Long Lost Family Season 7 - Here's What We Can Tell Fans So Far

From "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" to "Welcome to Plathville" to "The Blended Bunch" and more, TLC has cornered the market of family-based reality television shows. Viewers love watching how family drama unfolds and the dynamics between family members. However, not all people are born within a biological family, which is a topic that TLC explores in its documentary-type series called "Long Lost Family." The show, which premiered in 2015, follows the stories of people looking to be reunited with their long-lost biological family members.

"Long Lost Family" is hosted by Chris Jacobs and Lisa Joyner, who are both adoptees who have also searched for their long-lost biological family members in the past. In an interview with Adoption.com, Joyner spoke about the experience of watching people reunite with their family members after years of searching. "I am able to reveal to someone they have found the person they have been searching for, sometimes for their entire life. There is a visceral change, you can see it in their eyes and they are lighter, you experience it when you watch the meeting unfold," she said. "These are moments I will never forget."

And fans have not forgotten either, which is why they have been curious about a new season. Find out the details about Season 7 below.

As of writing, TLC has not yet renewed "Long Lost Family" for a seventh season, according to Tonight's TV. The sixth season of the show ended in December 2019, and based on the break in schedule of its release timeline, it doesn't look like TLC is bringing the show back. The official website for the show also hasn't been updated in two years.

TLC's decision to not renew the show could also have to do with how personal the stories were in these times of uncertainty. The show, which originally debuted in the U.K. in 2011, was criticized for being too exploitative towards adoptees and their families. In a review, The Guardian opined that "Long Lost Family" felt inappropriate to be broadcasted because of the sensitive nature of the stories, calling out "the potential intrusion, exploitation, raising and dashing of hopes seen and unseen" of the people featured on the series.

When and if "Long Lost Family" returns for a seventh season on TLC, viewers will most likely be greeted by the show's original hosts Chris Jacobs and Lisa Joyner. Both of them are adoptees and have compelling back stories of their own.

In 2016, Jacobs shared his own adoption story on TLC, and said he was able to reunite with his birth mom when he was a young adult. "I was 22 months old when I was adopted into a fantastic family who was nothing but supportive of me my entire life — and especially when I was about 22 and I started to look for my biological mom," he explained. "My family was just so great about it and so supportive." Jacobs added that he had an easier experience finding his birth mom because they both signed up to be matched at the adoption agency. He now regularly spends time talking to his birth mother and hanging out with her and their respective families.

His co-host Joyner shared her story with TLC as well, and too found a happy ending. In addition to being an adoptee, she's also an adoptive mother and advocate for various adoption causes, which makes her role on the show even more valuable.

While no details have been released about a seventh season of "Long Lost Family," viewers can expect the same format when and if the show returns to TLC. Like previous seasons, the show follows hosts Chris Jacobs and Lisa Joyner as they investigate the stories of the individuals or families who want to seek out their biological family members, per a press release by TLC in 2016. Ancestry, a genealogy company, has been sponsoring the show since its inception to aid in searches for ancestral connections. According to Ancestry, one of the best ways to find biological family members is to do an AncestryDNA test, which could be seen on the show.

Unlike TLC's reality shows, "Long Lost Family" is presented as a documentary, meaning that there are fewer episodes per season. Each season averages eight to nine episodes, except for Season 2, which was supersized and had 13 episodes, per IMDb. Given that adoption is still prevalent in society, hopefully there will be more episodes in the future of Jacobs and Joyner helping people reunite with their loved ones again.