TRENDING Reported as ‘Under 13’: The One Button That Keeps Calling Shauna Rae a ChildNo Date, No Venue, No Blessing: Everything We Know About Pedro and Valentina’s WeddingTammy Slaton Rode a Horse for the First Time 70 Days Ago — Tonight Her Season Ends Beside a Hospital Bed
☕ Fresh reality tea, served daily — never miss a spoiler from this show.
Home › Shows › Doubling Down with the Derricos
Doubling Down with the Derricos

Film the Kids or Let Them Grow Up Off Camera? The Derrico Comeback Question Splitting Fans

Film the Kids or Let Them Grow Up Off Camera? The Derrico Comeback Question Splitting Fans

The Derrico kids cheering on camera — the joy Team Film the Kids wants back on screen. (CheatSheet / TLC)

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, Deon Derrico posted a video of his kids pitching in to cook the holiday meal — and in the comments, he dropped the sentence fans have waited two years to hear: “we are filming right now for our new season.” The Derrico fandom has already split over a question nobody asked back in 2020, when the cameras first moved in: should the 14 kids be on camera at all this time?

The family the cameras would film is not the family they left. Doubling Down With the Derricos ended after five seasons in 2024. Since then, Deon and Karen Derrico divorced after 19 years of marriage, Karen was arrested in Las Vegas in June 2026 on charges including aggravated stalking and harassment — allegations she denies, and she has pleaded not guilty — and court papers reported in late October say 12 of the 14 kids now live with Deon.

Team Film the Kids: They Were Born for This

Deon Derrico wearing a red bandana speaking on camera
Deon Derrico — the man deciding what the comeback films, and who it films. (TV Shows Ace / TLC)

Ask the first camp and the answer is obvious: there is no Derrico show without the Derrico kids. Fans watched Darian grow into a 20-year-old adult, watched the quintuplets sing on the living room sofa, watched the triplets — now 7 — take their first steps on television. The kids are not props in this story, this camp says. They are the story.

When a family from Chicago begged Deon for the show’s return, his answer came with his filming confirmation — cameras rolling, premiere targeted for next year — and the fan group flooded with YES posts. The children grew up performing for the cameras, this camp says. Keeping them off screen now would punish them for their parents’ divorce.

Team Let Them Grow Up: They Never Chose the Cameras

The other camp reaches the opposite conclusion. None of these kids chose reality television. The youngest were babies when the show started, and Darian was 14 when the cameras moved in. Now they are teenagers and young adults living through a divorce, a criminal case, and a custody fight — and Deon himself has said some of the kids started sleeping with locked doors amid the legal drama, according to reports.

The show was sweet when the stakes were birthday parties, this side argues, but the stakes now are a family in crisis. Fans here point to where all 14 kids stand now — growing up fast, mostly off camera, and doing fine without a film crew in the kitchen. The kids have already given television six years of their childhood. That is enough.

“We’re Filming Right Now” — Deon Derrico Confirms the Derricos’ TV Return Is ComingYOU MAY LIKE“We’re Filming Right Now” — Deon Derrico Confirms the Derricos’ TV Return Is Coming

The GG Compromise: Film the Grown-Ups, Protect the Littles

GG Derrico crying as Deon Derrico comforts her
GG Derrico with Deon — the grandmother both camps agree should be front and center in any comeback. (Distractify / TLC)

A third position is gathering support, and it runs through the one person both camps agree on: Marian “GG” Derrico. When Deon talked about filming again in May, his words were “GG, and I will be filming.” GG, who has battled cancer and filmed a video herself this year to knock down fake death hoaxes, is the family’s compass — the grandmother fans ranked No. 1 ahead of Deon, Karen, and all 14 kids.

The compromise: film the adults and the older kids who actively want to be there — Darian is 20, she can consent to her own storyline — and keep the youngest ones off camera until they are old enough to choose. No cameras at the Thanksgiving table for the triplets. It is the only version of the comeback, this camp says, that lets fans see the family they love without turning childhood into content twice over.

Deon has not said which version he is filming — only that the cameras are rolling and a premiere is targeted for next year. So picture the Thanksgiving table at Deon’s house, cameras rolling: should all 14 kids be sitting there on camera, or should the littlest ones stay off screen while the grown-ups tell the story? Pick a side — Team Film the Kids, or Team Let Them Grow Up?

Keep reading

More Doubling Down with the Derricos drama

Doubling Down with the Derricos

Network: TLC · Stream it on Max and discovery+ · Season now airing

&
LH
Lauren Hayes

Lauren covers My Big Fat Fabulous Life, I Am Shauna Rae, OutDaughtered, Doubling Down with the Derricos, I Love a Mama's Boy, Unexpected and Welcome to Plathville for Remote & Tea — cast updates, recaps and fan debates.

More from Doubling Down with the Derricos

See more ›