The ultra-conservative, ultra-religious, Duggars are coming back to TV this week with spin-off series Jill and Jessa: Counting On. The new show will pick up where 19 Kids and Counting was forced to leave off after scandal rocked the Arkansas reality TV family.
For those of you who weren’t following along last year, Josh, the eldest of the Duggar siblings confessed to “improper touching” of several underage girls, including his sisters. “Improper touching” is a euphemism for non-consensual sexual touching, which is a euphemism for sexual assault. In case you wondered. Josh got into more trouble when his named appeared on the list of Ashley Madison users when the adultery site was hacked. Josh admitted to cheating on his wife and to having a porn addiction. He then headed off to a faith-based rehab and vanished from TV and tabloids.
TLC, the network that served the Duggars up on a platter for the world to love or abhor, canceled their show due to the outcry about Josh assaulting underage girls, including his sisters, by touching them sexually without their consent, sometimes in their sleep. Which is the kind of thing that gets entire fraternities shut down when guys do it in college. Ahem. Josh also had to quit his job working as a professional homophobe at the conservative Family Research Council where he campaigned against same-sex unions.
Anyway, Jill and Jessa are now married with babies of their own and TLC has agreed to put them back on TV. In an interview with Good Morning America, Jessa said, "In the midst of what we were walking through, there definitely have to be periods where you're like, 'I don't want cameras around.' " She went on to say, ”We've had a lot of healing in our family in these past months but we're ready to move forward and share our lives.”
Sure. She wants to share her life. Or reality TV has made her family rich and it’s the only way they can sustain the standard of living they're accustomed to. One of those.
If you want to watch what life looks like in the aftermath of revelations of sexual assault in the Duggar clan, they’ll be on Wednesdays at 9.
