TLC is not moving forward with an 11th season of "19 Kids" featuring the Duggars, whose show "will no longer appear on the air," the network told The Associated Press on Thursday.
"We spent the past month and a half in thoughtful consideration about what is the best way forward here," said Marjorie Kaplan, group president of TLC, Animal Planet and Velocity networks
In a move to redirect the attention and public outcry, TLC also announced it has teamed with two prominent child-protection organizations for an ongoing campaign to raise awareness about child sexual abuse.
The multi-platform initiative will begin with a one-hour, commercial-free documentary likely airing in late August, the network said. It will include the participation of Jill and Jessa Duggar, two of the sisters Josh Duggar touched inappropriately, as well as other survivors and families affected by such abuse.
Since 2008, the series — TLC's most watched, averaging 3.2 million viewers — had chronicled the family life of Arkansas couple Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their children, now numbering 19. It was pulled from the network in May when reports surfaced that 27-year-old Josh Duggar, the oldest child, had fondled four of his sisters and a baby sitter a dozen years earlier, when he was a teenager. He has never been arrested or charged in connection with the molestations.
Josh Duggar apologized for unspecified actions on a Facebook post and resigned from the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group, where he had worked as a lobbyist.
Two weeks later, the Duggar parents were interviewed on Fox News Channel, as were Jill and Jessa Duggar, who said they weren't aware the fondling had happened until Josh confessed years later and their parents told them about it.
The show had ended its 10th season when the scandal broke; Hulu quickly pulled it from its offerings.
"The goal is to take what has been a difficult and painful experience, and focus that attention on the really critical issue of child protection and child sexual abuse," she said, adding that several filmmakers are under consideration for the planned documentary.
Kaplan admitted to having been "completely unaware" of the pervasiveness of child abuse.
"I have learned a lot about this issue since," she said, citing incidence figures as high as one among every 10 young people.
The Duggars released a statement which read in part:
With God’s grace and help Josh, our daughters and our entire family overcame a terrible situation, found healing and a way forward. We are so pleased with the wonderful adults they have all become.
It is our prayer that the painful situation our family went through many years ago can point people toward faith in God and help others who also have lived through similar dark situations to find help, hope and healing, as well.
