A&E Cancels Series After Troubling Issues With Controversial Star
Well, that didn't last long!
This article is more than 2 years old
The A&E Network has canceled one of its newest shows in less than a month. That program, Adults Adopting Adults, had already raised eyebrows by dint of its premise; essentially, the reality show centered on couples who were interested in adopting adults and taking legal responsibility for them. While the intentions of these couples most likely is (or, now, was) charitable and even benevolent, the reported creepy behavior of series star Danny Huff has caused the show to be shut down. As one half of a couple (with spouse Christy Huff), Huff was interested in adopting a pregnant Austrian 20-year old named Ileana. While there has been no confirmation from A&E that Huff’s alleged behavior towards Ileana prompted the cancellation, it seems to be the most likely case.
Although nothing captured on screen revealed illegal behavior from Danny Huff (or any of the couples or potential adoptees on the show), many viewers were apparently off-put by Huff’s attitude towards Ileana. In particular, he loudly expressed enjoyment of hugging the 20 year old and his spending habits towards her struck audiences as discomforting. While the laws of adult adoption are complex and vary widely from country and states or provinces, the process is generally considered somewhat unusual by many. While it was a relatively common practice in the American LGBTQ+ community in the years before marriage equality, that was mostly a matter of using adoption to create a system of legal protections and inheritance among those who were prevented from doing so in other ways. In this case, once Huff revealed that he had previously attempted to adopt an 18-year old but was unable to after developing “feelings,” it seems both audiences and the network were done. The matter of a now-deleted TikTok video in which he claimed Black people were responsible for modern racism probably also did not help.
For his part, Danny Huff gave a statement to The Daily Beast denying any inappropriate behavior and claiming that any alleged misbehavior was false. The A&E Network itself has not given any reason for why Adults Adopting Adults was so abruptly canceled, and in fact, it was only discovered that the series was shuttered when the fourth episode failed to air. The network has also removed all online episodes from its website. A&E has had issues with canceling shows and losing viewership in the past, but that has to be taken for granted by any network. In this particular case, when high profile reality TV stars are being convicted in court for what was once “alleged behavior,” it may be that A&E was not willing to take any risks.
Aside from actually being canceled from television broadcast, the specter of so-called social “cancellation” is a subject of rampant debate. While many celebrities are often claimed to be canceled (or at risk of it) for matters as variable as supporting alleged anti-vaccine illegal capitol city occupations, being alleged to mistreat and threaten people in your employ, or even tweeting, it is difficult to say how it will affect their future careers. For Danny Huff, the swift cancelation of Adults Adopting Adults might be it, but that will remain to be seen.
