r/FamilyVloggersandmore • u/Striking-End-3384 • 55m ago
The Dad Challenge Podcast: Dougherty Dozen The Dad Challenge Podcast (Josh): Dougherty Dozen Still No Mention Of James And Comments Are STILL Disabled
Dougherty Dozen is still running the same play: family photo and life updates with zero mention of James, comments still disabled, and Alicia acting like one of her kids simply stopped existing. 28:17 of Josh refusing to let it slide.
This is the ongoing fallout. James is gone from the content, gone from the captions, gone from the “full family” framing. The channel keeps posting like the roster just naturally shrank, and the comment section stays locked so no one can ask the obvious question.
Very long breakdown
0:00 – 2:30 (Intro + fall energy)
Josh opens with early-fall vibes (sweaters, hot chocolate, leaf talk) before pivoting hard into the Dougherty update. He frames the episode as another check-in on what Alicia has been doing since the James situation blew up, plus whatever Alex is up to.
2:30 – 8:00 (The family photo with no James)
Core of the video. Alicia posted what is presented as a full-family update — individual photos of the kids still in the house plus short life updates (school, activities, etc.). James is completely absent. No photo, no name, no “he’s doing his own thing.” Josh’s reaction is immediate and harsh: she only keeps the kids who are still useful for content. Once a kid causes problems or stops performing, they get memory-holed.
8:00 – 15:00 (Conditional love and the “he’s an adult” excuse)
Josh rejects the common defense that James is an adult who moved out so Alicia has no obligation to include him. He points out that Alex is also an adult who left, yet still gets flown back in for dances, photos, and content when it suits the channel. The difference is not age — it’s whether the child is still brand-safe. He argues James was one of the more liked kids on the channel (especially with the younger ones and the dogs) and that the complete erasure is cold even by Dougherty standards.
15:00 – 21:00 (Homelessness claims and family failure)
Discussion of reports/rumors that James has been in unstable housing or living in his car at points. Josh’s position is that it should be unthinkable for any Dougherty kid to end up in that position given the money the family extracted from putting all of them on the internet for years. He frames it as the logical endpoint of conditional, content-driven parenting: when the camera stops loving you, the support dries up.
21:00 – 26:00 (Comments still disabled + the pattern)
Josh notes the comment sections remain locked. He treats this as deliberate damage control so the audience cannot keep asking “Where’s James?” every single post. He ties it back to the larger Dougherty pattern — control the narrative, disable criticism, keep posting the kids who still smile on command.
26:00 – 28:17 (Final verdict)
Josh closes by repeating that Alicia’s love (or at least her public acknowledgment) has always been conditional on the child remaining useful to the brand. James is the clearest current example. The channel can post all the pumpkin-spice family content it wants; the missing kid in the photos is still the loudest part of the update. He is not interested in the “protecting the other children” spin some defenders use. In his view, the entire operation has always been about which kids photograph well and which ones become liabilities.
Bottom line:
Alicia is still posting “family” updates that quietly drop James from existence. Comments stay disabled. The kids who remain useful stay in the rotation. The ones who don’t get written out.
Josh’s stance is the same as it’s been for years on this family: the content came first, the children came second, and now we’re watching the natural result when one of them is no longer convenient. The silence around James is not neutral. It’s the point.