ACE Family Announces YouTube Hiatus, Comeback Docuseries In Wake Of Phallic Lollipop Incident

YouTube’s ‘ACE Family‘ — one of the platform’s preeminent family vlog channels, who have amassed a staggering 15.3 million subscribers in three short years — are going on a brief hiatus. The announcement arrives on the heels of a scandal earlier this month involving patriarch Austin McBroom, who could be seen on a video circulating across social media taking a toddler (not his daughter, Elle) into an adult store and purchasing her a penis-shaped lollipop.

In a video shared yesterday evening,  McBroom and his fiance Catherine Paiz, said that the ACE Family — which also comprises their two daughters, Elle and Alaia — need some time off after having posted consistently for the past three years. They will be using their time away from YouTube to work on merch, their proprietary mobile app, and to produce a docuseries that is set to debut on their channel on Feb. 23. After the docuseries is complete, the couple says, they will return to regularly scheduled daily vlogging.

While the ACE Family is already beloved for their reality-style vlogs — and for their inspirational, family-friendly messaging — they say that the documentary will provide a rawer, behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives, in the same vein as popular docuseries helmed by fellow YouTube creators like Shane Dawson

and Jake Paul. It remains to be seen, however, whether they will address the adult store controversy — though the couple does seem to hint at it in the announcement. (If they did, it wouldn’t be the first time that a YouTuber has harnessed a docuseries as a means of post-scandal career resurrection).

“I’m a little nervous because we share a lot of stuff that we never talked about,” McBroom says of the forthcoming project, which is being filmed by a videographer who has been living in their house for the past three weeks. “You know our channel is all about positivity and making you guys happy, but at the same time it’s hard at times to do that when other things happen. We want to show you guys what some of those other things are.”

You can check out the announcement below. The family says that the trailer for the docuseries will arrive on their channel in coming days.