Why the Duggars' Show Shouldn't Be Canceled

Post's Hank Stuever: What's the point if 'reality' shows skip reality?
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 23, 2015 10:18 AM CDT
Why the Duggars' Show Shouldn't Be Canceled
In this 2014 photo, several of the Duggar family's 19 children wait to perform at a campaign event for the Rev. Mark Harris in North Carolina.   (AP Photo/Ted Richardson)

TLC has yanked episodes of 19 Kids and Counting off its schedule amid the molestation scandal of family member Josh Duggar. It remains, unclear, however, whether the reality show is gone for good. At the Washington Post, TV critic Hank Stuever hopes that's not the case because the show might finally be worth watching. Up until now, it's presented a version of the Duggar family that seems almost impossibly pure. "Now is not the time to cancel it," writes Stuever. "Now is the time for TLC to double down and have the courage to present America, at last, with a truly unscripted show about a family enduring a crisis largely of its own making."

It probably won't happen, unfortunately, because it's become standard protocol for networks and advertisers to bail on such shows at the first sign of trouble, he writes. But aren't these supposed to be "reality" shows? Love them or hate them, they are the modern "equivalent of Greek tragedy," writes Stuever. "It is where we exchange and impart themes of morality and personal failure. But what good is it if we always pull the plug at the first sign of hubristic collapse?" Click for his full column. (More 19 Kids and Counting stories.)

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