As you've probably heard by now, the ongoing Derick Dillard-Jim Bob Duggar feud is getting more intense by the day.
At this point, it seems like Jim Bob just wants a truce -- or at least an agreement to settle matters privately -- but it looks as though Derick has every intention of hashing this thing out in the public eye.
It all started when Derick accused Jim Bob of scamming his own kids out of their earnings and signing lucrative new deals with TLC without informing his adult children.
“All of the shows have been under his contract,” Derick tweeted in response to a fan's question about Jim Bob's manipulative tendencies.
“He is the only one with a contract. … The show title has nothing to do with whose show it is or who owns/controls the contract.”
Derick went on to claim that Jim Bob fed his kids an elaborate lie in which he claimed that they were essentially doing the show for free in an effort to spread their religious message.
“We were under the impression that the family didn’t make any money from the show,” he explained.
“Rather, it was presented to us as something that was done as a ministry that TLC periodically subsidized in the form of reimbursements for things like gas, restaurants, travel, etc. … but not any actual pay on top of that.”
Needless to say, fans of the series were shocked by the allegation that the Duggar kids received no compensation for their work.
“Oh, wow. Yeah, I can see Jim Bob controlling the [money], which isn’t right,” one of Derick's followers tweeted.
“Seems JB wants control of everything, which isn’t right. Y’all are adults and [should] receive your pay. … And why is he on the show? Wasn’t he kicked out … [because] of hiding what Josh [Duggar] did?”
Derick replied with an explanation of how Jim Bob cleverly avoided consequences simply by changing the title of the series.
19 Kids and Counting became Jill and Jessa: Counting On.
At first, Jim Bob and Michelle were to have no involvement.
As the parents and other siblings increased their participation, the show was re-titled simply Counting On.
And according to Derick, at that point, Jim Bob's boldest con was complete.
Dillard says his father-in-law never intended to step away from the spotlight.
Instead, he devised a plan for sweeping the Josh Duggar sex scandals under the rug and continuing with his career unimpeded.
The shocking part, Derick says, is not that Jim Bob attempted such a scheme, but that he pulled it off with seemingly no resistance from the network.
Derick has threatened to sue TLC, but it seems it's not just financial compensation he seeks.
In fact, he has a better idea for how the network can make things right.
"@tlc should give the kids their own show," he tweeted this week.
Sounds like a good idea -- but wouldn't Jim Bob just find a way to take it over again?
