Deon and Karen Derrico’s eldest child is eager to leave the nest for her college education.
Much to her father’s delight, Darian Derrico tours a college closer to home in Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek at the Tuesday, June 25, episode of TLC’s Doubling Down With the Derricos.
“We do a lot of concerts in here,” a staff member at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, tells Darian, 18, and her parents while showing them around an auditorium. “We make sure that all of our students have the connections in the industry that they want to be in to be as successful as they want to be.”
Darian, an aspiring singer, goes on to ask the UNLV staff member what’s “the most popular genre that students come here to practice?” According to the man, their music students study everything from jazz to opera.
“What’s really cool is you get to take classes with everybody,” he explains. Darian proceeds to question, “An opera singer might work with, like, an R&B singer?” to which he replies, “Yeah. I mean, they could be in the same studio. There’s a lot of stuff happening.”
Deon, 53, seems particularly impressed with the university’s facilities, and its proximity to the family’s home. “All of this is in your hometown. How does that feel?” he asks Darian before the three of them bid farewell to their tour guide.
In a confessional, Darian admits that despite the college visit, her sights are still set on her dream school. “UNLV could be a way to ease into the college experience,” she states. “But NYU is an immersive feeling of, like, ‘I’m doing big things. I’m seeing the world.’ It reminded me, ‘Oh yeah, you want to be in New York.’ I just can’t wait to hear back from NYU.”
As she and her parents begin to exit the auditorium, Darian stops to “take the stage for a moment” and gives fans a glimpse at her singing voice by busting out a short tune.
The clip ends with Deon and Karen, 44, applauding their daughter, with Deon shouting to an imaginary audience, “Darian Derrico, everybody!”
As Darian prepares to make a college decision on the TLC reality show’s fifth season, she recently graduated from high school off the small screen. “I graduated high school!!!!! 👩🏾🎓🎉🎓,” Darian captioned pics and clips from her big day via Instagram on June 10.
Karen also shared a video of Darian singing the national anthem at the graduation ceremony via her own Instagram, writing, “Oh, say can you seeeeee🎶🎶🎶🎶.”
Both Karen and Deon attended the graduation days before announcing they were getting a divorce. “Together, we remain unified in the parenting of our 14 beautiful children — their well-being is our priority,” the estranged spouses told Us in a statement on June 15. “We thank everyone for their understanding and support as we move forward for the good of our family.”
The pair welcomed 14 kids together after tying the knot in 2005, including Darian, Derrick, 13, twins Dallas and Denver, 12, quintuplets Deonee, Daician, Daiten, Deniko and Dariz, 10, Diez, 6, Dior, 6, and triplets Dawsyn, De’Aren and Dyver, 4.
Doubling Down With the Derricos airs on TLC Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
