Duggars' Statement on 'Counting On' Cancellation

 

Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar

Following TLC's announcement of the cancellation of Counting On, Jim Bob and Michelle posted a response statement to their family website. The link is below.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's Statement on Cancellation of Counting On

Photo courtesy duggarfamily.com

16 Years of Duggars

Has it really been 16 years? We say this every fall, but time sure does fly. 2020 marks the 16th anniversary of the Duggars' first television special. "14 Children and Pregnant Again" premiered on September 6th, 2004. 

Since that day, more than 300 specials and episodes of 17 Kids and Counting, 18 Kids and Counting, 19 Kids and Counting, and Counting On have been shown to the public. It's no doubt that the Duggars will go down in reality TV history.

Photo courtesy duggarfamily.com

'Highs and Lows' Recap

Counting On "Highs and Lows"

• The night that Jinger and Jeremy announced their pregnancy to the family, Jinger started having symptoms of a possible miscarriage. The next morning, an ultrasound revealed that the baby had passed away.
• “Not having walked through this before but talking to others who have walked through it, I think the woman definitely can take it harder for the sense that she was carrying that life within her, and she was sustaining that life physically,” says Jeremy. “So as difficult as it was for me, I was just thinking it’s got to be that much more difficult for her. I just wanted to be a comfort to her.”
• Later, Jeremy pulls off a surprise birthday party for Jinger. “I just wanted to celebrate Jinger with some of her closest friends and family,” he says. Jeremy sets up tables and chairs at the Mahoney home.
• While Jinger (along with Felicity and a friend) attends an iPhone photography workshop, Jeremy meets up with the Duggars at their hotel. Jim Bob, Michelle, Ben, Jessa, Ivy, and Jana, along with Laura DeMaise, have come in from Arkansas. Michelle is really looking forward to spending time with Jinger and comforting her after her miscarriage.
• As Jinger learns how to take great iPhone photos and how to develop them in a dark room, Jeremy is getting last minute things together for the party. The Vuolos meet back at home, and Jeremy tells Jinger that he is going to take her on a date, so she puts on her new dress and curls her hair. They leave Felicity with a babysitter, and Jeremy puts a blindfold over Jinger’s face.
• Back at the Mahoney house, the Duggars are helping set up, and the classical musicians are practicing. When Jinger and Jeremy arrive, the musicians start playing ‘Happy Birthday.” Jinger sees a group of friends, and then the Duggars come out to greet the birthday girl.
• “I want Jinger to know how much people love and appreciate her,” says Jeremy. “She’s an incredible woman, and she’s incessantly selfless, always caring about others and pouring out and serving and using her time and energy to love others.” At the party, friends and family share words about Jinger. Jinger presents his wife with a custom painting of Jinger and Felicity.
• “The picture really caught Jinger’s heart of loving Felicity, being such a good mom and nurturing her,” says Jim Bob. “It was just so special.”
• “This is the best birthday party I’ve ever had,” says Jinger.
• The next day, Michelle, Jessa, and Jana take Jinger out for coffee to show their love and support following the loss of the baby. The miscarriage had happened about a week earlier. Michelle knows that different couples grieve differently, and she always asks her children how she can best help them in times of struggle. “You mean the world to us,” Michelle tells Jinger.
• In Arkansas, Jessa and the kids take Ben to Vold Vision to have laser eye surgery so he will not need to wear glasses anymore. The procedure goes very well, and Ben is thrilled with the results.
• Meanwhile, John and Abbie get together with Joy and Austin for a carriage ride to see Christmas lights. Abbie is six weeks away from her due date, and she and John ask for words of wisdom. “It is really strange giving my older brother parenting advice,” says Joy-Anna.

'A Duggar Bachlor Pad' Recap

Counting On "A Duggar Bachelor Pad"

• A group of Duggars flies to the Bahamas to do relief work following Hurricane Dorian.
• The Seewalds embark on their first road trip with three kids. It’s a three-and-a-half hour drive to Kansas City, where their friends, Brandon and Jenna Chapman, recently moved. “I like looking out the window and singing songs,” says Spurgeon.
• When they arrive in Kansas City, they meet the Chapmans at an apple orchard. The next day, they go to the zoo. Henry runs off a couple times, and Ben has to go find him.
• Back in the day, Michelle would bring perfume or cologne on car rides, in case a baby had a blowout and was smelly.
• In California, 15-month-old Felicity has her first swimming lesson. Jeremy goes into the pool with her, along with the instructor. Felicity does fine, until she has to put her face in the water.
• “A few of my siblings and I did not really learn how to swim, and I was in that middle section of kids,” says Jinger.
• “Our oldest set of kids, they learned how to swim,” says Jim Bob. “They took swimming lessons. And then the younger kids have all gotten a lot of time swimming at a house that we owned for a while that had a swimming pool in the backyard.” But a few of the middle ones didn’t have many opportunities to swim.
• “Duggars are not known for swimming,” says Kendra, who is a good swimmer.
• Jedidiah and Jeremiah show off their new bachelor pad. They still need some important items, including a table and couches. Aside from John, who moved out for a while to do pilot work, and Joseph, who went to college for a short time, Jed and Jer are the first Duggars to move out of the big house before marriage. “All the older kids, they have their own choice, if they want to move out or stay at home,” says Jedidiah. “It’s up to them. A lot of us, we love being at home.”
• The twins share a room at their new house, even though they have enough rooms to have their own space. Jed says that his parents were on board with the move.
• “When our kids get 18 or older, they have the ability to move out or the freedom to do that,” says Jim Bob. “But most of them have realized, ‘Hey, staying here at Mom and Dad’s house until I get married, I can save up a lot of money.’”
• Joseph and Josiah come over for a visit. The twins struggle to make the burgers, so the married guys step in to help. 
• Later, a bunch of Duggars split up into teams to see who can navigate through a corn maze in the least amount of time. The results are: 
• The Seewalds' team: 6 minutes, 25 seconds
• Jim Bob and Michelle's team: 7 minutes, 48 seconds
• Jason's team: 8 minutes, 38 seconds
• Joe and Kendra's team: 10 minutes, 32 seconds
• John and Abbie's team: 11 minutes, 37 seconds
• The Forsyths' team: 15 minutes, 30 seconds
• "We all made it through, and we're all winners," says Jim Bob.
  

'La La La Land' Recap

Counting On "La La La Land"

• Jinger and Jeremy leave Arkansas following Grandma Duggar’s funeral. They are driving to Los Angeles. Jinger made this trip years ago with her family in “On the Road with 16 Children.”
• “I think I had always said it would be cool to marry someone who lived in a big city, but now I have this all falling into my lap, but on an even bigger scale than I ever imagined,” says Jinger. “LA, I mean, I’m really excited. But then I also think of how far away from our families we’re going to be.”
• In Roswell, New Mexico, the Vuolos visit the alien museum. It is reported that aliens arrived in Roswell in the 1940s and that the United States government covered it up. When asked, the Duggars say they don’t think that aliens are real. “We’re not into believing like aliens, but we do believe there’s a whole spirit world that we can’t see,” says Jim Bob.
• The Vuolos’ next stop is Las Vegas. When Jim Bob thinks of Las Vegas, he thinks of Elvis impersonators. The Duggars do know who Elvis is. John, Joe, and Josiah offer their best Elvis impersonations, and they are pretty good.
• Jeremy decides to take the leap at SkyJump Las Vegas. It is an 829-foot controlled jump. Jinger tries to talk her husband out of it, but he goes through with it. “I was definitely realizing that I’m a poor decision maker,” says Jeremy before he jumps. It ends up being a pretty slow descent, although Jeremy says it feels like a freefall.
• After five days of travel, the Vuolos arrive in their new home in Los Angeles.
• At the Seewald house, Ben shaves the facial hair that he has been growing for about a year. He shaves off all but a mustache that makes him look like leprechaun. He puts on a hat and sport coat and cranks up the fake Irish accent and then knocks on the front door. The boys don’t recognize him until he tells him that he’s actually Daddy.
• Meanwhile, Joseph installs a new, front-facing car seat for Garrett so that Addison, who will arrive in just a few weeks, can have the infant seat.
• Joy and Austin discuss the death and birth (via induction) of their baby girl at 20 weeks. They chose the name Annabell Elise because Annabell was one of Joy’s nicknames when she was little, and it means “God has favored me.”
• The Forsyths bury Annabell and place a headstone at Fort Rock Family Camp. They plant a tree and say a prayer. Lauren has been supporting Joy-Anna with Scripture and prayer, in a similar way that Jessa supported her after her miscarriage. Although they are grieving, Joy and Austin tell the other pregnant sisters that they still want to be happy for them, and they don’t want them to feel like they are walking on eggshells around them.
• While their families stand in the yard at the big house, John and Abbie arrange for Jeremiah to fly an airplane over. “Flight is kind of mine and John’s signature theme,” says Abbie. They pass out pink and blue boarding passes, corresponding with each person’s guess. All the passes have numbers on them. “I am feeling quite honored that John asked me to fly the plane for his gender reveal,” says Jeremiah, who got his license about eight months ago.
• As Jer flies over the first time, the numbers “82” are on the door. About half the guests are able to “stay in the game,” based on the numbers on their boarding passes. After the second flyover, only two guests are remaining. Abbie’s mom, Cheryl, has a blue ticket, and her sister Carinna has a pink ticket.  Carinna wins: It’s a girl!