Pregnant Anna Duggar To Play Larger Role On Upcoming Season Of ‘Counting On’
Anna Duggar’s role on Counting On was greatly diminished last season, but it looks like the cameras are turning back on Josh Duggar’s wife now that she’s pregnant.
Anna Duggar and her husband, Josh, recently revealed that they are expecting their fifth child. This surprising announcement, which dismayed some Duggar fans and delighted others, may be why Anna has been spending a lot more time in front of the Counting On cameras. According to the Hollywood Gossip, “production sources have indicated that Anna will play a larger role in the next season of her in-laws’ reality show.”
When Counting On premiered in 2015, Anna Duggar helped attract viewers to her in-laws’ new reality series by tearfully sharing her thoughts about her husband’s bad behavior. TLC had canceled 19 Kids and Counting a few months earlier in response to Josh Duggar’s sexual molestation scandal, and the network was testing the waters for a possible new reality series starring the Duggar family. TLC did this by airing a three-part special centered on the older Duggar children. It was titled Jill & Jessa: Counting On, but many viewers tuned in to hear Anna’s words. They wanted to know if she was going to stay with Josh or leave him after he admitted to cheating on her.
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Josh was undergoing treatment at a Christian rehab center while his family’s special was being filmed, and Anna Duggar slowly receded into the background of the Counting On series after her husband returned home. However, now that she’s pregnant, Anna is a valuable asset once again. Births are always a big draw for Duggar fans, as evidenced by past ratings for the Duggar family’s TV series. As reported by the Ashley’s Reality Roundup, 2.5 million viewers tuned in to watch Jessa Duggar give birth to Spurgeon on Counting On. The birth of Jill Duggar’s first child on 19 Kids and Counting attracted 2.9 million viewers, according to Showbuzz Daily. Compare these ratings to the Season 3 finale of Counting On, which had just 1.2 million viewers.
The birth of Josh and Anna Duggar’s baby boy could give Counting On a ratings boost, and some of Josh’s fiercest critics might even be curious enough to tune in to that episode; perhaps they’ll want to see how the show’s production company manages to keep Josh’s face off of TV this time around. According to the Daily Mail, editors used a fake sun glare to hide Josh from sight during Jinger Duggar’s wedding special. Anna’s husband has reportedly been banned from appearing on Counting On, but he’ll continue benefiting from the show as long as his wife is getting paid for her appearances on it.
Anna Duggar helps plan Jinger’s bridal shower on TLC’s #CountingOn https://t.co/Ddz4PIvYwh pic.twitter.com/74H6uLoKiy
— People Magazine (@people) March 25, 2017
According to SheKnows, Anna Duggar’s in-laws were accused of “using” her for ratings when she talked about Josh’s infidelity on the Jill & Jessa: Counting On special. However, Anna’s in-laws haven’t yet used her pregnancy to promote the upcoming season of Counting On. Josh and Anna Duggar shared a brief message about their baby news on the Duggar family’s website, but the couple’s pregnancy news was not met with the same enthusiasm as other big family announcements. As CafeMom points out, Josh and Anna were deprived of the congratulatory YouTube videos that the Duggars so love to film.
TLC also isn’t using pregnant Anna Duggar as a promotional tool. She doesn’t appear in the trailer for Season 4 of Counting On at all, and her pregnancy is not mentioned. Instead, the promo teases the birth of Jessa Duggar and Ben Seewald’s second child, Jill Duggar’s second pregnancy, Joy-Anna Duggar’s engagement to Austin Forsyth, and Jinger Duggar and Jeremy Vuolo’s new life in Laredo.
If the birth of Josh and Anna Duggar’s fifth child is filmed for Counting On, will you tune it to watch it? Sound off in the comments below.
[Featured Image by Duggar Family/Facebook]
