Did The Duggar Family Lie About ‘Counting On’ Renewal?

Duggar nation rejoiced when their official family fan blog – operated by two close family friends – reported last week that Counting On would be returning for a new season on February 26th. But, since then, TLC has made no official announcement, and the network is not advertising new episodes. Could the Duggar family be lying about their reality show’s renewal?

Clues That The End Is Here For Counting On

According to The Hollywood Gossip, no one in the family has posted anything on social media about the show’s return, and eyewitnesses have only spotted one small film crew in Tontitown, Arkansas when Joy-Anna and Jana were getting pedicures.

The future of Counting On has been shaky ever since TLC gave 19 Kids & Counting the ax back in 2015 after the Josh Duggar molestation scandal. Since then, ratings have declined, and when the show ended its most recent season in October, it was unclear if the show would return.

When the spinoff began two years ago, it started with 2.2 million viewers, but the most recent season finale had an audience of 1.42 million. As Inquisitr has previously reported, it has never equaled the success of its predecessor.

For weeks, there was speculation that the show wouldn’t be back, especially after the network fired Derick Dillard because of his homophobic Twitter rants against fellow reality star, Jazz Jennings.

Ironically, the highest-rated episode of the show in its six seasons was Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard’s wedding, which drew 4.4 million viewers.

But, the family blog announcement seemingly put all the rumors to rest. As In Touch Weekly reported, when the webmasters, Lily and Ellie, posted the news of the show’s return, it served as proof that the predictions the show was over were false.

Did The Duggar Family Cut Ties With TLC?

Now, with just weeks before the announced premiere date, it seems odd that TLC has done nothing to promote the show’s alleged return. This has led to a few different fan theories.

One of the popular ones is that the family is transitioning to a self-produced web series instead of a TLC production, which would explain the network’s lack of promotional material and just one sighting of a film crew.

Christianity Today reports that TLC did confirm the return date after the network announced on their website the news of Jinger Duggar Vuolo’s pregnancy.

They wrote, “You’ll catch up with Jinger and Jeremy’s story when Counting On returns to TLC.”

So, has the network simply cut production costs, resulting in less promotion and a smaller film crew? Is the Duggar family transitioning to doing things themselves? Fans will have to wait to find out.