Maybe TLC should do a reality show about apologies — they’re getting a lot of practice. Before “Mama June” — the corpulent matriarch of the Honey Boo-Boo clan — was discovered to be having a relationship with a convicted sex offender who molested her daughter, TLC had to apologize to British TV viewers who were offended by the coarse language and profanities in one of the episodes. That was in June of 2014. Then came the scandal with the sex offender, leading to the cancellation of the show. Throughout,  TLC has been shocked, apologetic, disappointed…did I mention shocked?

Now they have a new molestation scandal with Josh Duggar who, in the past, molested five of his siblings. It’s a little hard for TLC to play the “shocked” card this time around since Oprah got wind of the  molestation charges in 2006 and abruptly cancelled an interview with the Duggars. Did TLC not ask why the interview was being cancelled? It’s a little hard to believe the information never traveled their way, especially since the accusation was reported to child services.

They aren’t the only network to scramble for the right words when a reality star goes off the rails. A&E issued their own version of shock and disappointment when Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame went on a homophobic rant in 2013. They suspended him, then re-hired him, although in 2014 he went on another tear against gays and the network didn’t say a thing. Most recently, he took on atheists, spinning out a horrific imaginary scenario in which an atheist’s family is shot, raped, and decapitated in front of him; then the attackers sever his manhood from his body. Maybe A&E has run out of mushy sounding apologies. Or maybe they don’t care anymore as long as the show is making them money.

Here is why the expressions of shock and disappointment are so reprehensible. These networks seek out people who are bizarre to say the least. They throw money at them, they shine a bright spotlight on them,  and turn them into “celebrities.” Then they’re surprised when some of these characters go off script. Oh wait, there isn’t supposed to be a script, is there — it’s reality television. Yet somehow there is a naive assumption that people who were plucked out of obscurity precisely because of their weirdness will stay between the lines that a network has designed for them. The message seems to be, ‘We want a freak show, but don’t get too freakish on us.’

Somehow these networks fail to realize that dating sex offenders, molesting underage girls, and going on grotesque rants against gays and atheists isn’t freakish to these reality stars. It’s their normal.