I was alarmed to see a promo for a news magazine story, (evidently about a complicated adoption) that gave the impression of a sick reality tv show. I believe it was Barbara Walters, but I can’t find any reference on ABC. Did I imagine the promo? Was it yanked for bad taste? Anyone got the dope?
I can confirm that you did not imagine it, as I saw it too, during last night’s The Practice. I was horrified, to say the least.
And ABC News’ 20/20 website was still promoting this past Friday’s show, so we shall have to wait and see what it has to say about this apparent adoption competition.
(On the lighter side of things, this is my first post! Yay for me.)
Wow. Babies really have become commodities. It finally happened.
Now I have to go throw up.
I was rather mortified by the promo myself. There is such a thing as going too far. Barbawa Waltahs just about catches up with Geraldo for this one.
I saw this promo last night too and was horrified. I thought I’d just misheard it but my suspicions were confirmed when I saw it twice more later on.
How in the world will these couples “compete” for the baby? It boggles my mind just thinking about it.
I have a feeling it’s not as hideous as it sounds. That’s just the way they’re drawing in the viewers. It will probably just be a study of the difficulties people run into when adopting. I mean, we do have laws against that sort of thing, don’t we?
At least, I hope so.
As was I. This reality TV thing is going way too far if the prize is now a baby.
Welcome to the SDMB!
I saw the promo as well. A pregnant 16 yr-old is giving her baby up for adoption. there are five couples who want it. The girl wants to “stay involved” in her child’s life. Each couple will meet and visit with the girl who, according to the promo, will then decide who gets the baby. But wait! What happens if, after holding the baby, she decideds not to give it up? It was described as “a moving, and very special show”.
In that case she has to go head to head with last week’s winner. Double or quits.
I can’t imagine why any of the prospect parents agreed to participate.
I saw the promo too, right after Alias, and could not believe what I was hearing. Even if the show isn’t set up as a reality show competition, to promo it that way is just appalling. In fact I was so disturbed by the imagery of a competition (especially one being judged by a 16-year-old) that I really had some bad dreams about it. So sad that ABC felt they had to stoop this low.
total hijack
While not as bad, I still think “The Swan” would have been a much more interesting show had they implemented my idea:
10 women get Swan-ified. They compete in a beauty pageant. The woman that wins gets to continue looking beautiful…
…the other 9 have to get plastic surgery to go back to looking the way they did before.
what do you mean it’s cruel?
I saw it too and was horrified. Since it is on 20/20 after I got over my initial shock I have to think it is not really a new reality show, but a story about an open adoption. The fact that they are promoting it this way is almost as bad, though. I wonder how many comments they have gotten about it so far and if they will pull that promo.
Sadly, it happens every day, although not usually on television. There are many, many couples in the U.S. who are desperate to adopt, and who will go to great lengths to convince young pregnant woman who want to give up their babies that they can provide a loving, stable home. Because of the lack of healthy white infants available for adoption, the biological mothers really do have the upper hand in these situations, and there is a de facto market for the babies, with the mothers able to choose among prospective adopters based on location, race, religion, and financial status. That said, to portray the adoption process as some kind of reality show competition is sick, and just one more reason why I am glad that I have removed ABC from my television. Unfortunately, I still have NBC, whose promos are generally even more obnoxious than those of ABC.
This is often seen as a good thing, though. Bio-mom is most likely to pick someone who is like her (and the father of her child). And as some tendancies tend to be inherieted, it makes for successful placements. Athletic children end up in athletic homes. Musical children in homes where there are pianos and music.
Plus, bio-mom has more control in placement, and more closure, and is more often content in her decision than when the baby just disappears.
When going through an agency - potential adoptive parents should have been pre-screened - so all the parent birthmom is looking at would be acceptable parents.
Also, some states allow compensation to birthmothers by adoptive parents - these are often limited to living expenses - but some states do a better job of qualifying that living expenses are not “a new car” but “a reasonable apartment and food for nine months” than others. Which gets into allegations of baby selling…but that is another conversation. (BTW, I’m an adoptive mom - as well as having a bio daughter as well. Pregnancy is no peice of cake and often does involve loss of income or opportunity, and I think birthmothers SHOULD be compensated for this).
But this should be intensely private. This is tacky.
Are you fucking kidding?
Seriously that can’t be the prize, staying Swan-ified. I mean Fox is messed up but even they wouldn’t put a show like this on. Right?
As for the thread’s main topic, I’m hoping that the ads are just over the top to draw in viewers. Ideally it will be a tasteful piece of TV journalism about adoption, with some interviews with those involved. More likely it will be a train wreck of other people’s private emotions thrown onto TV to be consumed by the human refuse that loves to watch this sort of thing.
If there is a God, he should send that earth-shattering asteroid straight at us.
They could have a panel of judges made up of former child stars who became estranged from their parents. In the event of a toss-up between two sets of parents, they could do the whole “cut the baby in half” thing. The birth mother could knife fight with each potential adoptive mother to be sure that they’re worthy enough to raise the child. And the baby will have some great video to look at when it’s older. Makes me wish I had been born in the present, and the present was actually the past, and the future was actually the present, and the past was actually the future… Wait, that’s not right. What were we talking about again? Where’s my mommy? Help!
Ah - turns out it was nothing. Just a misguided promo for a show that only documents the adoption process.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3671385.stm
Peter Wiggen
My 14-year-old suggested this might be an appropriate show for Fox if they added just one element: the baby could be surgically altered to look like the winning parents!
She’s obviously getting far too cynical for her age. I suppose that’s what we get for letting her watch The Daily Show.
Nope, didn’t imagine this. Barbara talked about it on the View (Hey I’m a SAHM with no life, it’s not soaps at least) and it was pulled after complaints.
The way Barbara talked it appears the girl did change her mind, I could be wrong though.