Final Season of Little People, Big World

I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up with the blog lately - and I've got some catching up to do. So apologies in advance for the lack of posts lately.

News came out about a week ago regarding the fate of the reality series "Little People, Big World" on TLC. The show's upcoming sixth season will be its last. To be honest, this news does not surprise me. Ratings for the past season were down sharply and the series seems to have lost its edge. I think a large part of that is because the kids are growing up and the novelty of little people seems to be wearing off. I mean, TLC has developed a few other reality series recently revolving around little people, such as "The Little Couple" and "The Little Chocoloatiers." And I honestly believe the story of the Roloffs have been written.

One of my biggest gripes about the series lately involves the multitude of trips the Roloffs have taken. They've been to Hawaii, the Bahamas, driven across the United States, and last season - went to Europe. The Europe trip bored me to tears. What about the drama involving the kids? Or what's going on at the farm? I think that has largely been missing from the series lately. There has been some drama regarding the Roloffs marriage and the potential of divorce between Matt and Amy, but I think that was overly hyped up by TLC and their marriage is as solid as can be. And last season ended with a dramatic cliff-hanger, where Matt collapsed to the floor and appeared to suffer a heart attack. Well, don't read what I have to say next if you don't want to be surprised - but Matt is perfectly fine. He simply suffered from vertigo and received medication for it. Just a method TLC used to drum up increased ratings for the season finale of the show.

There are rumors about a potential spin-off involving the twins, Jeremy and Zach. However, they simply are just rumors and there's been no official word that a new series has been green-lit. Honestly, how interesting are these two? Sure, they're twins, yet their physical profiles are so different because Jeremy is normal-sized and Zach is a little person. Yet, we've already seen that on display during the current show. Yes, they are in college, yet they still live at home while attending college. How much more different would the new series be than what's currently on air with "Little People, Big World"? If a spin-off series were to succeed, I think producers would need Jeremy and Zach to move out and live on their own and to experience completely new situations us viewers aren't accustomed to them doing.

So it'll be interesting to see exactly what comes of the Roloffs' future once the show goes off the air. They are heavily involved in speaking engagements which will likely continue if not expand. I honestly believe Molly and Jacob will be thrilled to be away from the TV spotlight and will return to living the life of normal children. However, I believe they'll miss it in certain ways - as will the rest of the family. The children have not embraced their celebrity status as well as their parents. And I don't entirely believe their life will completely return to normal because they'll always be known as a reality TV family. They still have their farm, which continues to be enormously popular, with or without a TV series. They'll lose income from having a TV show, yet they have other means of bringing in the dough. In the end, the Roloffs will be fine regardless of a spin-off series or not.