14 DAY TRIAL // 2015 was a tough year for TLC and its biggest brand, the Duggar family, stars of the now-defunct reality series 19 Kids and Counting. Josh Duggar, the eldest son, was involved in 2 major scandals, one outing him as a child molester and the other as a cheater, which eventually led to the cancelation of the family’s show.
Now, the Duggars are “Law & Order: SVU” material, E! Online confirms.
Josh Duggar and the death of another TLC brand
Josh was a teenager when he molested 5 minor girls, 4 of whom were his sisters, but details of the case only popped up after a publication used a Freedom of Information Act to obtain the police records. He was never charged because the family insisted he had received help.
Then, he found himself caught in the Ashley Madison Leak, which revealed he had set up 2 paid accounts with the purpose of meeting married women to cheat on his wife with.
Neither of these situations was true to the image of the family presented on the TLC show, hence the cancelation. The Duggars represented the second big brand TLC lost in 2 years after a shocking scandal, the first one being Honey Boo Boo and her family.
The Duggars come to NBC
The November 4 episode of NBC’s long-running procedural drama “Law & Order: SVU” will bring the Duggar case back into the spotlight (not that it really ever left), with a case inspired by real-life events, says E! Online.
The episode will be called “Patrimonial Burden” and will tell the story of a family with 10 children, under investigation when the 13-year-old daughter becomes pregnant.
This isn’t the first time that the NBC series turns to real life for inspiration, but it’s the first when Peter Scanavino (Detective Carisi) is thrilled it’s happening.
“With the Duggar one, it was like the double-whammy because it was his sisters and the fact - I mean, honestly, I feel like we’re dealing with some topics this season that feel a bit meatier than some lunatic fringe family… I wouldn’t mind doing one just because I have never been so infuriated with someone’s level of hypocrisy, and lying, and then displacement of responsibility onto something else,” he says. “When I think about that guy, it boils my blood, I will say.”