There have been whispers that Sister Wives is ending at TLC.
The long-running series put polygamy on the reality TV map when it premiered in 2010.
Kody Brown and his then-four wives, Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn, went public as polygamists and welcomed millions of viewers into their extraordinarily rare lifestyle.
Much has changed in 15 years and many Sister Wives viewers feel the show has run its course.
With Kody and Robyn living as monogamists and Christine, Janelle, and Meri moving on from their plural marriage, the show has deviated from its original premise.
As the future of Sister Wives hangs in the balance, TLC recently announced a new reality TV series featuring a new but vastly different family with multiple spouses: Polyfamily.
Polyfamily follows a ‘closed quad’ relationship
Polyfamily will follow Sean, Taya, Tyler, and Alysia, who consider themselves a “closed quad.”
Sean is married to Taya, and Tyler is married to Alysia.
However, the men swap women every other night, meaning that Taya is also Tyler’s girlfriend, and Alysia is also Sean’s girlfriend, but they don’t date outside their relationship.
As Sean explains in the trailer, “A closed quad is four people, us — we’re only dating within ourselves and married within ourselves. We don’t have any outside partners.”
Polyfamily is ‘supposedly replacing’ Sister Wives on TLC amid rumors Kody and Robyn were fired
After Polyfamily’s trailer went live on social media, podcaster Sarah Fraser posted it on her Instagram.
According to Sarah, Polyfamily may be replacing Sister Wives on TLC.
In her Reel, Sarah watched the trailer intently and captioned it, “This is the show that’s supposedly replacing Sister Wives, it’s called ‘PolyFamily’ and launches April 29th on TLC.”
Sarah also discussed rumors that Kody and Robyn were fired in another Instagram Reel.
She asked her followers, “Are Kody and Robyn Brown from Sister Wives finally being replaced? Is it a wrap? Some fans are thinkin’ so!”
In the caption, Sarah wrote, “TLC is dropping a new show called ‘PolyFamily’ and a lot of people think it’s going to replace Sister Wives.”
Sarah opened the discussion on her YouTube channel, noting “a lot of rumor and speculation” that Polyfamily is the “rollout to potentially replace Sister Wives.”
According to Sarah, some Sister Wives viewers have been talking, and they think there could be serious trouble in Kody and Robyn Brown’s now-monogamous marriage.
Sarah shared a photo snapped by a Sister Wives fan featuring Kody and Robyn stopped on a bench while visiting a butterfly sanctuary in Arizona with their son, Solomon.
In the photo, Kody stares at his phone as Robyn stares into the distance.
Critics conjectured that Kody and Robyn’s marriage is on the fritz from the single snapshot.
Some even went as far as surmising that Kody has been fired from Sister Wives and that he and Robyn are having trouble paying the mortgage on their new multi-million dollar home—all this deduced from one photo snapped in the wild.
Sister Wives returns with five more episodes and a four-part Tell All in Season 19
While it’s unclear whether Polyfamily is slated to replace Sister Wives, the future of the Brown family’s series is still uncertain. Still, the series will finish out Season 19 this spring.
As Monsters and Critics reported, Season 19 will return for Part 2 on April 20, following its mid-season hiatus.
Sister Wives viewers have grown tired of the cast’s “played out” storylines, complaining that the content is two years old.
And now that the Browns are living four separate lives, viewers feel a spin-off focusing on certain cast members would be a better fit.
Polyfamily premieres on Tuesday, April 29 at 10/9c on TLC.