Jill Duggar’s Husband Derick Dillard Responds To Theory That TLC Used Jazz Jennings To ‘Bait’ Duggar Family
Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard are no longer appearing on the Duggar family’s TLC series Counting On, but Derick is still tweeting about the show. The father of two is also continuing to make his feelings known about a current TLC star whose last name is not Duggar, transgender teen Jazz Jennings.
Derick Dillard and Jill Duggar are noticeably absent in the new promos for the upcoming season of Counting On, but fans can still keep up with the couple on social media. Derick spends a lot of his free time tweeting, and he recently dropped a hint about why he and Jill walked away from the Duggar family’s popular TV series. In response to a tweet written by an upset fan, Derick seemed to suggest that the decision had a lot to do with Jazz Jennings.
The fan in question accused TLC of purposely trying to provoke the Duggar family by giving a transgender girl her own reality show. As reported by Romper, Jill’s husband and her mother have both made it abundantly clear that they do not support the transgender community. However, Derick is the only member of the Duggar clan who has singled out the 17-year-old star of I Am Jazz and attacked her on Twitter.
“@TLC I think it’s nice of you to bait the Duggars, by putting #Iamjazz in ur network line-up. Then when @derickmdillard took the bait, you fired him,” tweeted one of Derick’s followers.
“The fans of conservative Duggars, may stop supporting your network. I used to watch your network almost 24/7 but not recently.”
Derick Dillard’s response to the former TLC fan threw a lot of shade the network’s way. He seems to believe that what TLC viewers really want to see on the network are more people like him and Jill.
I think they’ve been learning a lot more about their base recently. https://t.co/1FZNrF1oAw
— Derick Dillard (@derickmdillard) February 7, 2018
So is Derick right to suggest that TLC’s base isn’t all that into Jazz Jennings? According to Showbuzz Daily, the viewership total for Tuesday night’s episode of I Am Jazz was 849,000. The network’s highest-rated show of the night was My Big Fat Fabulous Life, which attracted 1.1 million eyeballs. Last season’s premiere of Counting On was also watched by 1.1 million viewers. The season finale of Sister Wives did well for TLC with a viewership total of 1.4 million, and the same number of people tuned in for the most recent episode of My 600-lb Life.
While the numbers for I Am Jazz might not be quite as high as those of other TLC shows, Jazz Jennings has a solid and supportive fan base. As reported by the International Business Times, My Big Fat Fabulous Life star Whitney Thore even came to her defense last August when Derick tweeted that Jazz is a “non-reality” and that “‘transgender’ is a myth.”
Using religion to justify bigotry sickens me. I love you, @JazzJennings__ !
— Whitney Way Thore (@whitneywaythore) August 4, 2017
After Derick Dillard revealed that he and Jill Duggar would no longer be appearing on Counting On, rumors swirled that the couple had been fired over Derick’s comments about Jazz. However, as reported by CafeMom, the Duggar husband later said that he made the decision to take his family off the show because he felt like they were “heading in a different direction.” He and Jill are currently involved with Cross Church’s college ministry, and Derick is enrolled in the church’s year-long training program for aspiring Christian leaders.
Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard seem to be uncertain about what they’re going to do after Derick completes the Cross Church program. Now that they can no longer count on a Counting On paycheck to help pay their bills, the couple is hoping that fans’ prayers will help them figure out what to do next.
“Pray for God’s direction for us as we pray about our future plans for our family after [Cross Church School of Ministry],” Jill and Derick recently wrote on their family website.
