Highlights
- The Duggars played a significant role in making the Bates family famous, with their appearances on the Duggars' reality series.
- The cancellation of the Bates' reality show, "Bringing Up Bates," may have been influenced by the scandal surrounding the Duggars, who were close family friends.
- Despite the cancellation, the Bates family is optimistic about the future and continues to update fans through their active social media presence.
Most fans of the Bates family were introduced to them by way of the Duggar family. The families had a lot in common, from the number of children they each had to their specific Christian values. Over the years, as the Duggars' fame grew, it seemed that the Bates would benefit, too.
Eventually receiving their own reality series, the Bates family had a spotlight of their own. But when their successful reality show was abruptly canceled, fans had to wonder what happened. As it turns out, the Duggars might have had a hand in ending the Bates' reality TV run.
The Duggars Helped Make The Bates Family Famous
Because the Duggars already had their reality series in 2008, after a handful of specials on TLC, viewers were introduced to the Bateses. Gil and Kelly Bates appeared on multiple episodes of 19 Kids and Counting (starting with the earlier series 17 Kids and Counting) when visiting the Duggars.
In one episode, the Bateses visited the Duggars in Arkansas, traveling all the way from Tennessee with their brood of 16 (at the time) children. The families had some good-natured competition, and the Duggars stressed a bit about making room for so many visitors.
That was in season one of the Duggars' reality series; the Bateses would reappear a few more times. In season two, the Bates family helped the Duggars out after an ice storm. In season three, the Duggars traipsed to Tennessee to visit Gil and Kelly, who by then were expecting baby number 17.
That trip involved the Duggars helping the Bateses expand their home, all while living under the same roof. The Bateses later traveled to Arkansas to meet baby Josie (who was born in 2009), then the families got together for some of the girls to spend time in Chicago and later go camping together.
The Duggars even traveled to TN for Erin Bates' wedding in season 13, but after that, not much was heard from the Bates—at least, not on TLC. The Bates family got their own show called Bringing Up Bates on the UPtv network in 2015.
The series ran for ten seasons, totaling 185 episodes, before it was ultimately canceled in 2021.
Why Was Bringing Up Bates Canceled?
After over five years of watching the Bates family on TV, fans were shocked when the series was canceled. The formal answer that UPtv gave for canceling Bringing Up Bates was that the network was moving in another direction.
An eleventh season had been in the works, but the episodes were scrapped as UPtv announced it was "focusing [its] programming in 2022 on movies and a new scripted series." However, fans who were tracking both the Bates and Duggars' reality shows at the time might have noticed a trend.
Counting On, the Duggars' final reality series, was canceled in 2021 after Josh Duggar's arrest. Given that there was a massive scandal surrounding the Duggars, close family friends of the Bateses, it only makes sense that the cancelation of their show was tied to the drama.
While no one accused Gil or Kelly Bates of wrongdoing (they were not the family friends who outed Josh Duggar), their mere affiliation with the Duggars—not to mention the religious movement that both families are part of—could have spurred the TV network to cancel Bringing Up Bates.
But the Bates family took the move in stride, releasing a statement with only positive things to say about UP; "As the next year begins, our family will be experiencing a lot of new changes. One of the biggest changes for us is that the network will be moving toward producing more scripted family shows and will not be renewing a contract to film new Bringing Up Bates episodes. We realize God's timing is always perfect, and we are looking forward to what the future holds for our own family, as well as the network!"
Why did the Bates family leave TLC?
The Bates family did appear on TLC, first on the Duggars' show and later in a series called United Bates of America. That series, which preceded the UPtv release, was ultimately canceled, but Bringing Up Bates is largely interpreted as a spinoff.
It's not clear whether the Bates family had a relationship with TLC that went sour, but it could be that the Bateses found a better deal with UPtv, or that TLC had no plans to continue their show beyond its first season.
What Are The Bates Doing Now?
Like the Duggars, who also have 19 biological kids but also adopted one, Kelly and Gil Bates continue to have their hands full with 19 kids and a gaggle of grandkids. Many of the Duggar kids moved away and started families, and so did the Bates kids.
In addition to their Bates family Instagram, which is fairly active with updates on the family, there's also a Bates Family Blog, run by the same "friends of the family" who run the Duggar Family Blog, ostensibly with both families' blessings.
The Bates family has been busy growing, with 11 of the grown kids married as of July 2023 (and one engaged).
And though it's been assumed that Gil Bates condemned the Duggars' behavior (or at least Josh's), Joy-Anna and Carlin are still BFFs to this day.
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