19 Kids and Counting Loses 4 Major Advertisers

The advertisers including Walgreen, Payless Shoesource, Choice Hotels and General Mills remove their ads from ’19 Kids & Counting’.

Even more pressure builds up on TLC as four of the most important advertisers of the reality series ’19 Kids & Counting’ severe ties with the show after Josh Duggar child molestation scandal.

The cable network TLC is now forced to decide the fate of their highest rating show immediately. The reality series ’19 Kids & Counting’ came under fire after an InTouch report revealed Josh Duggar the eldest son of the Christian family had molested young girls as a teenager including four of his sisters.

General Mills Inc. was the first advertiser to severe ties with the show following the molestation scandal. On Tuesday other major advertisers such as Walgreen Co., Payless Shoesource Inc., and Choice Hotels International Inc. also pulled their ads from the reality series ’19 Kids & Counting’. 

@moaevil Thank you for reaching out. We share your concerns and we have decided to remove our advertising from the show.— Choice Hotels (@ChoiceHotels) /4/26, 2015

@SweetBabbyJesus Our ads ran during this show as part of a larger buy w/ TLC. We are taking steps to have them removed from future episodes.— Payless ShoeSource (@PaylessInsider) /4/26, 2015

Last week TLC stopped the broadcast of the show ’19 Kids & Counting’ following the outbreak of the molestation scandal but did not specify if the show was cancelled effective immediately.

TLC is owned by Discovery Communications and has been airing the reality series since 2008 which is its highest rating show currently. The last season ended in /4/2015 but there is no news if production on more episodes is underway. 

The news of the advertisers backing out of endorsement came after massive criticism of the brands on twitter by consumers. As a result some of the companies such as Choice Hotels even gave out concerned statements to address the consumers revealing they will not be associating with the show ’19 Kids & Counting’ anymore. 

Some analysts believe TLC /4/be waiting for the outrage to die down to continue broadcasting the show again as the last season has a rating of 3.5 million viewers. However it /4/take TLC months before the scandal is forgotten by the American public.