Duggar Lies And Deception: Family Accused Of Faking Jinger’s ‘Counting On’ Car Scene

The Duggars are under fire for purportedly faking a scene for their TLC reality television series.

In episode 3 of “Jill & Jessa: Counting On,” Jinger Duggar appeared to attempt to sell a car to a stranger, but multiple reports indicated the sales target was a hired participant.

Radar Online reported that an Arkansas native named Eric claimed he was asked to feign interest in buying Jinger’s flipped vehicle. Eric has since spoken out about the cameo, saying he has a connection to the show, despite being introduced as a stranger. “A friend of mine works on the crew and invited me to play the role of ‘guy who wants to buy car,’” he reportedly wrote on Facebook.

Viewers have since posted on the “Duggar Family News: Life Is Not All Pickles and Hairspray” Facebook page, which originally discovered the supposed fakery, that it was clear the scene was staged. “It was totally obvious and even more so when they agreed to a price and then it later ‘fell through,’” one viewer said. “So that’s why the sale didn’t go through,” another viewer wrote. “They did seem rather vague on the price and how the car ran.”

Watch a scene in episode 3 below:

This isn’t the first time the Duggars have been accused of faking scenes for TV. While filming their now-defunct TLC series “19 Kids and Counting” in May, the brood was reportedly seen staging sequences at the Cross Church Compassion Center in Springdale, Arkansas. After the family tweeted its members would be visiting the center to donate food to families in need and nobody showed up to collect the goods, the TLC crew reportedly convinced a family of shoppers to participate.

“Let’s go over this,” a producer told the family of shoppers, according to Radar Online’s source, “You’re really happy that the Duggars have brought you this food; you really need this for your family.”

The final shock came at the end of the shoot, when a box of products given to the family was taken out of their car and “placed back into the Duggars’ SUVs,” the site reported at the time.

The “Jill & Jessa: Counting On” series premiere aired in March, three months after the network introduced the show with a string of of specials. Starring Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s daughters Jill Dillard and Jessa Seewald, as well as several of their other older children, the program appears on TLC Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EDT. The next Season 1 episode April 12 will follow Jessa and her husband Ben Seewald as they travel to St. Louis to meet Christian rapper Flame.