Josh Duggar Cheating Scandal Similar To Plot Of TLC’s New Scripted Tyler Perry TV Series


The ghost of Josh Duggar will continue to haunt TLC, thanks to the network’s first-ever scripted series. The plot of Tyler Perry’s new drama has a lot of striking similarities to Josh’s cheating scandal, which TLC viewers did not get to watch play out on TV.

Josh Duggar’s cheating scandal is constantly alluded to in the Duggar family’s new TLC series, Jill & Jessa: Counting On, but viewers are only getting Anna Duggar’s side of the story. During the most recent episode of the show, Anna joked that she couldn’t leave her baby daughter at home because her husband was “not available to babysit.” This comment was a reminder that Josh was still far away from his family at a faith-based treatment center at the time the episode was filmed.

According to Fox News, TLC General Manager Nancy Daniels recently revealed that the network does not have any plans to work on future projects starring the Duggar family, so there will be no redemption special focused on Josh Duggar trying to rebuild his life after losing his high-profile job in D.C., cheating on his wife, and admitting to sexually molesting four of his sisters and another girl.

Instead, TLC viewers who love a good cheating scandal will have to settle for Tyler Perry’s eight-episode series titled Too Close to Home. As Deadline points out, the show’s premise might hit a little too close to home for Josh Duggar. It follows a woman from a working-class family who scores an unspecified gig working on the political circuit in Washington, D.C. Her job gives her access to elite politicians, and her world sounds a lot like the one Josh Duggar used to inhabit when he was still employed by the Family Research Council.

Much like that three-part Jill & Jessa: Counting On special that aired late last year, Tyler Perry’s soapy series is using a salacious sex scandal to pique viewers’ interest. The female Too Close to Home protagonist is forced to give up her dream gig after her “steamy affair” with a married senator becomes national news, and she moves back to her less-glamorous hometown. The show’s description does not reveal where this is, but it does say that she has “trailer park beginnings.”

Deadline writes that the plot of Too Close to Home “sounds like some of the juicier bits of the Duggar saga that forced TLC to pull the plug on a hit reality series — without the real-life-and-therefore-so-icky-advertisers-are-bailing part.”

The 19 Kids and Counting cameras followed Josh and Anna Duggar during their days in D.C., where Josh worked as the executive director of FRC Action, the Family Research Council’s political lobbying arm. As Entertainment Tonight reports, Josh began working there in 2013, and TLC was very careful not to reveal the nature of Josh’s job. His duties included giving anti-LGBT speeches and appearing at anti-choice events.

“His professional life will not be followed in the show,” TLC Spokesperson Shannon Martin told GLAAD after being questioned about the network’s decision not to reveal Josh Duggar’s place of employment.

However, Josh’s connection to the FRC became headline news last May after Josh publicly resigned from the organization.

The death of Duggar’s career in politics differs from that of Tyler Perry’s female protagonist in that his cheating scandal was not to blame for his downfall. As People reports, Josh resigned from the FRC in response to In Touch Weekly’s bombshell report about the sexual molestation that went on in the Duggar household before the family became reality stars. In his resignation letter, Josh apologized for his “wrong actions as a young teenager” and asked for his fans’ prayers.

“In good faith I cannot allow Family Research Council to be impacted by mistakes I made as a teenager, so I am resigning as Executive Director of FRC Action. I will continue to pray for the advancements of the causes we believe in and I hope that in the days ahead you will pray for me and Anna as we seek God to discover the next chapter of our lives in His service.”

Anna Duggar needed all the prayers she could get a few weeks later, when her husband confessed to cheating on her. Josh was forced to come clean last August after hackers published his Ashley Madison account information online, and he admitted to being “the biggest hypocrite ever” in his second public apology of 2015.

Tyler Perry’s Too Close to Home will be all about a disgraced woman trying to rebuild her life, which is likely something Josh Duggar is in the process of doing now. However, his prospects are currently looking pretty grim, and, unlike Perry’s heroine, he’s going to have a very hard time convincing TLC viewers to root for him to succeed — especially since he won’t get to make his case on TV.

[Image via Duggar Family Official Facebook]

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