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S01.E01: Jill and Jessa Counting On: A New Chapter


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What do those numbers mean in the grand scheme of things? If I'm not mistaken 2.2 million is considered a pretty solid number for a cable show. I have a feeling there will be some drop-off for next week's episode though. They've pretty much gotten all the Josh nonsense out of the way and now we're back to recycled storylines that are months behind real time. Oooooh, what will the jender of Jessa's new baby be?! Not much anticipation there.

  • Love 10

I hope the first special was similar to how I eat my vegetables first, get the bad stuff over with first.

 

I don't know. They do have Anna left, of course. But other than that it kind of seems as if they've played out the Duggar-reactions-to-Josh's-life stuff. So what do they have left besides Derick and Jill go off to be fakish sort of missionaries and Bin and Jessa post sort of Calvinistic claptrap on social media and pretend that no one else has ever been pregnant before? How appetizing are those going to be?

No kidding. Apparently TLC was not even smart enough to bring in a new - and competent - production team for these new specials. I'm not trained in journalism or TV production in any way, but having watched the Duggars for 10 years, I feel like I've taken a class in What Not to Do. I bet I - or any of us here - could plan and put together a more cohesive, articulate and interesting program than the people they have doing it now. Truly pathetic.

 

I'm not so sure. How do you make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?

  • Love 2

Here's a comparison at zap2it.com.  It came in 8th in cable shows...not bad, but not the ratings bonanza TLC was probably hoping for:

 

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/12/15/sunday-cable-ratings-dec-13-2015/

 

eta--That's the 18-49 demo for the ratings.  Not sure if the viewers column is total viewers or just the 18-49 demo.

Edited by Gemma Violet

 

 

if they'd been around my family, with young kids, and never revealed the truth about Josh (or his potential threat), you're damn right I'd be 'uh, busy' when they tried to get together. It's almost like shocking revelations will change people's view of you.

 

 

I wondered if Marjorie's parents pulled the plug on that courtship for the above reasons instead of the fact she wasn't going to get famous on 19KAC. It's hard to imagine that most people would not think twice if their child was talking about joining a family with such significant (and unaddressed) dysfunction.

  • Love 4

Dunno what TLC is expecting, which is probably most to the point, but in numbers, the chart had this the fifth-highest-rated cable show of the week.  RHONY was first at, IIRC, a 1.22 share.

 

On zap2it, it looks like the total viewers might be all viewers while the rating is just for the 18-49 demo.  Not sure.

  • Love 1

What do those numbers mean in the grand scheme of things? If I'm not mistaken 2.2 million is considered a pretty solid number for a cable show. I have a feeling there will be some drop-off for next week's episode though. They've pretty much gotten all the Josh nonsense out of the way and now we're back to recycled storylines that are months behind real time. Oooooh, what will the jender of Jessa's new baby be?! Not much anticipation there.

Those are solid numbers.  They're on par for what the Duggars pulled in the last season of their show, though about a million fewer than Jessa's wedding and there were a few other episodes over the course of the series that scored better than this one.  It also brought in ~800,000 fewer people than the Megyn Kelly interview.  ETA: Also, didn't make the cable top 25 for the week.  

 

I don't think those are great numbers because TLC sensationalized the promos and it was more about the scandals than Jill and Jessa. From what people are saying online, it sounds like people tuned in to hear about the Josh stuff and see how Anna et al were doing in the aftermath rather than watch the Dillards and Seewalds. I'm interested what the ratings for the next two specials will be.  It probably will drop off unless TLC scored a Josh "I'm sorry" interview. 

Edited by Cocka doodle dont
  • Love 7

Paris Hilton didn't exactly go away without a fight.

True - and speaks to my point. Paris wanted to stay in the limelight but eventually faded away despite her best efforts. Imagine how fast that could happen for the Duggars if they wanted to stop being in the media. But they don't, they just want to control the story. The media is terrible when it's not on their side, and great when it presents them in a good light. In reality, it doesn't work like that.

This made me really curious about ol' Paris. I spent an inordinate amount of time on the interwebz comenting, less than kindly, about Paris and wondered what she was up to. Besides pose-walking her way through life.

Imagine my surprise when I found this 2014 Forbes article. She must have had connections and help but It's alive! Big time.

I'm amazed the Duggars are still around too. How many kids when they first gained some tv notoriety?

These chuckleheads might have some weird kind of staying power.

  • Love 2

This made me really curious about ol' Paris. I spent an inordinate amount of time on the interwebz comenting, less than kindly, about Paris and wondered what she was up to. Besides pose-walking her way through life.

Imagine my surprise when I found this 2014 Forbes article. She must have had connections and help but It's alive! Big time.

I'm amazed the Duggars are still around too. How many kids when they first gained some tv notoriety?

These chuckleheads might have some weird kind of staying power.

 

Well, there is a sucker born every minute.

  • Love 4

This made me really curious about ol' Paris. I spent an inordinate amount of time on the interwebz comenting, less than kindly, about Paris and wondered what she was up to. Besides pose-walking her way through life.

Imagine my surprise when I found this 2014 Forbes article. She must have had connections and help but It's alive! Big time.

I'm amazed the Duggars are still around too. How many kids when they first gained some tv notoriety?

These chuckleheads might have some weird kind of staying power.

Thanks for taking one for the team! Look at Paris now: out of the spotlight, no longer notorious, and apparently better for it. Who ever thought that she could be a life lesson - in a good way! Edited by MargeGunderson
  • Love 1

Not to get too far afield, but Paris is a HILTON. In the upper upper upper class, 1% stratosphere. Her family's money and her engineered looks gave her whatever freakshow of a semi-career that B list celebrity passes for these days.

A bunch of infamous uber religious rubes from Nowhere, Arkansas, have nothing within a million miles similar in terms of money, looks, or power.

Edited by Oldernowiser
  • Love 7

I can just see Ben sitting with his head in his hands muttering to himself: all THIS for a piece of ass? FML.

I don't really understand Derrick's jaw surgery. I'm thinking crooked teeth would be better than a busted up face. He looks like he needs a feeding tube.

I was surprised that Jill didn't stick around to help Jessa with childbirth. Maybe she didn't want to deal with more criticism after her own near catastrophe and be blamed if something went wrong with Jessa. I think she realizes that "delivering a few babies" and prayer does not a midwife make. Or maybe Jessa was like hell, no! They both were very lucky. Stupid and lucky.

I Really wish josh would stand up like a man and face the music. I don't think he was thrown under the bus. He lied down in front of it.

  • Love 5

Good point. It makes me wonder though - what if Derrick or Ben wanted to stop filming, etc.? As the headship of their respective families, would Jill and Jessa have to agree? Can Jim Bob overrule?

More importantly, why do I care? I need a new hobby for Christmas.....

My hobby is crocheting baby blankets for needy kids. Off topic I know, I taught myself from YouTube. Please move this mods, if you think it's appropriate. Merry Christmas everyone.
  • Love 4

A surprising number of posters here almost never watched the show, I think a lot of the most vocal Facebook opponents of the show returning, and Facebook supporters of the boycott, didn't watch the show and weren't the audience before or after, hence why the ratings didn't bomb. The ratios of vocal objectors to viewers was absurdly higher at FreeJinger.org. The Duggar's were niche programming for a niche audience and remain niche programming for a niche audience.

On TLC Australia I saw ads for Big W and Bunnings, each are subsidiaries of the duopoly retail companies Woolworths and Wesfarmers, I saw an ad by one of the big 5 major Auatralian banks, I saw ads for Ford Australia, General Motors Australia, Oral-B, Subway, McDonald's, Philips, this horrifying Scholl foot grinder thing, Nikon cameras, Brut antiperspirant. I actually saw a notable lack of the bread and butter of Australian Pay-TV advertising, the funeral insurance ads, life insurance ads, and the payday lending loan shark ads. And diet milkshakes.

I think people who object to this show should unsubscribe from TLC.

I doubt she visits during working hours, just in the evenings.

Bahahahaha! Sorry Koka..the bolded cracked me right up! :)

I can just see Ben sitting with his head in his hands muttering to himself: all THIS for a piece of ass? FML.

I don't really understand Derrick's jaw surgery. I'm thinking crooked teeth would be better than a busted up face. He looks like he needs a feeding tube.

I was surprised that Jill didn't stick around to help Jessa with childbirth. Maybe she didn't want to deal with more criticism after her own near catastrophe and be blamed if something went wrong with Jessa. I think she realizes that "delivering a few babies" and prayer does not a midwife make. Or maybe Jessa was like hell, no! They both were very lucky. Stupid and lucky.

I Really wish josh would stand up like a man and face the music. I don't think he was thrown under the bus. He lied down in front of it.

I have a feeling your first statement is going to be Bin's motto for the rest of his life.

Jill is not listed with the Dept. of Health as a licensed midwife. It could be their site hasn't been updated since prior to her graduation, but I have a feeling she finished Gothard training, but never passed/took the State boards. If she couldn't legally tend to Jessa as a midwife, it might explain why the Dullards hightailed it back to CA so close to Jessa's due date. Pure speculation on my part though.

Edited by BitterApple
  • Love 2
It's my understanding that if the dad dies, the oldest son has the responsibility to be the headship of the family. He has responsibility for his mother and unmarried siblings. So oldest son commands a lot of respect/authority in these families. I think that role has been given to John David now. They are done with Josh.

How very Jane Austen of them.

 

Seriously, the more I read about this subculture the more it seems like they fetishize this weird romantic ideal of "the olden days" without taking into account any modern day realities. And when I say "the olden days" what I really mean is the olden days of the wealthy upper classes. The oldest son being responsible for his mother and unmarried sisters made sense to those social groups in the 19th century and earlier because 1) the oldest son would be the sole inheritor of his father's estate and money and 2) women of a certain class didn't have all that many opportunities to support themselves.

 

Neither of those things are true anymore (and they weren't true for most people even back then, the working classes have always worked regardless of gender and the oldest son wouldn't have had much to inherit in the first place). Yet here we have a 21st century working/lower-middle class family apparently trying to emulate the upper classes of 200 years ago. It's bizarre.

 

I'm not familiar with US inheritance law, so I don't know how Jim Boob's wealth and property will be divided among his kids when he dies. Here, inheritance goes first to the surviving spouse and then, when the spouse dies, a minimum of half of the inheritance is shared among all the siblings. The other half can be willed to whomever the parent sees fit, family or not.

  • Love 8

Excellent post. If Boob and Me-chelle have been pounding into Josh that he is superior and the leader of the kids since Day One, then the massive amounts of entitlement, smugness and attitude he's displayed over the years make complete sense as well. As do the feelings his siblings are expressing now - since his fall from grace. It must have started some questioning with some of them too, although we'll probably never hear it from them. But if Momma and Daddy could be wrong about Josh, and they clearly were - what else are they wrong about?

 

Just love "Howdy Booby" - this is perfect. PS - agree fully with post too.

I think this really hits the nail on the head, though, a bit ironically, in a way which actually gives me a glimmer of understanding into their philosophy...Because if you want, in particular, a first-born son (though, of course this will apply to some extent to every "older" sibling (and what this signifies for Josie, god only knows)) (heh...need to wean myself off parentheses LOL) to not only inherit a "headship" and to be universally looked up to by the subsequent 'blessings" as, in effect, only a step below Dad and God, but to actually deserve the position, you will do everything in your power to instill this attitude in your child. unfortunately, the offshoot of making them feel as though they have the responsibility of being a couple of steps below god is also making them feel that they are, in effect, just that important.

 

I would guess that, if handled with the right balance and sensitivity to the natural personality of the individual, this outlook can, indeed, produce people of uncommon integrity, but when simply thrown out there in hopes that some of it sticks, it can result in the sort of mishmash of selfishness, delusions of grandeur, and total smug incompetency we see in this family.

  • Love 3

 

Maybe Boob's not as stupid as we think, and there's a nearly bottomless reservoir of fandom who will continue to be fascinated by the dull Duggars' doings. Who said you can never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public? Or something like that.

 

That would be HL Mencken, who also said this (rather appropriate to the family also):

 

It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.

  • Love 9
I'm not familiar with US inheritance law, so I don't know how Jim Boob's wealth and property will be divided among his kids when he dies. Here, inheritance goes first to the surviving spouse and then, when the spouse dies, a minimum of half of the inheritance is shared among all the siblings. The other half can be willed to whomever the parent sees fit, family or not.

 

Taking to the Duggars and Their World thread. 

 

(edited to properly identify the thread)

Edited by Sew Sumi

I feel really, really bad for saying this, but Bin even walks dumb. I was kinda awestruck at how dim he appears to be. I couldn't have him around me and he certainly couldn't be my headship. Not even a figureheadship.

Pretty sure it was his little headship she was mostly interested in...

(I'll be in the Prayer Closet, hanging my head in shame.)

  • Love 11

Some of these comments are simply hysterical.  Thanks for this,Bitter Apple: 'Jessa's coy hair flipping reminded me of those Seeking Arrangement commercials they play late at night. Bin is definitely a well-trained poodle, making eggs while Jessa fusses over herself in the mirror.'

 

OK, does anyone know whose house Jill and Derrick (sp) were living in?  It was not the Jim Bob fixer upper of the last full season.... it looked new and possibly high end for that area of Arkansas.  Maybe their TLC $ bought them that house?

 

Joy Anna is the most beautiful of the older sisters.  Jana, Jessa & Jinger certainly are attractive, but not beautiful.  Poor Jill, meh.

  • Love 3

Jill and Derick squatted in the new "pool house." Venessa the Former Midwife was a tenant there, not sure who  actually owned it, but they sold to the Duggars last summer. It is the house that the Duggar kids swam at (and have been pictured at) the last few summers. 

 

The TH segments were also shot there. 

Edited by Sew Sumi
  • Love 3

Pasha Kitty, thanks for the compliment, although I can't take all the credit. The Duggars really are the gift that keeps on giving.

Regarding the house, Boob purchased a McMansion on two acres next to the town dump. It's where the TH's were filmed. It's also apparently where the Dullards were crashing before they resumed their beach vacation in Guatemala. Many of us assumed the house was a bribe to keep Anna in the fold, but I've yet to see any proof that she and the M'kids are living there.

  • Love 2

Was it mentioned that the two headships were cooking?  Ben making eggs and Derrick making waffles.  I wonder if Jim Bob will sit Jill and Jessa down and set them straight that cooking is "woman's work."   

 

Good question. Maybe when the woman is the actual fruit of Jim Bob's loins and the supposed "headship" is somebody else's offspring, a Duggar spawn-princess's status as a clearly superior being trumps the males-are-headships rule. I can see it going either way.

  • Love 3

I feel really, really bad for saying this, but Bin even walks dumb. I was kinda awestruck at how dim he appears to be. I couldn't have him around me and he certainly couldn't be my headship. Not even a figureheadship. 

 

Seriously?  He isn't bright enough to be his own headship. 

 

I also want to suggest that Derick wash his new T-shirts before donning them. He was wearing one that still sported its folds.

Goodness!  Doesn't Grandma Duggar do enough laundry?  Because you know Princess Jessa ain't doing it and he doesn't look bright enough to understand the complexity of a washing machine.  Give the poor idiot a break on the wrinkles.... he had eggs to scramble for her highness, the FirstEverPregnantOne....

  • Love 4

Was it mentioned that the two headships were cooking? Ben making eggs and Derrick making waffles. I wonder if Jim Bob will sit Jill and Jessa down and set them straight that cooking is "woman's work."

What? JB "cooks" although it was vomit inducing canned tuna mixed with Kraft BBQ sauce. [insert actual dry heaving].

  • Love 3

Fixing the bite can be a long drawn out process with several surgeries.  Teeth removed, braces put on, bone structure rearranged.  HOpefully Derrick has one more surgery to elongate his lower jaw.  He has a pretty severe over bite (which may have been the start of all this).  They'll have to cut the lower jaw bone on each side, then move each side forward.  One side will be moved forward more than the other (I forget which side his mouth is skewed to).  metal rods are screwed in gap and bone eventually grows over it. He needs to have that done to make his face symmetrical.

 

Derrick and Jill's relationship looks better than it did, not being pregnant has probably helped a lot.

  • Love 4

They are showing this again tonight. But its called Countdown to Counting On...wtf does that mean? I have a sickening feeling this atrocity is back for good and with JB and his stupid hag wife appearing on the FIRST SPECIAL, you know its only a matter of time till they are back for good on every show.

  • Love 4

I think it's funny that their "friends" are shunning them because the Duggars would have no problem shunning someone that they deemed sinful.What goes around...comes around.In real life, not a fan of Biblical shunning. I've seen it done and it's really just nuts.

It wouldn't surprise me to hear people were shunning them, but couldn't it also just be that after the molestation scandals came out that families who were friends with them would no longer want to hang around them given how JB and Michelle did (or did not) address the situation? If I had daughters (or heck, even sons) who wanted to hang out at TTH or be friends with the Duggar kids, I'd be nervous about them hanging around a family where the parents basically did nothing to stop their elder son from molesting his sisters except pray it away. If I was a young woman who was friends with the older girls, I'd feel uncomfortable hanging out around JB & Michelle and members of the family I didn't know well. (I hope what I'm trying to say makes sense.) Perhaps the Duggars cannot understand the perfectly reasonable explanations as to why some families/friends would no longer feel comfortable around them.

  • Love 4

Goodness!  Doesn't Grandma Duggar do enough laundry?  Because you know Princess Jessa ain't doing it and he doesn't look bright enough to understand the complexity of a washing machine.  Give the poor idiot a break on the wrinkles.... he had eggs to scramble for her highness, the FirstEverPregnantOne....

 

Why would Jessa be doing Derick's laundry??  ;)

  • Love 3

On the rewatching, Derrickdillard is pissed at Josh. When Jill says the bit about how she should have known the whole story re Smuggs before she went on Megans show and defended him, Derrickdillard says"what you do in private when no-one is watching is a true reflection of who you are. "

Shots fired.

On a funny note, hubby watched as much as he could stand Sunday night but the scene where the two guys are in the living room with Iz, he was doing a pretty comical riff on what they could be saying to each other " first chance we get alone with that c-sucker, you are gonna sit on him while i start cutting his fingers off one by one"...i was crying from laughing trying to picture Derrickdillard overtaking Smuggs in a physical fight.

  • Love 6

TLC threw in a "sneak peek" of Benessa at one of the Southern Women's Shows (probably the last one before she bailed on her last scheduled date). She talks about how she's worried about the Q&A format, neglecting to reveal that the questions were all pre-screened. 

 

So yeah, yet more Duggar deception to come! Yippee! 

  • Love 8

Some of the tears may have been from sheer embarrassment, too, at having to speak of sexual transgressions on camera. These are very sheltered kids. I dunno. They must be so sick of it all. And Jana seems to have been thinking a lot about trust. That has to be painful on its own.

I agree. Also JB probably said they would be poor again or something along those lines

  • Love 5

My thoughts after seeing it,Jill still sounds like an eight year old girl trapped in a womans body,facially she always reminds me of thoese people that emerge after being held hostage,totally blank and broken down.

 

Everyword word Jessa speaks seems false,she is the best actress of the bunch.

Derrick.....he should have left his face alone,my partner asked if he had a stroke...

Edited by kandinski
  • Love 6

My thoughts after seeing it,Jill still sounds like an eight year old girl trapped in a womans body,facially she always reminds me of thoese people that emerge after being held hostage,totally blank and broken down.

 

Everyword word Jessa speaks seems false,she is the best actress of the bunch.

Derrick.....he should have left his face alone,my partner asked if he had a stroke...

I agree with this.  They all seem stuck in development.  Poor Jana sounds like a preteen girl too.  And I posted somewhere that these talking heads are most likely rehearsed and shot multiple times and this is the best they can do.

  • Love 8

It wouldn't surprise me to hear people were shunning them, but couldn't it also just be that after the molestation scandals came out that families who were friends with them would no longer want to hang around them given how JB and Michelle did (or did not) address the situation? If I had daughters (or heck, even sons) who wanted to hang out at TTH or be friends with the Duggar kids, I'd be nervous about them hanging around a family where the parents basically did nothing to stop their elder son from molesting his sisters except pray it away. If I was a young woman who was friends with the older girls, I'd feel uncomfortable hanging out around JB & Michelle and members of the family I didn't know well. (I hope what I'm trying to say makes sense.) Perhaps the Duggars cannot understand the perfectly reasonable explanations as to why some families/friends would no longer feel comfortable around them.

Plus the fact that you don't really hang around a Duggar, in any case. You hang around the family. Even with "friends," it's just about the same as courtship. You don't make friends with Jana or Jedediah and then go hang out with them at the craft store or the go-kart track. You supposedly "make friends" with one of them -- although that's not easy since they never go anywhere or do anything without a half dozen other Duggars trailing along. And then you go and sit with the whole Duggar family in their bus station waiting roo....errr... living room. Or trail along with them to Silver Dollar City. It's not much different with "friends" than with people courting. No alone time or independent activities are actually allowed. .... So if you had objections to what anyone in the family did or if you mistrusted someone or simply couldn't stand the sight of them, you'd nevertheless be spending lots of time with them, if you ever tried to be a "friend" to a Duggar kid.

 

I'm guessing the Duggarlings think in terms of "shunning" people because that's what their family's done all their lives. Live by the sword, die by the sword, Duggarlings.

Edited by Churchhoney
  • Love 12

I agree with this.  They all seem stuck in development.  Poor Jana sounds like a preteen girl too.  And I posted somewhere that these talking heads are most likely rehearsed and shot multiple times and this is the best they can do.

 

They've been deprived of many many stages of normal development. Their bodies grew up but their brains have had whole years knocked out of their developing time. It'll affect them for life. ... And yet millions of Americans and a stupid cable network want their parents to be held up to the world as "sweet" "precious" and super "godly" role models for America. "We miss you so from tv, Duggars! Prayin' for your return!" TM leghumper. .... It's nauseating and horrifying.

Edited by Churchhoney
  • Love 15

TLC threw in a "sneak peek" of Benessa at one of the Southern Women's Shows (probably the last one before she bailed on her last scheduled date). She talks about how she's worried about the Q&A format, neglecting to reveal that the questions were all pre-screened.

So yeah, yet more Duggar deception to come! Yippee!

Even when questions see ore screened, it's fairly common for someone to ask their question and then tag on another non approved one really quickly, or for people in the audio be to blurt out stuff to throw you off. I can see where she'd be nervous every that would happen.

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