Little People, Big World fans are still debating as to why Zach Roloff had to quit the show finally.
The Roloff family became a rare reality television success. 18 years and 25 seasons is a massive accomplishment.
It came at a heavy cost, as major family rifts, many related to the show, drove family members away from the cameras, the farm, and each other.
Zach and Tori Roloff quit Little People, Big World. They felt that they had no other choice. But why?
On a June 2024 episode of their Raising Heights podcast, Zach Roloff discusses the realities of reality TV. (Image Credit: YouTube)
Tori and Zach Roloff have a podcast
On a recent episode of their Raising Heights podcast, Zach shared how becoming a reality star as a child impacted him.
Hint: it was not positive.
Among other things, he delved into what it felt like to grow up in a “fishbowl,” and to then be in that same situation with his own wife and children as an adult.
Tori Roloff and Zach Roloff speak on their Raising Heights podcast. (Image Credit: YouTube)
When Tori asked Zach what it had felt like to film as a young kid, Zach recalled the obvious pressures.
“It was odd because there was always this expectation that I should be doing something right now,” Zach reflected.
“When people say reality television, I always think there’s like a little caveat there,” he explained. “Because, at the end of the day, these people are paying for a crew to be here.”
On the Season 25 finale of Little People, Big World, Zach Roloff describes where things stand with his father. (Image Credit: TLC)
Zach Roloff’s childhood on ‘Little People, Big World’ wasn’t ALL bad
He freely admitted that filming for the show was “fun at times.” It wasn’t like those awful “YouTube family” nightmare stories — it just had major drawbacks.
Zach emphasized that the experience could also be “very stressful.” He didn’t need that as a kid.
One could easily argue that Zach doesn’t really know what a childhood without reality TV is like, so he has nothing to which to compare it. But … maybe that’s kind of the point?
One thing followed him to adulthood, and he calls it the “fishbowl effect.” According to Zach, he “could not stand” this aspect of reality TV.
“You’re in a fishbowl [and] everyone’s staring at you,” Zach described. He was speaking, not of life on the farm, but of producers seating him and family in the center of a restaurant (for lighting and angles) where cameras and other restaurant patrons stare “at this now-movie set.”
Zach emphasized that this was not solely an issue with filming at restaurants.
The Roloffs on Little People, Big World here on the show’s season finale. (Image Credit: TLC)
The ‘fishbowl effect’ made Zach dread going out in public
A trail of cameras, boom mic operators, and producers will attract attention anywhere.
But Zach is also a little person. So are both of his parents and all three of his children.
The stares from people became, at times, unbearable.
And even earlier this year, Zach and Tori both discussed how they had left Little People, Big World because reality TV “tears families apart.“
That is true — especially for the Roloffs.
Some may express surprise that Zach and Tori are discussing this (or anything) on a podcast. But they weren’t desperate for privacy or looking to become shut-ins. On a podcast, they control the level of access — and nobody’s following them to film them in a restaurant.
Why Zach Roloff Just Had to Quit ‘Little People, Big World’ After 25 Seasons was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.