Ripped from the numerous summer headlines! Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has long been known to get some of its inspiration from the news, and it looks like the Duggar family are the latest bold-faced names to motivate the writers.
“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,” reads the description of the Nov. 4 episode, which NBC shared with Us Weekly. The installment will be titled “Patrimonial Burden,” and will guest star Christopher Sieber as dad Frank Baker, and Geneva Carr as mom Pam Baker.
According to E!, they will play parents to 10 kids.
Star Kelli Giddish, who plays Det. Amanda Rollins, hinted during a press event in September for the long-running crime series that such an episode would be coming. “These things write themselves,” she told reporters when asked about the Duggar family’s scandal and the leaked Ashley Madison data. “I mean, it seems inevitable they will pull from those.”
The religious Duggar family found all eyes on them rather than their popular reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, in May when reports surfaced that Jim Bob and Michelle’s eldest son, Josh, had molested five underage girls — including two of his younger sisters — when he was 14 years old. He later admitted his wrongdoing in an apology posted to the family’s website. TLC canceled their program in July.
Then in August, after hackers released stolen subscriber information from infidelity website Ashley Madison, Gawker found emails and credit card information linked to Josh, 27. The disgraced reality personality confessed in a statement that he had been unfaithful to his wife, Anna, with whom he has four young children, and that he had a “secret addiction” to porn. He later checked himself in to a long-term treatment center.
Though SVU kicked off Season 17 just last month, it has already aired an episode inspired by the high-profile case of real estate heir and accused murderer Robert Durst. The scripted police procedural has also in recent seasons featured episodes sparked by Chris Brown’s domestic violence case, Paula Deen’s racism scandal, Anthony Weiner’s sexting headlines, and more.
Law & Order: SVU airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.
