‘Chrisley Knows Best’ Star Todd Chrisley on Duggars: ‘It’s Not a Scandal. It’s a Sad Situation’

The reality-show patriarch tells TheWrap that TLC “may have missed a moment” by canceling the Duggar family’s “19 Kids and Counting”

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Todd Chrisley of the USA reality series “Chrisley Knows Best,” offered words of consolation to the embattled Duggar family, whose long-running reality show “19 Kids and Counting” was canceled Thursday after a molestation scandal involving eldest son Josh.

“I don’t think that that’s a scandal,” Chrisley told TheWrap Thursday. “I think that’s a very sad situation that’s hurting a family that certainly needs our prayers.”

When reports emerged last month that Josh Duggar had inappropriately touched three of his sisters and another underage girl when he was a young teenager, TLC quickly pulled “19 Kids and Counting” from the air as multiple advertisers withdrew their support — but postponed making a final decision on the show’s fate until Thursday.

Speaking in an interview to promote the “Chrisley Knows Best” midseason finale, the Atlanta-based real estate mogul said that instead of canceling the series altogether the network should have used the incident as a “tool to help other families throughout the country.”

“I think TLC may have missed a moment,” he said. “If you’re going to have a reality show that’s going to be about your family and that’s going to be about things that’s going on in your life, then there’s good, bad and ugly that goes on in everyone’s life.”

Chrisley also offered his personal support to another reality-TV clan with deep ties to the South and the Christian faith. “What I can say is — from our family to the Duggars’ — that our heart goes out to them,” he said. “We wish them nothing but success in the future.”

The midseason finale of “Chrisley Knows Best” airs Tuesday, July 21 at 9 p.m. ET on USA Network.

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