CarolMK

I don't believe that this is the same Courtney. The one who wrote that piece lives in Chicago. Sorry but I think it's just a coincidence.

Well, I think it's safe to say that the show is going to be officially done soon. If there aren't any sponsors, how can TLC continue? I'm sure the Duggar family was earning a decent salary from being on the air for 10 years. Without advertising, the show can't exist anymore.

I've seen some posts about the possibility of the show continuing without Josh and Anna. I was thinking about how Jon and Kate plus 8 was changed to Kate plus 8 once Jon and Kate got divorced. Overall, it didn't do nearly as well as the original show but they still seem to have at least a few shows per year. The show went on hiatus for about 3 years between 2011 and 2014 when it returned. Maybe TLC will bring back something along the line of "Duggar Daughters". It will be difficult if not impossible to show the younger Duggar siblings without the parents though. Public opinion of Josh is very negative now, but I'm not sure if as many people blame Jim Bob and Michelle for what happened. Personally, I do hold them responsible and I wouldn't like to see them getting paid again for a 19 Kids and Counting show. Jana and Jinger, living in the Duggar household, probably would not be able to participate either even though both are over the age of 18. It's a mess all around and I don't know if TLC can come up with a solution other than cancellation or just doing a couple of specials with Jessa and Jill's families.

The Bates television show will be back next week, and they have a lot of new material to cover. Michaela's engagement and wedding coming up in August, Erin and Chad's new baby (born 3 weeks early but healthy), and Alyssa and John's new baby. I also believe that one or two of their older boys might be attending college. I know they're on a network that not everybody gets...UP, is what it's called here in NJ. Now I wonder if TLC might try to get them back on the air, but if I were the Bates, I wouldn't return. TLC didn't renew their show the last time it was on. Unless they were able to offer them significantly more money than UP, I assume they'll stay where they are.

In that letter that "Alice" wrote that was circulating earlier, she stated in 2005 that Michelle Duggar hadn't cooked a meal, cleaned the house, or bathed a child in years. Everything that you saw on tv was just for show. I tend to believe this when we saw Michelle making eggs for the family, she was doing them one at a time and it was taking forever, of course. Any sane person would make a dozen scrambled eggs at once or an oven casserole with eggs, something simpler than what she was doing. It's pretty clear that Michelle lost her ability to cope with this large family she was brainwashed into believing that she must have by the time Joseph was born and she had her laundry room breakdown. It's also obvious that they never looked after their kids at night. When the the tinker tot house was built, Jana and Jill were given double beds so that they could take care of their buddies at night. At the time, Jackson and Justin were little and probably stayed with their sisters at night when they woke up as they were not allowed to disturb Jim Bob and Michelle's alone time. The girls never ever had privacy at night..I'm sure they weren't allowed to lock their doors, both before and after the Josh incidents happened. Jim Bob and Michelle didn't make an effort to protect their daughters even knowing what had happened and that's just wrong on so many levels.

Wanderwoman, I really like the idea of what you posted about supporting the Duggar sisters with a donation to Stop it Now. I just changed my Amazon Smile account over from a previous charity to Stop It Now. Last summer, the ice bucket challenge was one of the first I remember to bring awareness to ALS, so I did that one first, and then changed to Doctors Without Borders and the American Cancer society. I was not aware of Stop It Now until you posted the link. To keep on topic of the thread, I don't want to see Josh ever featured on any show that features the Duggars. Overall I believe it's better for all involved if the show is cancelled. Also hoping that CPS does investigate Jim Bob and Michelle...his attitudes toward sex appear warped and creepy and he himself does not have a healthy attitude towards it.

I believe that Michelle's mother died a long time ago, perhaps 20 years ago. Michelle was the youngest child and her mother had her later in life..her oldest sister is 22 years older than Michelle. Her father appeared on the show once, about 6-7 years ago and passed away shortly thereafter. He had Alzheimer's disease and was living with one of her sisters in Ohio. I think most of Michelle's siblings are in Ohio but we have only seen them on the show once or maybe twice. Not sure how much the Duggars keep in touch with them.

I read elsewhere that their wedding is going to be on August 15. I'm looking forward to their show coming back, does anyone know when ? Maybe in September?

If we had a choice on what to call Jana in this thread, I'd refer to her as both a mom and a hero. She has raised pretty much all the kids in the house much better than Michelle ever did and showed love and caring a great deal more as well. She is also a hero for staying, and now in light of this horrible truth coming out, I believe the reason she has stayed is to protect her younger siblings from her parents, who do as little parenting as possible.

Maybe TLC will rerun old shows for awhile. There will always be something to replace the Duggars. I'd watch old episodes of Trading Spaces, and I'm sure at least some viewers would tune in, even though it's been off the air for awhile. Wouldn't cost them anything to show them again. They might even decide to rerun old episodes of the Gosselins when they were toddlers. That show got TLC huge ratings the first couple of seasons that it was on...Jon and Kate plus 8? I'm sure that TLC could find an audience to replace the Duggars. Viewers are fickle. They might protest but as soon as something else comes along, they'll move on.

I really hope that these two never get a paid speaking engagement ever again. I'm sure that I'm wrong about that, but really, isn't their credibility destroyed now in light of the Josh situation? All of their household rules and rules for courting, dating with a purpose, etc...it's all a fraud. The two parents could not protect their own daughters, who were about 4, 8, 9, 11 and 12 when all of this took place back in 2002 throughout 2003. They deliberately protected their son, and themselves from a scandal that could have happened then . Would Josh have been arrested at age 14 and put into a juvenile detention center or would he have been removed from the home? No matter what, Jim Bob and Michelle were aware and did nothing in terms of counseling. I can't believe people will continue to be fans of Jim Bob and Michelle after this.

Jim Bob and Michelle literally make me ill.

I'm hoping that Ben and Jessa move out of the Duggar household and near to Ben's family. I'm sure Ben could get a job full time selling insurance, he was doing it before he moved to be near to the Duggars. Jessa seems to like her inlaws and gets along well with his sisters, maybe it would be the best thing for them.

I think the show will go on a long hiatus. TLC might not announce cancellation at this time, but I think they'll have to pull all advertising and promotions regarding the Duggars for now. They might decide whether or not to proceed depending on what happens this summer. Since the show usually doesn't return until the end of September and the season finale was just aired, we won't see them for awhile. Some of their tv series quietly went away, never to return. However, 19 Kids and Counting is one of their top shows, so the network is going to have to make a decision and announce it at some point.

I am really wondering how on earth this story was never made public before. Wow, it took 9 years for this to surface? And I wonder who it was that informed InTouch magazine about it, and how the police report was found. I guess we will never know.

Maybe the best thing for Josiah is moving into Marjorie's home and marrying her as soon as she turns 18, but continuing to live there. I always suspected Jim Bob of mistreating Josiah during the whole Jubilee announcement, but after reading the police report about Josh today and seeing that the kids confessed that they were beaten with rods, I think all of the kids should get out of that house.

Jana should get a book deal, like NOW!

Go to the Free Jinger thread for more information about this new development. I'm going to work and will catch up later tonight. With this police report, it does NOT look good for Josh. Appears this was going on for 2-3 years prior to Jim Bob calling the police and also appears that some of his sisters were victims. OMG. Wow, I'm just shocked. I now think that TLC will have no choice but to either cancel their show or put it in hiatus for a long time.

I'm also happy that Shane isn't returning. My 17 year old son and I have almost every season of Survivor on DVD, and I remember that not only did Shane threaten to quit more than once, he seemed batshit crazy in a lot of his footage. I'm excited to see Andrew Savage and Jeff Varner return.

I still don't think anything serious can come from this story surfacing now. I don't think Josh will lose his job, nor do I think that the Duggars will make any kind of public statement about it. I'm thinking of the recent allegations against Bill Cosby. It's at least a dozen women from what I remember reading, and the claims are much more serious than what Josh was accused of. But has there been any investigation of the allegations against Cosby? And other than a couple of cancelled television appearances, has anything further happened with him?

Was the last episode of talking with the Duggars only done a couple of weeks ago? Because Jill says there that Israel is only one month old. If there is an announcement of Jill and Derrick relocating (maybe due to his Wal Mart job), that'd be great for the two of them. It would be really hard on her buddy group though. Some have noticed that Jill seems a bit detached from her baby. If so, that really is too bad. It took me a little while, but I remember falling head over heels with my baby boy (who's now 21) so much that by the time I was set to return to work 8 weeks later, my job had gotten phased out and I was actually really relieved. Although maybe if Jill is detached, it's because she learned it from Michelle.

I wonder if Derrick got his wisdom teeth removed. Or if possibly he had to have his jaw broken in regards to having to have braces placed. One of my friends had to do that, she couldn't afford braces until she was 25 and had to have jaw surgery to bring the lower jaw forward. We were able to avoid dental surgery with our younger son by having braces placed at age 11, then taken off after 3 years and placed again for 18 months after he and his jaw grew during the 2 1/2 year break. I agree that it was highly inappropriate to show Josie her birth and tell her that her mother almost died giving birth to her. And this makes the question the Duggar's beliefs on pro-life, honestly. If Michelle was at high risk of a stroke, which is why they had to deliver Josie early at 24 weeks, would they have made the same choice if Josie was only 18 weeks and had no chance of survival? When Michelle was preaching afterward about Josie's birth that she fully intended to get pregnant again, even if it killed her (in so many words), then why didn't they just wait in the first place and let God decide if Michelle lived or died during the pregnancy? I know this sounds really horrible, but I don't understand how they decided to deliver Josie early if Michelle claimed she would continue to have babies even if she died as a result.

I remember seeing this years ago too on TWOP. I think I'd even read that Josh was "pre-engaged" to one of the Holt girls and they were both 16 at the time. We saw the Holt family in the very first special of 14 Kids and Pregnant again as well as cousin Amy when they all went roller skating and then never saw them again. The rumor I read was that Josh "touched a girl's blouse while she was sleeping" or something like it. Then the rumor of his being shipped off to ALERT and returning with a shaved head which was shown during their move from their original house to their rental house. I have no idea why this is even being brought up now though. It looks like no charges were filed, there was no arrest and it sounds like probably no real investigation . What more could there be to the story? The Duggars are not going to address or talk about it.

Rather than just shy, it seems like Jana is also quite introverted, as is her twin John David. Both of my sons and my husband are introverts, I'm the only extrovert in our family...but anyway, from living with introverts, I see that they need their private time and space and being with other people for extended periods of time exhausts them. It must be hell for Jana and John David living in such a large family and being introverted. Then the camera crew comes around and makes you part of the story of the week, like it or not. If I were Jana, I'd find more than one reason to have serious migraines and the need to lie down in a dark room when the cameras are there.

Looks like it's Ben's birthday today. He's finally turned 20, didn't it seem as if he was 19 forever? And since he just got his associate's degree the other day (in political science from what I remember), are there any plans for him to obtain a bachelor's degree? Or is he pursuing becoming a minister now at the education level that he's attained?