History YMMV / NineteenKidsAndCounting

* FriendlyFandoms: Largely has one with Up TV's ''Series/BringingUpBates'' due to both shows focusing on Independent Baptist families with 19 children in the South[[note]]although the Bates family does not appear to be anywhere near as strict as the Duggars[[/note]]

** "Sex Pest" or "Pest" for Josh, originating from a ''Daily Mail'' article following his molestation scandal.

* EightDeadlyWords: Post-rebranding, the show has become just uninteresting and repetitive to some. There’s clearly a lot of dysfunction in the family, which would be interesting to focus on but it’s glossed over for a sanitized product and a relentless end of babies. As the kids have gotten older and gotten deeper into the world of fundamentalism, it’s hard to find anyone to like. Joy and Jinger, two of the spunkier daughters when they were younger, now are like their mom, married to controlling men. Although Jinger wears pants and lives away from her family. Not helping matters is that Jill, who’s actually become a lot more liberal since then and is fairly estranged from her parents, hasn’t been on the show since 2017. A lot of people think that that storyline would actually be a nice change of pace for the now very boring show while also having a sympathetic character in her.

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: Jim Bob and Michelle are criticized for their isolationism, educational neglect, stunting their childrens' ability to function outside the Duggar bubble, the buddy system which effectively delegates the parenting to the oldest girls, and last but not least, being part of the spiritually abusive ATI cult run by sexual predator Bill Gothard. They also do "blanket training" which is a horrifically abusive practice where you beat an infant with a rod for being a child, essentially, and have said so on at least one of their blog posts.
** An in-family one are anyone who doesn't follow their strict brand of Christianity. They are also very vocal about their disdain for Catholics.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The growing estrangement between Jill and Derrick and the rest of the family can be seen in multiple lights:
** Some believe while he may actually believe what he said on Twitter (as described below), he said something inflammatory about fellow TLC personalities on purpose to sever all ties once for good since they'd already left at that point.
** There are also people who believe that while what he said about Jazz is inexcusable (especially because she was a minor at that point), [[JerkassHasAPoint there is some truth to the larger point]] that it's unfair that TLC paid her medical bills from her surgeries as part of the show while not helping them out with their own medical bills as part of the show. Especially since Sam's birth and Jill's C-Section were filmed right around the time they quit but notably have never seen the light of day.
** Why is Jill not allowed in her parents' house if Jim Bob's not home? Is he legitimately upset that she's become more liberal? Is he upset that a woman stood up to him and chose her own path? Is he afraid she's a bad influence on the kids? The revelation that she got a settlement to recoup some money for being on the show (it's unclear if it was from him or TLC) adds another wrinkle. Is he such a ControlFreak who gets off on having his kids financially dependent on him that he doesn't want her to tell her siblings that they can and should be paid for being on the show?

* JerkassWoobie: Michelle when she [[spoiler: miscarries her 20th child]].

* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Jinger, to the point where fans created a website called "Free Jinger". After she married Jeremy Vuolo, she escaped Jim Bob's cult, most notably when she posted pictures of her wearing pants (a cardinal sin for females in the Duggar household)!
** Jana and Grandma Duggar are very popular, as well.
** Jeremy Vuolo (Jinger's husband). Look at all the things Jinger is now able to do which none of her other sisters have been able to. She waited a bit longer to start her own family than the other siblings and in March 2019 they moved to Los Angeles so he could start his Master's degree program.
** John-David is also considered one, due to his snarky comments. His wife, Abbie, is equally popular due to her {{adorkable}} personality and relative independence. John David also seems to be the sanest of his brothers. Abbie works full-time as a nurse with a degree. He even posted "pilot and co-pilot" on their wedding pictures- rather than "pilot and stewardess". Plus he had a career and was the oldest of his brothers upon getting married.
** Even though they're not on the show anymore, Jill's son Samuel is often considered one due to his facial expressions in pictures.
** Kendra, Joe's wife, is becoming quite popular because of her genuinely sunny, upbeat, kind nature and the way she gracefully handles criticism.
** Ben because he listens to Jessa, and he doesn't consider parenting "babysitting" anymore.
* EthnicScrappy: Religious example. Viewers who do not follow the family's strict brand of Christianity have gone as far as [[PoesLaw debating on whether TLC is effectively normalizing this behavior]].

* NightmareFuel: The amount of abuse that happens in the home that's public knowledge, is enough to make anyone's hair curl. What makes it worse, is that we have no idea what truly happens when the cameras aren't rolling.
** Given Josh's history with sex addiction and Anna having to be "joyfully available" (basically this concept is a MaritalRapeLicense), it makes one shudder to think what goes on in their home. Especially since he has three young daughters. Yikes.
** In one episode, Jason fell 12 feet down to an orchestra pit (you could hear the ''smack'' when he hit the ground) and let out a blood curdling shriek. Jill kept on practicing the harp like nothing was happening.
* OvershadowedByControversy: Josh Duggar gained nationwide notoriety when he was revealed to have molested several girls, including his own sisters and a family friend, as a teenager, and for cheating on his wife Anna through the Ashley Madison website. This resulted in TLC cancelling ''19 Kids and Counting'' and making sure he would never appear in its spin-off ''Counting On''. British newspaper Daily Mail even refers to Josh as a ''sex pest''. To top it all off, in 2021 he was arrested for posessing child pornography and faces a 40-year prison sentence if convicted.
** Derick Dillard has also raised the ire of followers for his hateful comments towards transgender teen Jazz Jennings and husbands Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent. This resulted in him and his wife Jill getting fired from the show.
** Though what he did say was ''very'' controversial, Derick (being outspoken with his hatred for the network) specified they already quit before he went on his Twitter tirade.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Jill and Derick (of all people) have become more popular since leaving the show with Derick becoming the OnlySaneMan. Despite Derick [[FaceHeelTurn making transphobic comments on Twitter in the past]], he's also helping Jill cope with her childhood trauma, and is actively helping her become more secular. He's even teasing of writing a tell-all in the near future. They even enroll their son Israel in a public school, which many viewers applaud as a first step in providing their children quality education. Jill even drank an alcoholic drink in September 2020.
* TheScrappy:
** Many think Jim Bob and Michelle are this due to them [[AbusiveParents spiritually abusing their children]]. They keep strict house rules by leaving their kids in a bubble, not giving them a proper education, and giving the task of parenting to the adult daughters. See AcceptableReligiousTargets.
** Josh. Some saw him as arrogant and possibly even more HolierThanThou than his parents. The revelation that he molested several girls (including his own sisters) and cheated on his wife Anna on the Ashley Madison website added more fuel to the hate against him.
* TearJerker: The episode where [[spoiler: Michelle miscarries her 20th baby, named Jubilee.]]
* TheWoobie:
** Josie surely counts - she was born three months premature and was in the hospital for almost a ''year''. She also has fairly noticeable developmental delays and seems behind in her age group but it could be that she's been babied for so long.
** Jordyn is practically forgotten with Josie in the picture. What's worse is that her birthday overlaps with Josie's and her parents choose to acknowledge Josie overcoming being a preemie and Jordyn's pushed off to the side like she doesn't matter. She was forgotten even faster than Jennifer and Johannah.
** After Josh's molestation and cheating scandals, Anna. Poor, poor Anna.
** Jill, for being excommunicated from the family. She's not allowed on the family property without Jim Bob's permission, and doesn't seem to be able to hang out with her siblings without a chaperone.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Josh Duggar gained nationwide notoriety when he was revealed to have molested several girls, including his own sisters and a family friend, as a teenager, and for cheating on his wife Anna through the Ashley Madison website. This resulted in TLC cancelling ''19 Kids and Counting'' and making sure he would never appear in its spin-off ''Counting On''. British newspaper Daily Mail even refers to Josh as a ''sex pest''.