In record time, Oxygen has cancelled its upcoming special, All My Babies Mamas. The special was announced last month, along with the description of the show, which would have followed rapper Shawty Lo and his interactions with a large blended family, including 10 different baby mamas and 11 children of different ages. The one-hour special was set to be produced by Liz Gately and Tony DiSanto, who respectively produced Teen Mom and The Hills, which gives us a hint about the sort of reality programming the show would be like.
Unfortunately for Oxygen and the producers, several groups spoke out to state disapproval for the upcoming special. According to THR the civil rights group Color of Change and the Parents Television Council both created petitions complaining about the nature of the show and stating it brought to light negative African American stereotypes. As the special hasn’t aired, I assume the groups were going on the descriptions and promotions for the reality program.
If you frequently pay attention to television, you’ll probably recognize the Parents Television Council, which often gets upset over various kinds of television content, from colorful cartoon content, including Spongebob Squarepants, to shows like the ill-fated The Playboy Club. Usually, the group's complaints go unheeded by the various networks, but this time around, the support from Color of Change apparently had some impact. As THR noted, over 40,000 people signed the latter organization’s petition, which is a fairly substantial number. While Oxygen has maintained All My Babies Mamas was not meant to be stereotypical, the special is, nonetheless, defunct.
