Counting On, the spin-off of 19 Kids & Counting, has been cancelled by TLC.
The axing comes after the arrest of Josh Duggar, who was charged with receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material in May, with some material showing children younger than 12.
‘TLC will not be producing additional seasons of Counting On,’ TLC revealed in a statement to Us Weekly. ‘TLC feels it is important to give the Duggar family the opportunity to address their situation privately.’
Counting On, the popular 19 Kids and Counting spin-off, has been cancelled by TLC
It comes after Josh, 33, the eldest child from the TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, was charged with receiving and possessing 65 images of child sexual abuse material, including some that Homeland Security special agent Gerald Faulkner described as ‘in the top five of the worst of the worst that I’ve ever had to examine.’
On April 29, Josh was arrested on federal charges following a 2019 Homeland Security raid on his property.
According to the indictment, he is alleged to have downloaded child sexual abuse material online in May 2019. Some of the material he is accused of possessing shows toddlers.
His computer was reportedly equipped with a dark web browser that could have let him anonymously search for child porn. The ‘Tor’ browser would have allowed him to bypass anti-porn software called ‘Covenant Eyes’ that his wife Anna installed to monitor what her husband downloaded.
The axing comes after the arrest of Josh Duggar , who was charged with receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material in May, with some material showing children younger than 12
He faces two federal charges carrying up to 40 years in prison and is currently on house arrest at the home of a family friend.
On May 8, he was released on bail, with the condition that he stay with a third party, family friends LaCount and Maria Reber.
Despite the seriousness of his charges, Josh is allowed to see his children — Mackynzie Renée, 11, Michael James, 10, Marcus Anthony, 7, Meredith Grace, 5, Mason Garrett, 3, and Maryella Hope, 19 months — as long as Anna is present.
A source told People that Anna, 32, doesn’t believe the charges against him and has no intention of ending the marriage — or walking away with their six children and seventh unborn baby.
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‘She’s standing by him,’ the source said. ‘She thinks Josh is innocent.’
TLC sensation: The newly cancelled series is a spin-off from 19 Kids & Counting
Anna has stuck by Josh through sexually deviant behavior in the past.
In 2015, an unearthed police report revealed that Josh had sexually abused four of younger siblings, as well as a fifth minor, when he was a teenager.
Josh had gone to a faith-based rehab facility in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2003 after his parents learned of the molestation, and spent three months in the facility, which was owned by the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), a Christian ministry and training program founded by Bill Gothard.
While little has been revealed about the program, people associated with IBLP have claimed that Josh was required to do manual labor and was not allowed to speak during that time.
He was also allegedly required to shave his head, the results of which can be seen in the Duggars’ first TV special on Discovery Health, 14 Children and Pregnant Again.
The abuse was kept a secret until 2015 — and just months after it came to light, Josh was discovered to be using the adultery website Ashley Madison.
When the police report describing Josh’s transgressions was made public in 2015, two of his sisters — Jill, 29, and Jessa, 28 — identified themselves as two of his victims. Later, in 2017, Jinger and Joy were identified as the other victims in a lawsuit.
