Duggar Docuseries -will a new series on Prime unveil more horrific family secrets?
The Duggar family may just be reality TV's most scandalous family. However, following their oldest son Josh's guilty conviction for CSAM, it seems unlikely the family will be returning to television any time soon....at least not in a manner that they agree with!
According to Variety, Amazon Studios has approved an investigative documentary regarding the Institute in Basic Life Principles founded by Bill Gothard (pictured).
Photo: By Institute in Basic Life Principles - IBLP staff.
The documentary will be made by the same filmmakers who did the 'LuLaRich' docuseries, which was quite successful.
Photo: Amazon Prime
The Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) is a fundamentalist religious organization that promotes a particular brand of strict Christianity that Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar follow.
IBLP runs seminars, family camps and sells home-schooling material for families wishing to raise godly children. It is a lucrative business with what some call harmful teachings.
The Duggars aren't the only large television family to be tied up in this fundamentalist organization: the Plath family of TLC's 'Welcome to Plathville' and the Bates family from UPTV's reality series 'Bringing Up Bates' also adhere to the IBLP ways of life.
Photo: TLC
Amazon Prime's newest docuseries is currently untitled, but it is in production, and the series is expected to premiere in late 2022 or early 2023.
Photo: TLC
Variety reported that the show's logline is: "On the heels of Josh Duggar's explosive criminal trial, the untitled project will expose shocking connections between some of reality television's most famous large families and The Institute in Basic Life Principles, a controversial fundamentalist organization and homeschooling empire."
Photo: TLC
The description of the show continues, "In addition, prominent commentators, writers, and social media voices will explore the broader zeitgeist of reality television, social media, faith, fundamentalism, patriarchy, and power."
Photo: Screenshot FoxNews
Do you remember TLC's '19 Kids and Counting'? Parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar prided themselves on their conservative Christian family values and their well-behaved large brood of 19 children.
Photo: wikicommons, Jim Bob Duggar
So to say fans of the show were shocked to learn that the family had been hiding a massive secret about the actions of their oldest son, Josh Duggar, would be an understatement.
In 2015 InTouch magazine revealed that Josh had allegedly touched five young girls, some of whom were his sisters, in an "inappropriate" manner.
To make matters worse, his parents took nearly a year and a half to report the incident to authorities, and the only consequence that Josh faced was a "stern talking" to.
Photo: Instagram@duggarfam
Then, in 2015 when the affair website 'Ashely Madison' was hacked, it was revealed that Josh Duggar had an active account. Josh claimed he had a sex addiction and went to rehab. All the while, Anna Duggar, his wife, and mother of his many children, stood by him.
Photo: Instagram@duggarfam
However, the most recent and most horrific skeleton in the Duggar family closet is truly disturbing. In April 2021, Josh Duggar was arrested for receiving and possessing inappropriate videos featuring minors.
Josh pled not guilty, and on November 30th, his trial is set to begin. Following the conclusion of his trial, it did not long for the jury to find Josh guilty. He is currently awaiting sentencing and faces spending up to 20 years behind bars.
Photo: screenshot from 5newsonline.com
While the Duggars might be facing some major problems as of late, they are hardly the only family featured on reality TV with issues. Click on to read about our two other "favorite" scandalous reality TV families!!
The Kardashian's have had their share of scandals; however, there was one colossal secret that truly shocked everyone.
Over the years, viewers of 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' had begun to notice some subtle changes in Bruce Jenner's appearance, such as some mild plastic surgery on his face, long hair, and even longer fingernails.
Fans really went wild with speculations when Jenner and Kris broke up in 2013 and got a tracheal shave just a year later in 2014. Jenner tried to brush off the questions he received from the press about the "suspicious" operation, saying, "I just didn't like my trachea."
However, the former athlete would soon come clean with the public and admit that there was much more to the surgery than just a superficial worry about appearances.
In an interview on '20/20' in 2015 with Diane Sawyer, she admitted that she had always felt like a woman and was now ready to start living with a new name and identity as Caitlyn Jenner.
When 'Jon&Kate Plus 8' came out, everyone tuned in to see how two parents would fair with a pair of young twins and SIX babies!
Viewers quickly observed that Jon and Kate Gosselin's relationship was rather...tense. However, nobody judged them too harshly, because who wouldn't be anxious and exhausted with eight kids?!
Photo: screenshot TLC
First, Jon was accused of being unfaithful to Kate. Us Weekly reported that he even cheated on her once on the day of her birthday in 2009.
This led to a gruesome and very public divorce which, in turn, led to all of their skeletons being pulled out of the closet.
In the years since, both Jon and Kate have been revealed to be far from the perfect parents they wanted to portray themselves as. With allegations ranging from physical and mental mistreatment both to the children and each other, to manipulative custody battles, email hacking.
Jon even claimed the marriage had never been anything more than a business transaction in VH1's 'Couples Therapy.'