Once upon a time, in the year of our lord 2000, a new television network was launched by a group of women (and one token man), including TV’s reigning empress, Oprah Winfrey. It was called Oxygen, and its programming was geared mostly towards women (read: sobfest movies of the week starring Meredith Baxter-Birney, yada). The network was sold in 2007, but not before it aired the first episode of The Bad Girls Club, a show that began a downward spiral of horrible reality TV shows culminating in its newest effort, a televisual atrocity called All My Babies’ Mamas.
I wish I was making this shit up.
The thin premise of the show is this: Atlanta Rapper Shawty Lo has apparently managed to have 11 kids (ELEVEN!) with 10 (TEN!) different women, aka “the baby mamas.” Aaaaaand ZOMG BABY MAMA DRAMAZ ELEVENTY.
Upon hearing of Mr. Lo’s shenanigans, network producers of course immediately thought, “WHAT A MAGNIFICENTLY NUANCED AND TOTALLY RESPECTABLE SHOW TOPIC! WHY, I’M SURE A CHANNEL AIMED AT WOMEN WOULD TOTALLY GET BEHIND THIS.” And, unfortunately for the whole of humanity, they were right.
From the horrid preview that can still be found on YouTube, the thrust of the show’s “narrative” seems to essentially revolve around a bunch of women sitting in Shawty’s living room yelling at each other. So, I guess you could say the baby mamas have, *cough*, conflicting personalities? Most of which all appear to directly conflict with Shawty Lo’s current girlfriend, who is 19 years old–roughly the same age as one of Shawty’s eldest children.
To sum up, if you haven’t yet found a role model for your son, for the love of Ryan Gosling and all else good in the world, PLEASE KEEP RIGHT ON LOOKING.
Of the show’s fresh hell, Cori Abraham, Senior Vice President of Development at Oxygen Media, says:
“‘All My Babies’ Mamas’ will be filled with outrageous and authentic over-the-top moments that our young, diverse female audience can tweet and gossip about.”
Really? That’s all you got, Abraham? Now don’t get me wrong, I hardly doubt that there will be more than a few “outrageous and authentic over-the-top moments” during the show’s one-hour special, but has our society really devolved to the point where a person who’s spent 20 years impregnating women and tossing relationships left and right should have their EPIC irresponsibility rewarded with a TV show?
Obviously, I’m not the only one who finds this whole idea to be a bit…askew. In fact, over 19,600 people are having a problem with this show’s premise: a petition started by Sabrina Lamb over at Change.org is asking that the show, which is set to premiere this spring, be cancelled. (The petition is still open for signatures so, you know…feel free to sign it if you want.)
Something it appears Mr. Lo has not experienced. EVER.
So what say you? Is this show’s premise alone totally degrading for the Lo kids and their mothers? Or is it just another rung on the downward-leading “Honey Boo-Boo” ladder of shitty reality television?
About Jenna Marie Bee
