CONTACT:                                                                             

Prof. Kent Markus, Director                                          
National Center for Adoption Law & Policy
Capital University Law School
614.236.6545 (voice)
614.236.6956 (fax)
kmarkus@law.capital.edu (email)

New Fox Game Show – “Who’s Your Daddy”—is Tasteless and Offensive to Adoptive and Birth Families, Says the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy

          Columbus, Ohio – A television show set to air next month -- the latest in the hugely popular reality television genre -- will be hugely offensive, predicts The National Center for Adoption Law & Policy at Capital University Law School. Each episode of "Who's Your Daddy?" will make a contest of an adopted person’s quest to find his or her birth parent.  The show will debut as a 90-minute special on FOX on January 3^rd.   Six other episodes will air during the remainder of the TV season. 

In the first show, a young adopted woman is challenged to select her biological father from a group consisting of the birth father and seven imposters.  If she chooses the right man, she will win $100,000.  If she is wrong, the imposter she picks will get the prize. 

          According to Center Director and Capital University Law School Professor Kent Markus, the series reflects a blatant insensitivity to all members of the adoption triad—the person adopted, the birth parent, and the adoptive family. “The format of this show is especially disturbing,” Markus said.  “It trivializes the feelings of loss experienced by many adoptees and birth parents and minimizes the significance of their moment of reunion. The series’ commercialization of what is typically an intensely personal and emotional experience is abhorrent.”  

          Adoption experts have criticized the show’s deceptive premise, which requires each of the imposters, in order to win the cash, to attempt to trick the adopted person into believing he is the real birth father. One of the show’s executive producers, Kevin Healey, defends "Who's Your Daddy?" as “a fun and healthy way” for the adopted person “to get to know this person that they've never met."  Many experts disagree, fearing the program’s competitive format may be emotionally damaging to the contestants.  Markus views this and similar shows, including an April edition of ABC’s "20/20” that featured a contest among five couples to be chosen as a baby’s adoptive parents, as “cheap exploitation of the adoption process and its participants for entertainment value.” 

          Leigh Meredith of Columbus, an adoptee who has been through the emotional roller coaster of meeting her birth family, is personally offended by Fox's reality game show concept.   “Sometimes the search for a parent or adopted child can take years, even decades to accomplish. In my case, my biological mother spent nine years and thousands of dollars in order to find me,” Meredith said. “This form of exploitation makes a mockery of the dream many adopted children have of finding their biological parents.”

The Center urges those who are offended by “Who’s Your Daddy” to call, write or email the Fox network to ask them stop capitalizing on the insensitive exploitation of adoptees. The FOX Broadcasting Company’s primetime television email address is askfox@foxinc.com.  To call the FOX Broadcasting Company, dial 1-310-369-1000, or fax them at 310-369-1049.  The Fox mailing address is: FOX Broadcasting Company, 10201 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035.

          The National Center for Adoption Law & Policy is the nation’s only entity exclusively dedicated to the improvement of child protection and adoption systems.  It is nationally regarded as a reform leader in the areas of adoption and child permanency law, policy and practice.