on separate outings with the kids. (Jon will take them to a fire station near the family home in Wernersville, Pa. With Kate, they visit a local dairy farm.) Individually, each newly single parent will reflect on what the past has meant and what the future might hold.

And that will be that, TLC said.

It would seem the series is going out with a grateful sigh of relief, if not a whimper, after months in the midst of noise and upheaval. The feuding couple's split came to dominate the series, as well as helping fuel a firestorm of tabloid coverage.

It was all good for ratings, of course. When the pair made their separation official on a "Jon & Kate" episode that aired in June, it was seen by a remarkable 10.6 million viewers.

After that, production and airing of the series lurched in fits and starts to accommodate the Gosselins' unraveling home life.

Outside the show, both Jon and Kate made dueling he-said-she-said appearances on the talk-show circuit.

It was all quite a change from 2007, when the series first clicked with viewers for its heartwarming look at a devoted couple and the challenges they faced rearing eight young children.

Then, in September, a revamped series was announced. "Jon & Kate Plus 8" was meant to segue smoothly into "Kate Plus Eight" this month. But that plan was apparently torpedoed by Jon's objections to having the children displayed any longer on TV.