It’s been evident for awhile now that nearly every immediate Brown family member wants to cancel its plural marriage.
Meri is outwardly unhappy and unloved… Christine just spent hours on air complaining about her situation… and even Kody has said he no longer believes in polygamy.
It’s all sort of depressing to watch unfold, if we’re being honest.
These are all personal feelings and issues, of course.
But what about on the professional front?
Is Sister Wives also about to be canceled by TLC?
The network has not yet made a determination about an upcoming season, which makes perfect sense when you consider the current season only just ended on Sunday night.
But it ended in pretty ugly fashion.
A majority of the finale centered on Christine stating emphatically that she wanted to move back to Utah.
She told Kody, Meri, Janelle and Robyn that they hadn’t really accomplished anything in Flagstaff and that their lifestyle had recently been decriminalized in their native state… so why were they still in Arizona?
Why not be closer to family?
Why not return to their roots?
Christine sat and listened while her alleged loved ones quickly shot down this idea, however, prompting her to eventually dissolve into tears and admit:
“I can’t do marriage with Kody anymore.”
She added in a confessional that “the relationship that I have with Kody isn’t what I would want,” and also said: “What I have here is not what I want right now.”
Pretty straightforward and rather damning, huh?
While Christine said she “agreed to move to Flagstaff and I followed Kody here,” she later told cameras that “it’s been a struggle the whole time.
“I’m tired of feeling like I don’t matter. I’m tired of not having his support when I really need it. I’m just tired. I need a partnership.
“I need something different than this.”
There was also a point on the finale during which Kody suggested 18-year rold daughter Ysabel fly to get back surgery on her own due to COVID-19, an insensitive remark that drew the ire of many viewers.
What does this all mean for the future of Sister Wives?
As mentioned above, it’s too early to know for certain.
But fans were angry last year when every episode centered around the same topic — Kody pushing his spouses to live in the same mansion, an idea they all reacted to in negative fashion.
And this year many of them are angry over Kody’s attitude and behavior, notably calling him out after he trashed Janelle as lazy.
Then you have the women themselves all expressing their frustration over their complicated and unusual relationships, while Kody also says these days that plural marriage is inherently sexist and unfair.
As for the ratings?
According to Show Buzz Daily, an April 2020 episode of the show drew 2,381,000 viewers.
Fast forward nearly one year to the February 14, 2021 premiere, however, and Sister Wives only brought in 1,429,000 fans.
So if folks are no longer tuning in at anywhere close to the rate they were previously…
… and if Kody is telling the world that polygamy sucks….
… and if his spouses are miserable…
… and if viewers are uncomfortable and annoyed watching this all play out on a weekly basis…
… then what are we doing here?
For everyone’s sake, it certainly seems as though Sister Wives should be canceled.
We just may not know for several months whether or not TLC executives agree.