Oxygen To Cancel ‘All My Babies’ Mamas’ Due To Mounting Pressure [Report]
Oxygen will be pulling the plug on its reality special, All My Babies’ Mamas, which would follow rapper Shawty Lo as he juggled having 11 kids by 10 different women.
Oxygen had been criticized for the series, which hasn’t even hit the air yet, throughout its development. A petition started on Change.org to cancel the show has garnered over 35,000 signatures since it was created. Civil rights group ColorOfChange.org accused the show of exploiting “persistent racial stereotypes that marginalize Black Americans.”
Not only that, but the Parents Television Council also joined the chorus of voices calling for the show to be canceled. President Tim Winter said in a statement:
“Every time we think that the television industry couldn’t stoop any lower, sadly one of the networks steps forward to prove us wrong. This new project in development at Oxygen is grotesquely irresponsible and exploitive, and we urge the network to cease any further work on it immediately.”
Winter went on to ask members to “let Oxygen know that this program would undermine children and families.”
Like Sabrina Lamb, the woman who started the Change.org petition, the PTC also threatened to hold corporate sponsors who bought advertising time on Oxygen accountable. Lamb even suggested boycotting sponsors.
Oxygen did its best to defend itself from the backlash surrounding the series, saying it wasn’t meant to stereotype any particular group, and that the show would be “a look at one unique family and their complicated, intertwined life.” The network also said that its “diverse team of creative executives” would continue to develop the series with the concerns about racism and stereotyping in mind. However, the pressure and outrage proved to be too much for the network.
Sources told The Daily Beast that Oxygen is expected to announce that the series will not make it to air. While the announcement isn’t official just yet, it shouldn’t be long before the network makes its final decision.
Are you glad that Oxygen will be canceling All My Babies’ Mamas?
