The Duggars’ Surprise Appearance On ‘Good Morning America’ Upsets Critics, Anna Gets Top Billing
The Duggars are making a surprise appearance on Good Morning America this Wednesday, and some critics of the family aren’t happy about it. According to the only promo for the Duggars’ December 9 interview on the ABC morning show, Anna Duggar will be appearing alongside a few of her in-laws.
The Duggars’ Good Morning America interview was announced last night during ABC News. According to a commenter on the Duggar Family News: Life Is Not All Pickles and Hairspray page, Anna Duggar got top billing in the promo for the Duggars’ appearance.
“I am watching ABC news and there was a commercial just on that “Anna Duggar and Family” will speak out on Good Morning America tomorrow morning. Oh joy…..” Patty Minko wrote.
Not all the Duggars are happy about #CountingOn @jillmdillard @JessaSeewald https://t.co/N6fOYMXlJm pic.twitter.com/cAv7ZnSc5h
— SheKnows Ent (@SheKnows_Ent) December 8, 2015
The promo didn’t say which GMA anchor would be interviewing the Duggars, and little other info about their appearance was provided. However, many critics of the Duggars believe that the Anna and her in-laws are appearing on GMA to promote Jill & Jessa: Counting On, the family’s new upcoming trio of TLC specials. The first special will air Sunday, December 13 at 8 p.m. ET, and it will focus mainly on Jill and Jessa Duggar. However, Anna Duggar also appears in a promo for the special. Oddly, Good Morning America is not promoting the Duggars’ Wednesday morning appearance on its Facebook or Twitter pages, and no members of the Duggar family have used their own social media pages to let their fans know about the interview.
Some critics of the Duggars are so upset about the family’s surprise appearance on GMA that they’re venting their frustration on anchor Robin Robert’s Facebook page.
“Oh am disgusted to learn that you are having the Duggar/Dillard/Seewald family on your show tomorrow….shame on you, you haven’t done your homework! Like it or not, the Duggars are a CULT!” Elizabeth Carrier wrote.
Elizabeth went on to share a lengthy list of Duggar controversies in her post, including the Duggars’ victim-blaming homeschool teachings about incestuous sexual abuse, their negative comments about Catholics, Josh Duggar’s sexual molestation and cheating scandals, and Jim Bob’s hypocritical words about incest. According to Gawker, Jim Bob Duggar once said that he believes that rape and incest should be punishable by death. However, he allowed incestuous sexual molestation to take place under his own roof multiple times when Josh Duggar was a teenager. Jim Bob never turned his son over to the proper authorities, even though Josh continued to sexually molest young girls long after he first confessed to fondling his sisters while they slept. Josh’s victims included a babysitter and four of his younger sisters.
Fans are DONE with the Duggars after their latest stunt & it involves their daughter, Jana: https://t.co/ErXQ1G4ddc pic.twitter.com/Qt9ignwkbk
— In Touch Weekly (@intouchweekly) December 1, 2015
Another commenter on Robin Roberts’ Facebook page referenced Michelle Duggar’s campaign against members of the LGBT community. She once equated transgender people to child molesters.
“Robin, Please do not allow the Duggars to appear on GMA! Michelle Duggar did robo calls against the LGBT! They are a hate group! They belong to the Gothard cult which is now being sued for sexual abuse and harassment,” Teresa Bingham wrote.
Other commenters informed Robin Roberts that there’s a massive effort underway to get TLC viewers and advertisers to boycott Jill & Jessa: Counting On.
“I’m disgusted that Good Morning American (sic) would promote this cult family!” Susan Payton wrote. “Good Morning America, over 900 companies have said ‘No’ to any kid of advertising with the Duggars, Dillards and Seewalds, by your show having these people on, is a slap in the face to all victims of sexual abuse.”
Susan was referencing the movement started by members of the No More Duggars Facebook group. The group reports that it has convinced 908 companies to pull their ads from Jill & Jessa: Counting On or to vow to not advertise during the specials. There’s also a Facebook page asking TLC fans to not only boycott the Duggars’ specials when they air on TLC, but also to avoid watching any Discovery programs during the specials’ timeslots.
It’s possible that the Good Morning America producers were aware of the boycott of the Duggars’ new specials, so perhaps they decided to keep the family’s GMA appearance under wraps as long as possible to avoid enduring days of angry social media posts and calls for viewers to boycott GMA. However, there’s also a chance that the Duggars were a last-minute “get” for Good Morning America. According to TV.com, an interview with Star Wars star Adam Driver was supposed to air Wednesday morning. However, it got pushed forward to Tuesday. Perhaps GMA made this move to make room for the Duggars’ interview.
The Duggars’ most recent TV interviews took place back in June when Jim Bob, Michelle, Jill, and Jessa Duggar sat down with The Kelly File host Megyn Kelly to talk about Josh Duggar’s sexual molestation scandal. According to Fox News Insider, the parents’ talked about how the safeguards that they put in place to protect their daughters from Josh failed, and Jessa and Jill tried to excuse their brother’s behavior by saying that he was just a teen who was “a little too curious about girls” when he sexually molested them.
Will you be watching the Duggars during their December 6 Good Morning America interview?
[Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images]
