At least one affiliate has decided not to show this abomination.

Ya know, I like to try and be open minded. My first reaction on hearing about “Who’s Your Daddy” (the ‘reality’ show where someone who was adopted as an infant tries to pick their bio dad from a group) was that it was fucking insensitive. There are intense feelings on all sides of an adoption (a huge understatement) and to turn it into a TV show is just awful.

Then I saw a commercial. The adoptee? Cute blond woman. Of course. The “Dads”? A bunch of guys (in the clip I saw) all saying “I’m your father.”

Why are they saying that? Cuz if she picks ‘wrong’ then the guy bags $100,000. Would you be willing to go lie to a stranger for $100,000? Of course there are plenty of people who would do that. They’d do it for $1,000. Would you lie about being their father? Again, plenty of people would do that. Usually they lie the other way (“Hell, no, somebody else is the dad”) because they want to avoid responsibility.

My kids ask about their parents all the time. Except the baby, of course, since she can’t talk yet. But the boys want to know. We tell them what we know about them. We show them pictures, if we have them. We point to their home towns on maps. We drive by the hospital where they were born. No, this isn’t a daily occurance, it comes and goes. But kids wonder. ‘Do I have a brother?’ ‘Why didn’t they keep me?’ ‘Who do I look like?’

If they want to look for their parents, years from now, I’ll probably help them do that, too. But I won’t pretend it’s gonna be a 90 minute TV drama reunion. Their parents couldn’t take care of them. I don’t know if that will ever change. I’m not sure they would want to be found. I would hate for one of my kids to stand on a stage and look ten people in the eye, all of them saying “I’m your daddy” just to try and make a buck.

Sorry, that’s not entertainment. Not in the least. Not to me.