When reality TV star Josh Duggar was convicted this month for receiving and possessing child pornography, the Dags’ reign as the fundamentalist Kardashians for more than a decade was impressive. It ended in shock.

In their TLC shows "19 Kids and Counting" and "Counting On", the extremely conservative Arkansas clan is known for its love of tater tot casserole and the letter J, showing a fascinating family atmosphere.

Josh is the eldest of 19 children, a golden girl, married at the age of 20, and accepted an influential job in the lobbying department of the Family Research Council in Washington, DC

He is now a convicted sex offender. During the six-day trial in Fayetteville, prosecutors presented convincing evidence that Dag used the dark web to download material describing child sexual abuse onto his car dealer’s laptop. ——Described by agents of the Department of Homeland Security as "the worst five I had to check at the top." The 33-year-old father of seven children faces up to 40 years in prison.

Duggar’s beliefs have shaken a healthy reality TV empire, which is bigger than the family itself, sparked a new censorship of TLC’s reliance on shows about the big family of young celebrities, as well as its whitewashing of the Duggar family’s sexuality and gender. The role of roles and fertility perspectives is to make them more popular with mainstream female audiences.

Reality show Josh Duggar (Josh Duggar) convicted of possession of child pornography

Former reality TV star Josh Duggar was found guilty of possession of child pornography in a federal trial in Arkansas.

The case against Josh Duggar is just the latest in a series of scandals involving the sexual abuse of children by persons suspected of being connected to the TLC program. Last year, former "little people, big world" star Jacob Roloff (Jacob Roloff) stated that he was harassed by the producers in the series. The producer could not be reached for comment.

In 2017, Toby Willis appeared in "The Willis Family" with his wife and 12 musical genius children (they were educated at home like the Dags and whose names begin with J) , He pleaded guilty to four counts of child rape.

TLC also cancelled the controversial "Honey Booing Coming" in 2014. At that time, it was reported that Joan Shannon, the mother of the series star Alana "Honey Booing" Thompson, was working with a child convicted of child molestation. Men dating. In 2011, Remigio "Remi" Gonzalez, who appeared in several episodes of "Cake Boss", admitted to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Andrea Clevenger, a mother in the "Perfect Perfect" series, admitted to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in 2014.

This is not the first time Duggars has encountered a scandal. InTouch Magazine reported that ten years ago, Josh was investigated by the local police for allegedly molesting five young girls, including his four sisters, in 2002-03.

According to a 2006 report by the Springdale Police in Arkansas, in 2003, the Duggars asked their son to participate in a Christian treatment program. About a year later, Josh was a teenager for the first time. Tell them that he touched his sisters inappropriately. In the same report, the parents said that they asked Josh to have a "stern conversation" with a family and friend who worked in law enforcement, but they did not report the alleged abuse. (This friend was later imprisoned on unrelated child pornography charges.)

The report also stated that the producers of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" had booked the show for the family, and they received an email from an anonymous source warning them about Josh. Information about the suspected behavior was forwarded to Arkansas authorities, which launched an investigation. This has led many people to question whether Jim Bob and Michelle handled the incident appropriately—if any, TLC knew about the allegations when they put Duggars on TV. No charges were filed against Josh Dag.

After months of public pressure, TLC cancelled "19 Children and Counting" in July 2015, but chose to continue its Duggar business and launched "Counting On" later that year, which is a movie without Josh Derivative drama. The series aired 11 seasons and nearly 100 episodes, focusing on Josh’s sisters—including at least two of his so-called victims—because they married when they were young and gave birth to a new generation of reality TV stars.

TLC declined to comment on this story, but after his arrest in April, the network issued a statement: “TLC is sad to learn about the ongoing troubles involving Josh Duggar. '19 Kids and Counting' has been since 2015 No airing. TLC cancelled the show after previous accusations against Josh Duggar, and he has not appeared since."

But Duggars' problems — and TLC more broadly — didn't start or end with Josh.

The network originated in the 1970s as a project that used NASA satellites to bring educational programs to Appalachia, then relocated to cable TV and gradually transformed into a scriptless lifestyle program.

As a result of a series of reality TV shows about large, unconventional and typical religious families living in small American towns, the channel owned by Discovery became a reality TV giant in the mid-2000s. These include "17 Children and Numbers"-the title changes as Duggars has more children-and "Jon & Kate Plus 8", followed by Jon and Kate Gosselin, a state-of-the-art in Pennsylvania. For sextuplets and twins, their marriage discord has become a national obsession.

Duggars revealed that most of Josh Duggar's victims are his own sisters

Duggars appeared in several documentary specials before landing on their own series in 2008, which is very suitable for TLC's emerging brand image, namely the Red State Bravo. Ladies wear ankle-length denim skirts and waist-length perms. The boys wore neat cuts and matching polo shorts. Even for some liberals, it is impossible to resist the wonder of raising children on such an epic scale—or denying that Dag’s children are cute and well-behaved.

Produced by North Carolina-based Figure 8 Films, "19 Kids and Counting" became a popular film, and the ratings peaked as older girls began to marry. In 2014, a record 4.4 million viewers watched the wedding of Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard, the largest number of viewers on the network since the premiere of "Sarah Palin's Alaska" four years ago. This success made Duggars rich-they reportedly made between $25,000 and $40,000 per episode, with millions of dollars in revenue from lecture fees, book sales, DVD and brand sponsorship-and helped increase TLC's profits , Which brought about $25 million in advertising revenue to the network in 2015, according to research firm iSpot.tv.

It also turned Duggars into mainstream celebrities who announced their pregnancy in "Today", often appeared on the covers of tabloid magazines, and even flew private jets.

However, there are long-standing doubts about "19 Children and the Count" and other unscripted shows featuring underage stars as they are classified as documentaries. A 2010 survey by The Times found that producers of "19 Children and Numbers" and other reality TV shows did not obtain work permits to hire minors under the age of 16. At the time, the patriarch of the family, Jim Bob Duggar (Jim Bob Duggar) said that their family did not think the movie was work. (The representative of Figure 8 that produced "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and several other TLC shows declined requests to speak for this story.)

These issues go beyond labor laws. When they were young, the descendants of the Dag family were called up to participate in reality shows, depriving them of their privacy and anonymity, all for the extreme religious beliefs of their parents. "Our desire to open our home to the world is to share biblical principles, which are the answers to life's problems," said Jim Bob and Michel Dag.

The cheap reality show sub-genre popularized by Duggars is still the main content on the Internet today: the most notable of these current series is "Sister Wives", which is about a man with four (about to become three) wives and 18 children Of polygamy. But there are others, such as "Outdaughtered", which tells the story of a Texas couple and six daughters, including a group of quintuplets; and "Welcome to Prathville", which tells the story of rural Georgia A Darling conservative Christian family with nine flax-haired families educating children.

The allegations that have been plagued by Duggars and other TLC individuals may continue to attract attention as the parent company Discovery seeks a $43 billion merger with WarnerMedia, driven by the popularity and profitability of its unscripted programming.

In 2020, TLC ushered in the highest-rated prime time ever, and it is still the highest-rated cable TV network with a young female audience.

From the beginning, there were signs that Duggars had strict religious views, especially in the early seasons, where they focused on strict romantic rules: courtship with a partner pre-approved by their parents; no kissing before marriage. But as the series became more and more popular, beliefs that might be politically sensitive or controversial were largely obscured.

Duggars is related to the patriarchal movement in the Bible, which believes that men are appointed by God as family leaders and strongly opposes birth control.

In their best-selling book, the Dags endorsed the teachings of the Institute of Basic Life Principles, the Ministry of Religion and the Advanced Training Institute of the Family Education Department. The founder of the organization, Bill Gothard (Bill Gothard), advocated extreme sexual modesty, including the belief that God sometimes “let” victims be sexually abused for “misdressing”, but more than 30 women accused him Resigned in 2014 after sexual assault and harassment.

"19 Kids and Counting" also regularly records the Dag people in the activities organized by the organization, but ignores key information: for example, the drama featuring the graduation ceremony of the Alarm Academy, the IBLP-led training camp for prospective recruits, from It did not mention that the plan condemned homosexuality and endorsed the use of "corporal punishment with love" for children.

The producers of the show seldom pressure Duggars on their views, and they seldom discuss their off-camera activism, which includes recording robot calls against local LGBTQ rights regulations.

The culture of purity championed by Duggars “teach girls and women that they are not only responsible for their own sexual thoughts, feelings and choices, but also responsible for the sexual thoughts, feelings and choices of others, especially men,” Linda Kay K. Said Linda Kay Klein. , Author of "Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Break Free".

This means that the older Duggar daughters were taught to use the code word "Nike" to warn their brothers and fathers that if a provocatively dressed woman approaches, please pay attention to their feet-this is a detail in their Shared in the book "Growing Up Duggar".

This also means that when the allegations of harassment against Josh Duggar were made public in 2015, his sisters and alleged victims, Jill Dillard and Jessa Seewald, were put on television to defend him.

"Those who call him a child molester, a pedophile or a rapist-I think this is too much," Siwald told Megan Kelly on Fox News. She said that Josh was just "an adolescent boy, a little too curious about girls." "The extent of [abuse] is mild-inappropriate contact with victims wearing clothes, mostly while [these] girls are sleeping."

Michelle Duggar also raised the disturbing thoughts about consent, repeatedly admonishing other women to never refuse to have sex with their husbands, even if they are tired or have a huge pregnancy. In an interview with Today.com, she said: "Anyone can arrange lunch for him, but only one person can meet his physical needs for love, and when he calls, you always need to be free."

The title of the show-"And the Count"-assumes that Jim Bob and Michelle will continue to give birth forever, turning fertility into a bizarre endurance race, rather than a choice with potentially serious health risks.

In 2009, 43-year-old Michelle Duggar suffered from life-threatening preeclampsia and gave birth to her 19th child through an emergency caesarean section three months in advance. After another miscarriage two years later, Michelle was still determined to reach the miraculous number 20 and consulted a fertility doctor.

Kathryn Joyce, author of "Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement", said that "19 children" and "reliance" make people feel that "running a family with so many children is weird and funny." In fact, older girls are often forced to serve as co-parents, which will damage their education and other things.

Once the Dag girls grow up, they have few other choices except marriage, children and reality shows. Josh is nowhere to be seen in "Counting On", but the series still focuses on young women, who have spent most of their childhood, taking care of young siblings or being followed by a film crew.

However, it also rarely takes time to resolve the consequences of the first kiss or childbirth broadcast on TV — or, outside of the earlier episodes, the abuse they allegedly experienced at the hands of Josh.

In the end, not all Dag daughters are happy to inherit the family business. One of Josh’s alleged victims, Jill Dillard (Jill Dillard) and her husband quietly left the show in 2017 because, as she later told people, they could not control their major life decisions, and There is no reason to appear in "19 Children and Counting" or "Counting On" until they take legal action.

The trial and its consequences seem to have exposed further rifts under the appearance of the family's once harmonious appearance. At a testimony hearing, Jim Bob testified that he did not remember the specific details of Josh's admission to him when he was a teenager-the trial judge called this "selective amnesia" and "uncredible." . In contrast, several of Josh’s siblings issued statements after being found guilty, strongly condemning their brothers. Last week, Jim Bob was defeated in the Arkansas Senate primary. He ran for the election as a "pro-family" Republican.

When TLC finally cancelled "Counting On" this summer, months after the child pornography allegations against Josh Duggar, the network stated that "it is important to give the Duggar family a chance to resolve their situation privately."

This may be about 15 years-there are a dozen children-too late.

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Meredith Blake is an entertainment reporter based in New York City for the Los Angeles Times, mainly covering TV shows. She is from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, graduated from Georgetown University and has a master's degree from New York University.

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