TLC’s series “Breaking Amish” tells about five young adults in the Amish community leaving for the first time to go explore New York City. It shows their reactions to the different experiences many people experience in normal American life. But is this all a hoax?
Starting with the first episode, TLC continually lied about different details of the cast and their lives to make the show more interesting. The network claimed this would be the first time the cast would be leaving the Amish community when in fact all of the cast haven’t been Amish in years. Jeremiah’s MySpace page from 2007, where there were pictures of him dressed in “English clothes,” was found. Another point of inquiry was the photo of Abe and Rebecca together with a baby. Many found this interesting because TLC portrayed their first meeting on the show when they could possibly have a baby together. Sabrina’s first wedding photos showed a non-Mennonite wedding, and Kate has been submitting photos to modeling agencies for quite some time.
Another thing which some found interesting was how quickly the cast had picked up on English slang and curse words. While most Amish do speak English, their primary language is Pennsylvania Dutch so the chances of them being so fluent in the English language when they’ve just left are very slim.
The day after the first episode aired, Facebook was stormed with angry ex-Amish members. They believed TLC was portraying the entire Amish community in a negative way. Many of these people are the ones who leaked the information about the cast of “Breaking Amish.”
When CBS 21 ran a story about “Breaking Amish” and asked for TLC’s input on the issue, a representative from TLC responded by saying, “There is a lot of information floating around about the group featured on ‘Breaking Amish.’ Much of it is not true, but some of it is – and is addressed in upcoming episodes.”
An attempt by TLC to show the transition from Amish life to American life ultimately fails and only gives the Amish community a bad image more than anything. This is just another sad example of how reality TV will do anything to score some extra money.