TLC FINALLY Cancels Counting On Following Josh Duggar's Arrest

Finally, the long national nightmare is over. The Duggars have been canceled.

On Tuesday TLC announced the long-overdue decision to cancel Counting On, the spinoff series of 19 Kids and Counting, amid the legal troubles of one of its stars, Josh Duggar. Sorry, by “legal troubles” we mean his arrest on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography in April.

In a statement, the network explained:

“TLC will not be producing additional seasons of Counting On. TLC feels it is important to give the Duggar family the opportunity to address their situation privately.”

Interesting. Amid calls to #CancelTheDuggars, TLC’s previous statement about the scandal was to defend themselves, saying at the time:

“19 Kids and Counting has not aired since 2015. TLC canceled the show on the heels of prior allegations against Josh Duggar and he has not appeared on air since then.”

It’s true. Back during his first scandal, in which he admitted to having molested his younger sisters and their friends, TLC made a big show of canceling 19 Kids. Many critics saw the reality show focusing on a fundamentalist religious family as normalizing a disturbing view on sex. Considering the nature of the scandal, it only seemed right to end it.

Buuuut shortly afterward they launched a spinoff focusing on daughters Jill Dillard and Jessa Seewald instead of the rest of the family. Jill & Jessa: Counting On was a chance for the victims to tell their stories, right? They weren’t their parents, they were grown women navigating a new world beyond their parents. So that was fine, right?

Well, as it turns out, not so much. The Jill & Jessa part quickly fell off, as Jill left the show. Viewers will note Counting On has slowly evolved (though we’re sure they wouldn’t like us using that word) into 19 Kids And Counting all over again. And that’s by design.

Jill revealed last year that she was never paid for Jill & Jessa: Counting On despite her name being in the title. All the money was still going to the same person as it always was for both shows: her father, Jim Bob Duggar. Later on Jill’s husband, Derick Dillard, explained to fans the whole thing wasn’t referred to as a cancellation but a “rebranding” behind the scenes. Same show, just a new name — so the network didn’t have to completely end a profitable show.

If it’s still the same show, you can’t blame people for wanting TLC to finally cancel it FOR REAL this time — especially when the money is going to Jim Bob, who had essentially covered for Josh all those years — keeping his transgressions quiet, leaving him to go out and allegedly commit more sex crimes.

Speaking of Josh’s criminal charges, his pretrial was supposed to begin this week, on July 1. However, the court granted his request to push the trial back to November 30, meaning the pretrial will start a couple weeks beforehand on November 12.

No word yet if TLC is going to fight Court TV for the rights to air it. What do YOU think of Counting finally getting canceled for good??

[Image via TLC/YouTube/Washington County Sheriff’s Office.]