TLC returns to giant family genre

Female-skewing US cablenet TLC will focus on a new set of parents with a giant family following the success of 19 Kids and Counting.

Bates Family Special

Bates Family Special (wt) will premiere on Tuesday March 13 at 22.00 profiling a family of 21 living a back-to-basics life in East Tennessee.

Parents Gil and Kelly Jo reveal during the show that they are expecting their nineteenth baby as they approach their twenty-fourth wedding anniversary.

The special will air directly after the latest episodes of 19 Kids and Counting (formerly 17 Kids and Counting and 18 Kids and Counting), which follows Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar as they continue to build their enormous brood.

The ninth 8×60′ season is currently airing on Tuesdays at 21.00 on TLC.

In related news, the channel is also airing The Real Skinny on Monday March 12 at 22.00. The one-off doc from Triage Entertainment tells the story of morbidly obese people whose dramatic weight loss leaves them with layers of excess skin which need removing.