Yesterday, we covered the first excerpt from what I’m assuming will be a very large, intensive pro-Duggar article in this week’s People Magazine. From the beginning of the scandal (in May), People Magazine has treated the Duggars pretty gently, shying away from the most disgusting rumors/reports and painting the family with the glossy, family-friendly brush that People Mag gives to most of their subjects. I tend to think that it’s fine for People to do this – People often lulls their subjects into a false sense of complacency and that’s when the real dirt comes out. We learned yesterday that Jim-Bob and Michelle Duggar are particularly devastated with TLC’s cancelation of their show because they truly believed it was “part of God’s plan” to spread the word via TV. People followed up with this surprising gem exclusive: TLC wanted to do a spin-off show about Jessa and Jill, but Jim-Bob nixed it because he’s a famewhore. Ha!
After TLC pulled all episodes of 19 Kids and Counting from the air, following reports that Josh Duggar had molested five underage girls when he was 14 (he subsequently apologized and said he had “acted inexcusably”), there was talk that the show would shift from the entire family and focus on daughters Jill Dillard and Jessa Seewald.
It’s no surprise a spin-off centered on the older Duggar daughters – whose marriages and pregnancies had become a popular part of the show – was being considered during the “near-constant” and “intense” conversations about the show’s future, as a source who has worked closely with the family tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, but the source says not everyone was on board. An insider tells PEOPLE that patriarch Jim Bob Duggar was not a fan of the Jill and Jessa spin-off suggestion.
“He absolutely wanted to be back on TV and was never thrilled about the show suddenly shifting focus,” the source says of Jim Bob, 50.
Adding to the unlikelihood of an imminent spin-off, Jill, 24, her husband Derick and their 4-month-old son Israel went to Central America on a mission trip in early July: “And with that, one half of any potential new show was gone,” the source says.
As for Jessa, 22, who is expecting her first child with husband Ben in November, “is clearly [one of the stars] in the family: beautiful, smart, strong-willed,” says the insider, adding, “She may be slightly more free-spirited than your average Duggar, but she is firmly and centrally a part of the family, as is her husband.”
Even though their hit series has been officially canceled and there are no confirmed spin-offs on the horizon, the Duggars will return to the network to appear in a TLC documentary special on survivors of child abuse.
“They’re happy to show that this did not scar them permanently,” the source says.
See, that’s why I’m okay with how People Magazine is covering this family in particular. Because we get gems like that! And of course in the Duggars’ oblivious little churchy bubble, no permanent damage was done. OF COURSE! Meanwhile, I really hope all of the conservative politicians who cozied up to the Duggars will now have to explain WTF they were thinking. Please let Mike Huckabee get those questions.
Meanwhile, In Touch Weekly is still sticking with their series of exclusive reporting on the ground in Tontitown, Arkansas. According to ITW’s sources, the Duggar children are super-upset that TLC canceled the show, with one source saying: “The kids like being recognized and hate that the show is going away. Some of the older kids in particular are really upset about the show’s cancellation. These kids loved the spotlight and expected to be on TV forever.”
The same source also tells In Touch that the Duggars “think TLC should have stuck by them. They just didn’t get a lot of sympathy. They attacked everyone as part of their PR strategy, minimized what Josh did and turned it into an even bigger PR disaster.” Even worse, the Duggars are becoming pariahs in their town: “They aren’t who people think they are. Many people don’t believe their righteous preaching anymore, and their community, the police, the child abuse advocates and their network are angry about how they’ve handled everything. Some people in town look at them differently now, call them hypocrites. They don’t believe Jim Bob and Michelle’s version of the story and that all the victims have so easily forgiven Josh.” Word.
There’s also a lot of concern about the TLC “special documentary” that the Duggars are making about child molestation. Apparently, they insisted on being paid for all of it, which means they’re being paid for covering up a series of major crimes.
Photos courtesy of the Duggars’ Facebook.
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