A&E has pulled its controversial new show Adults Adopting Adults off the air this week, as well as removing all online episodes, after fans had raised concerns about one of the show’s stars, Danny Huff, The Daily Beast has confirmed.
The docuseries, which premiered in January, was set to release a fourth episode on Monday night, but it failed to air. By Tuesday morning, the show had been wiped from A&E’s official website, and previous episodes were no longer available to purchase on Apple TV or available to play on YouTube.
The show follows a handful of couples who are looking to adopt other adults, with Ohio-based Huff and his wife Christy becoming breakout stars of the series—but not in the way they might have hoped.
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The married couple are planning to adopt pregnant 20-year-old Ileana from Austria, whom Huff had met online in a social media group for those interested in adult adoption. Fans soon accused Huff of having an ulterior motive for adopting Ileana, pointing to his own admission that he previously tried to adopt an 18-year-old girl, but things didn’t work out because Huff had developed feelings for the teen.
The writing seems to be on the wall for the would-be family of three, and my colleague Nick Schager nailed the concerned sentiments in his review last month of the series.
“Danny’s untoward motivations for bringing Ileana into the household are obvious, and yet with a big smile, he routinely professes his excitement about being a dad, and performatively calls Ileana his daughter while Christy looks on in abject misery… he situates Ileana in a trailer right outside his front door, buys her tons of baby clothes and pays for her medical appointments, and says things like, ‘At the end of the day, Ileana, I want you to stay right here, ‘cause I like hugging on you and you’re awful sweet.’”
While A&E did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on why the show was pulled, Huff confirmed to The Daily Beast that he was aware the show had been taken down and no longer on air.
However, he insisted that the accusations regarding his behavior were not the reason the show seemed to be indefinitely canned. He also denied acting inappropriately toward Ileana, saying any allegations of misconduct are “absolutely false.”
“I never had any inappropriate actions, words, comments, anything to her,” he said.
“Racism is alive and well in this country,” he said in a video posted last February to his official TikTok account.
“Unfortunately, it comes from the Blacks. Whites aren’t racist for the most part, we don’t care. Black History Month, BET, all-Black colleges, Black Lives Matter, these are just examples of how racism is alive and well in this country.”
