When the Duggar family returned to television last year after being ousted as a result of the Josh Duggar sex scandals, it was with the understanding that Josh would never appear on camera.
For the most part, that’s an easy promise to keep, as like most reality shows, Counting On is carefully staged and scripted.
However, when the entire family gathers for major events, extra precautions need to be taken to ensure that viewers aren’t assaulted with reminders that they’re watching a show about a family that harbored a child molester.
As you may know, Jinger Duggar married Jeremy Vuolo recently, and of course, the wedding was televised.
The wedding episode prompted rumors of Josh making a “secret” appearance on the show, popping up in group shots and in the background as the couple exchanged vows.
In reality, the way the special was filmed and producers efforts to keep Josh off camera reveal a lot about the way your reality television sausage is made.
For the most part, real world events take a backseat to production on most reality series.
Scenes are re-shot; principal players are given lines to read, etc.
It’s only during major milestones like weddings that producers don’t have the luxury of making sure everyone hits their mark.
The TLC crew wasn’t about to make Jinger repeat her vows, or have several hundred guests wait while they rearranged the blocking, so as a result, their best efforts to keep Josh off camera briefly fell apart.
Josh wasn’t quite front-and-center, but he was definitely on hand, and his efforts to hide in plain sight resulted in a new level of grossness for a show that’s made “gross” its stock and trade:
There’s Josh, attempting to hide behind his 2-year-old son, Marcus.
Did it work?
You be the judge:
As you can see, Josh succeeded in hiding his face, but the result was a very weird crowd shot in which Marcus seemed to hover above everyone else.
According to the Daily Mail, Josh was seated far from the aisle, and no shots of anyone walking past his pew made it to broadcast.
Still, there he was in the background while the newlyweds exchanged vows, necessitating a toddler human shield.
Some might say, Jeez, couldn’t Josh have just stayed home? and while we agree that keeping any party Josh-less is always a good idea, we have an even simpler solution:
The Duggars could just stay off TV entirely! Problem solved!
