Duggar Family Return To TV Fuels Protest Against TLC
Recent days have seen an upsurge in outrage against TLC for returning the Duggar family to the airwaves on its network, as TLC ramps up the hype for the shows. Since TLC made the announcement on September 24 that the Duggar family would be returning for two or more specials, protestors have not been shy about voicing their opinions.
The network’s publicity in recent days revolved around the birth of Jessa Duggar and her husband Ben Seewald’s baby, which is the subject of the first episode in the special, Jill & Jessa: Counting On. This has increased attention on the Duggar family from naysayers. TLC has born the brunt of the opposition on its Facebook page.
What would seem to be an innocuous posting announcing the name of Jessa’s baby drew hundreds of derogatory comments about the name choice and the Duggar family in general.
![Comments on TLC Facebook page](http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/TLC-Facebook-Comments-about-Duggar-Family-1-543x700.jpg)
The TLC specials are supposed to primarily feature two sisters, Jill Duggar and Jessa Duggar, and their lives with their husbands and new baby sons. But the Duggar sisters are not without controversies of their own.
This summer when Jessa was wrapping up an appearance contract with the Southern Women’s Show, the event’s Facebook page had to remove about 200 comments that denounced Jessa and her husband Ben Seewald. For the second scheduled appearance this summer, the event’s Facebook page did not even mention Jessa, though she and Ben Seewald showed up as planned.
![Seewald at Southern Women's Conference](http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Jessa-Duggar-and-Ben-Seewald-at-conference.jpg)
By the third scheduled show, Jessa reneged and sent her sister Jinger and her brother Josiah to take her place. She and Ben stayed home and appeared at a baby shower in their honor, which was filmed by TLC for the upcoming special.
![Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard at the beach](http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Jill-Duggar-and-Derick-Dillard-by-the-ocean.jpg)
Others have commented that the little time Jill and Derick have spent in Central America looks more like a vacation at a resort than actual missionary work. The couple has posted more pictures of their baby and their meals than of any contact with locals.
So far, none of this appears to have had an effect on TLC’s decision to continue with the special and the first episode is still on the lineup for a December airing. TLC might be operating under the old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity. However, an online campaign directed at TLC’s advertisers by Duggar family objectors must surely have the attention of network executives.
One report indicates that over 600 sponsors have pulled their advertising from TLC, either from the network or from any show featuring the Duggar family. A Facebook group, “No More Duggars,” keeps a running list of sponsors that opponents can contact and it boasts success in getting hundreds of large advertisers to cancel ads, including Coca-Cola, Fisher Price, Hershey’s Chocolate, Kraft Foods, Maybelline, Payless, Pepsi (Pepsico), Pillsbury, Sara Lee, and Vtech.
Outside of their small circle of Bill Gothard followers and organizations Gothard founded, speaking engagements for the Duggar family have completely dried up. Those appearances at churches, family conferences, and political events were a lucrative source of income and brought in $10,000 to $20,000 per event. The canceled TLC show, 19 Kids and Counting, paid the family tens of thousands of dollars per episode.
Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, parents of the 19 kids, stated that being on television was an effective way to share their religious beliefs. However, their TV presence started no religious trends, nor did it inspire new followers to their beliefs. Their reality TV series was just one of many featuring the odd and the bizarre that are the staple of TLC’s reality show lineup, such as My Big Fat Fabulous Life (stars a 380-pound woman), Our Little Family (a family living with dwarfism), Sister Wives (a polygamist family with four wives), and the like.
![TLC reality show Sister Wives](http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/TLC-reality-show-670x247.jpg)
In a promo, TLC attempts to elicit sympathy for Jill and Jessa Duggar as victims of the press instead of as victims of incestual child sexual abuse which their parents allowed to continue for more than a year. It remains to be seen if TLC will have enough sponsors and viewers to support the new Duggar family special episodes.
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[Image via TLC]