'Who's Your Daddy?' TV show sparks fury

[zzyzzx]

'Who's Your Daddy?' TV show sparks fury
Wed Dec 22, 8:23 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Plans to air a television game show in which an adopted woman picks out her father from a panel of impostors have thousands of people deluging Fox TV with letters and e-mails to get the show shelved.

The "Who's Your Daddy?" show, in which a young woman given up for adoption as a child gets a $100,000 (52,000 pound) prize for picking out her biological father from a line-up, is the latest in America's obsession with reality TV programming.

News of the show sparked both a grass-roots campaign among adoptive parents and protests from national adoption organizations who called the idea offensive, voyeuristic and exploitative. Six episodes have been filmed but so far only one has been scheduled for broadcast, on January 3.

Fox, a unit of News Corp, has yet to respond directly to its critics but said in a statement that although the title was "attention-grabbing" it was not indicative of the content.

Deborah Capone, a single mother with a 5-year-old adopted daughter, is behind an e-mail campaign that has generated more than 5,000 messages to Fox in a week asking for a meeting and for the show to be axed.

"By turning adoption reunions into a game show, 'Who's Your Daddy?' takes an intensely personal and complex situation ... and transforms it into a voyeuristic display," Capone said.

Capone said she was astounded at the response although she has heard nothing from Fox. She next plans to encourage her supporters to target potential advertisers and Fox TV affiliates to persuade them to abandon the show.

Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, wrote to Fox describing the show as "destructive, insensitive and offensive" to the tens of millions of Americans with adoption in their families.

"The very idea of taking such a deeply personal, complex situation and turning it into a money-grubbing game show is perverse, destructive and insensitive to others," he wrote.

Kevin Healey, one of the show's executive producers, said he was taken aback by the reaction given the fact that the participants, their biological parents, and their adoptive parents were all willing and informed.

"Knowing what we did and the lives that we changed for the positive, I was very surprised. I expected there to be a reaction to the title but I felt people would watch it and then make their decisions," Healey told Reuters.

Healey said the idea was inspired by a friend who is adopted. "It came from a very pure place not from a place of trying to embarrass or harm anyone," he said.

Reality programming, in which ordinary people put themselves in embarrassing or emotionally charged situations, has dominated American television for the past three years, producing efforts such as "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire", "Survivor", "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance" and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."

[yoda313]

Hello,

Yep just read this on yahoo news.

What WON'T FOX do????? :P

Kevin

[bazooka]

What WON'T FOX do????? :P

Sell their grandmother

[yoda313]

What WON'T FOX do????? :P

Sell their grandmother

Hello,

Just wait for next fall! :P

Kevin

Next week on Fox watch Lions eat Christians

[Shadowmistress]

I thought reality tv sunk to it's all-time low with "The Biggest Loser" in which a group of morbidly large people compete to see who loses the most weight. Each week the one who lost the least gets voted off and each week the host says "you are NOT the biggest loser" and the contestant walks away looking sad. (It was not Fox that aired it.)

But I think this one sinks to a whole new lower level.

Survivor shouldn't be included in that group!

[freestyler]

Morbidly large? They're FAT.

The Biggest Loser is a great show. I watch it every week. It's a competition to train hard and lose weight to win a big money prize and health. Each team has its own personal trainer.

It used to be an hour and a half long. It's not like The Swan or anything - it's all natural.

The way you described it (smallest loser getting voted off) is not how the show has worked up until very recently. The team that lost the competition had to vote off a member. We all have seen how that process works (alliances, rivalry, etc).

It went down from being an hour and a half long to about an hour now, I believe.

Heck, one of the guys on there (Ryan) is even a DVD producer!

One show which I haven't seen mentioned that is damn funny is My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss featuring N. Paul Todd and his fake company IOCOR. Last weeks executive paintball episode was awesome lol.

Back on topic, yeah this Who's Your Daddy show sounds like crap.

We all know Maury Povich is the original "Who's Your Daddy" anyway

[Shadowmistress]

You're right about Biggest Loser but I thought they sometimes took cheap shots at making fun of them to their faces. I mean, that giant scale! Funny, but still demeaning. (I'm talking about the Libra looking scale, not the one they normally use)

I've only gotten to see about 15 minutes of one episode of Obnoxious Boss. I think it airs along something else I watch instead. From what I saw it was hillarious. You could see the "boss" struggling to keep a straight face and not crack up laughing. I'll catch it on reruns if it makes it.

We all know Maury Povich is the original "Who's Your Daddy" anyway

Uncontested. Maury's the king.

[freestyler]

My favorite shows were when neither of the guys on stage were the father.

Quite sad really...

[Shadowmistress]

My favorite shows were when neither of the guys on stage were the father.

Quite sad really...

Or when some chic would come on wanting to test the 11th guy.

[freestyler]

Yeah. What I never understood is - why are they being tested just NOW if the child is like 3 or 4 years old on most of the shows?

[Shadowmistress]

Child support. Whoever was footing the bill before seems to have gotten fed up.

[bazooka]

Reality tv has gotten old and tired.

Each station is just ripping off it's competition.

There is no originality anymore.

[handyguy]

Should be easy, just pick the guy that looks most like yourself....

[yoda313]

Hello,

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/03/television.daddy.reut/index.html

Well a fox affiliate has dropped the show's premier!

Kevin

[bazooka]

It is still showing here.

I dislike the concept of the show.

It is wrong for all the men to say they are her father for money.

[zzyzzx]

Should be easy, just pick the guy that looks most like yourself....

That's what I was thinking. But still would be interesting to watch and see if you can do that at home.

[handyguy]

I dont think I could have picked my dad out of a bunch of guys.

[Doramius]

Here's my idea of a reality show.

The producers of these various reality shows are set in a large space shuttle. Before launching they choose a charity. Once in space the oxygen is slowly let out of the cabin. The last one to fall down dead is the winner and his charity is given $500k and chooses the next producer of the show out of the rejections from "The Apprentice".

[yoda313]

Here's my idea of a reality show.

The producers of these various reality shows are set in a large space shuttle. Before launching they choose a charity. Once in space the oxygen is slowly let out of the cabin. The last one to fall down dead is the winner and his charity is given $500k and chooses the next producer of the show out of the rejections from "The Apprentice".

Hello,

OR how about a show about the DEATH of reality shows!!!! Put em in a blender and PUREE!!!!!

Kevin

[bazooka]

OR how about a show about the DEATH of reality shows!!!! Put em in a blender and PUREE!!!!!

I like that idea.

[Bodyslide]

The Show Really Sucked Donkey D**ks. My wife and daughter made me watch. Someone shoot me......

[bazooka]

The Show Really Sucked Donkey D**ks. My wife and daughter made me watch. Someone shoot me......

I feel sorry for you bodyslide

[zzyzzx]

It was an OK watch once, but I don't see it getting good ratings if they do it again.

[handyguy]

I thought it was really spooky, that woman was really on edge the whole time. They guys had to be watched really carefully so that they didn't say anything that would give her a clue.

I kind of thought they would give her a huge prize like a million dollars but instead gave her her mother & father & what about the mother & father who raised her? They should have got something.

They had a really positive finish & america likes that sort of thing, so they might do it again.