Adults Adopting Adults. If the title alone of A&E’s new reality show doesn’t concern you or have you feeling a little nauseous, you might want to read it again. While we might suggest watching a teaser or an episode of the show to really get what we’re talking about, the cable network seems intent on scrubbing its archives of any proof that it ever existed after canceling it earlier this week, following the airing of its third-ever episode.
As The Daily Beast reports, the series was scheduled to air its fourth episode on Monday night, but A&E pulled the plug on the controversial reality series before that could ever happen. They also took the extra step of removing the previously aired episodes from any online sites, and have made it seemingly impossible to even find a teaser or network-approved clip of the series on YouTube. While the concept was always questionable, The Daily Beast writes that it was the actions of Danny Huff—one of the adults seeking an adoptee—that ultimately led to A&E killing the series with fire.
The rather drastic action was in response to viewers, who were concerned by some of the admissions made by Huff, who—along with his wife Christy—were looking to adopt a young woman. They planned to go ahead with the decision by adopting Ileana, a pregnant 20-year-old from Austria, who Danny met in an online group for adults looking to be adopted. (Yes, it feels icky just to be typing these words.) That Danny’s motivations for bringing a young woman into their home might be more salacious were not lost on anyone who watched the show. In one episode, he talked about how they came close to adopting an 18-year-old young woman before, but ultimately had to halt the process because Danny found himself sexually attracted to her.
As The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager wrote in his January review of the series:
“Danny’s untoward motivations for bringing Ileana into the household are obvious, and yet with a big smile, he routinely professes his excitement about being a dad, and performatively calls Ileana his daughter while Christy looks on in abject misery… he situates Ileana in a trailer right outside his front door, buys her tons of baby clothes and pays for her medical appointments, and says things like, ‘At the end of the day, Ileana, I want you to stay right here, ‘cause I like hugging on you and you’re awful sweet.’”
Zoinks!
While A&E didn’t respond to The Beast’s request for comment, the outlet did speak with Huff himself, who claimed that he “never had any inappropriate actions, words, comments, anything to her.”
Double zoinks!
(Via The Daily Beast)
