Two long-term cast members are leaving TLC’s Little People, Big World. Zach and Tori Roloff announced Thursday on their Raising Heights podcast that they will leave after 25 seasons of the reality show. “We are not coming back to Little People, Big World. Like, we are done,” Tori, 31, said. “That part of our lives, that chapter, has closed.”
In agreement with his wife, Zach, 33, responded, “I think the chapter has closed regardless of us being asked back or not. We’ve made it pretty clear we’re done with that chapter for multiple reasons, the reasons we will get into here.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
“But because we’ve made that pretty clear, they haven’t asked us back, technically,” he continued. “This last cycle was rough, between the family, the farm deal and we are done with it.” In addition, Tori stated that it is “hard to put everything into a project that you no longer believe in,” indicating that “this last season for Little People, Big World, that kind of happened.”
“It was no longer a project that we really believed in, and so the last year was hard,” she added. “It was hard to show up every day for it.” While acknowledging the current season’s filming was “tough,” Zach described their departure as “unfortunate” since they “had such a run there.”
Little People, Big World debuted on TLC in March 2006. The series revolves around the everyday lives of the Roloff family, who live in Oregon. A significant portion of the show has focused on family heads and now exes, Matt and Amy, as well as their son Zach, all of whom have dwarfism. The show’s 25th season premiered on Tuesday.
On their podcast, Tori, who first joined the show in Season 10 and eventually married in 2015, stated that their decision to quit was the result of a number of factors. However, she explained that their three children, daughter Lilah Ray, 4, and sons Jackson Kyle, 6, and Josiah Luke, 21 months, were “a really large portion of our reasoning for maybe not doing the show anymore.”
According to Tori, Jackson had already voiced his dissatisfaction at being filmed for reality TV. “Our oldest, Jackson, has voiced things he doesn’t want to be a part of with filming and the show, and I think that as a parent, we’ve really taken that to heart. I think that was a huge reason for us stepping away,” she told listeners.
In response, Zach clarified that wasn’t their principal reason for leaving, adding their children were “one of the reasons, cause that’s not our kids’ burden.” He reflected on how fans witnessed his life unfolded over the course of over two decades. Tori asked her husband whether he regretted any of the episodes he “filmed as a kid.”
“Yeah, there’s episodes I regret and there’s things I’ve said that I regret. I think overall would I do it again and not do the show – obviously now that I know as an adult – I would do it again, but there are definitely parts that I wish I would change.”
Zach Roloff was the last of Matt and Amy Roloff’s children to still appear regularly on the show after his twin brother Jeremy, sister Molly, and younger brother Jacob all left since the premiere in 2006.
