After it came into the light that Josh Duggar was accused of sexually assaulting five girls as a teenager, including some of his siblings, TLC said enough. It may have been that TLC was covering themselves as they aired a marathon of the 19 Kids and Counting series the very day the news broke, and it just looked bad. So the network responded by pulling the show from the air, and old shows are no longer available on the network, nor at Hulu.com. However, even with all of this, there still could be plans to keep some of the Duggars on television with a possible spinoff series featuring both Jill and Jessa Duggar.
According to People.com, 19 Kids and Counting still has promotional materials on the network's TLC website, and that source is over a week old. You can still look and see snippets from episodes, which means that even though TLC immediately pulled all episodes of 19 Kids and Counting after Josh Duggar's investigation for child molestation in 2006, the 19 Kids brand is still being kept alive on TLC.
So what does this mean? Even though the original 19 Kids and Counting is gone, there could be some serious rebranding as the Duggars could get a spinoff. This spinoff will not focus on the massively extended family of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, but rather focus on newlyweds like Jill and Derick Dillard as well as Jessa and Ben Seewald. Considering the show had begun to shift its focus away from the next generation of Duggars, specifically Jill and Jessa and their marriages and children, that would make sense. The show achieved its highest ratings during that time of focus, according to Hollywood Take.
A source at Us Magazine has stated that the focus point of the show won't be what is happening with Josh Duggar. This makes a lot of sense that TLC is attempting to distance themselves from them after the former TLC star Mama June Shannon threatened a lawsuit against the network. Shannon's show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo was cancelled after it was learned that she was dating a convicted child molester who sexually abused one of her relatives. With that show, it was cancelled mere hours after the news broke.
If TLC is planning a Duggar spinoff show, it would be wise of them to follow the pattern of another former reality show on TLC, John and Kate Plus Eight. That show was going strong for a while, until there was the divorce that was getting a lot of negative press. The show attempted to change focus to a divorced mother with all of her kids with Kate Plus Eight, and it achieved only modest success.
Even though nothing official has been announced of this Jill and Jessa Duggar series, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets the "green light", and soon. However, rebranding can only take a show so far like with the example of Kate Plus Eight. The public may enjoy the spinoff, but they can't forget the bad news that prompted it.
