\While the Duggar family has been shrouded with controversy in the past months, it seems that NBC’s ‘Law & Order: SVU’ will be using such details to incorporate into its Season 17.
With the drama continuing for the ’19 Kids and Counting’ stars, particularly for eldest Josh Duggar after admitting to molesting young girls as a teen and being unfaithful to his wife Anna, the hit NBC series will come up with an episode strongly inspired by such circumstances.
As reported by E! Online, the episode will be titled ‘Patrimonial Burden’ and will follow the story of a fundamentalist Christian family who intends to keep certain things a secret to themselves.
“The SVU investigates an unraveling web of secrets when the virtuous 13-year-old daughter of a famous reality TV family discovers she’s pregnant,” the description for the Nov. 4 episode states.
As guest stars, the episode will have Christopher Sieber as dad Frank Baker, and Geneva Carr as mom Pam Baker, who will play parents to 10 children. Similar to Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, Sieber and Carr's characters agree to have their daily lives documented for a TV reality show.
Raúl Esparza, who portrays ADA Rafael Barba on ‘Law & Order: SVU,’ previously claimed he was certain that the show’s writers would be working on at least one Duggar-centered episode in the new season. He also emphasized that the details in the episode would naturally be different from the actual events, although these would be comparable enough that the audience would be aware of its real-life basis.
Esparza's co-star Peter Scanavino, who takes on the role Detective Dominick Carisi, also explained his thoughts about making a ‘19 Kids and Counting’ episode. Scanavino described the Duggars as a "lunatic-fringe family" and stated hat he was ready to work on such concept for the show.
Josh’s more recent confession about pornography and unfaithfulness came only three months following his first scandal in May, when a 2006 police report revealed that the father-of-four had molested five underage girls as a teen.
His sisters, Jessa Duggar-Seewald and Jill Duggar-Dillard eventually admitted that they were two of their brother’s victims. Consequently, TLC formally canceled the family's hit reality show in July.
It remains undisclosed, however, as to how the ‘Law & Order: SVU’ writers plan to incorporate the controversies into the upcoming Season 17 episode.
"Patrimonial Burden" is set to air on Nov. 4 at 9 p.m. EDT on NBC.
