It’s hard to think of a famous family more secretive than the Duggars.
Sure they have their reality show and their tens of millions of social media followers, but there are many aspects of their lives that they work hard to keep private.
For obvious reasons, they’re not always successful in that endeavor.
Of course, keeping a lower profile would mean failing to properly promote their reality show, and thus allowing the foundation of their media empire to crumble.
So the Duggars make do with the fact that sometimes, the public will intrude on their private lives a bit more than they would prefer.
These days, with a new season of Counting On soon to premiere, the Duggar marketing machine is running non-stop.
But as always, Jim Bob and company are being cagey about which details of the upcoming episodes they choose to share with the public.
Over the weekend, a new promotional pic for the new season was revealed, and Duggar obsessives picked up on some very surprising details.
For one, it looks like the show will be getting back to basics.
Unlike 19 Kids and Counting, the original intent of Counting On was to focus on Michelle and Jim Bob’s older kids (with the obvious exception of Josh Duggar, who’s still in exile).
The next thing that fans zeroed in on was the obvious absence of Jill Duggar.
Jill’s husband, Derick Dillard, was fired from the show back in November after harassing fellow TLC star Jazz Jennings on Twitter.
Derick stated that Jill wouldn’t be returning to Counting On either, but many fans doubted if the Dillards would stick to their guns on that one.
After all, this is a family with such serious financial constraints that they’ve been forced to rely on donations from fans to get by.
Counting On was their primary source of income, and it’s likely that these days, Jill and Derick are struggling.
Other details fans took note of were less revealing, but still indicates that the show is headed in a different direction this season.
For one thing, there’s Joy-Anna Duggar’s attire.
Several commenters pointed out that she’s wearing a much shorter skirt than we typically see on the Duggar women,
That may not sound like a big deal, but this is a family that’s made the importance of “modest attire” a big part of their brand and public persona.
A Duggar in a short skirt is a major sign that the times are changing, even in Tontitown, Arkansas.
Recently some of the Duggar women have taken to wearing pants, but the rebellious legwear is nowhere to be seen in the promo pic, and may not make it on screen this season.
Jim Bob is still an executive producer, after all.
Finally, the presence of Joseph Duggar’s wife, Kendra Caldwell, is being taken as an indication that the show will shift its focus to their relationship this season.
We guess that’s one of the advantages of being reality TV’s biggest family – you never run out of new storylines.
Watch Counting On online in order to get caught up for the big premiere on February 26.
