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NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > CONGRESS CONSIDERING BILL TO STERILIZE REALITY SHOW STARS
CONGRESS CONSIDERING BILL TO STERILIZE REALITY SHOW STARS
December 16 2009
Washington, D.C. – There are few television shows in the history of the medium that can truly be considered games changers. ‘The Tonight Show’, ‘The Andy Griffith Show’, ‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Simpsons’ are just a handful of examples of 
television programs that have stood head and shoulders above their competition to truly redefine the medium. Few people would have anticipated such a response from a program pitting people against one another on an island for prizes but since its premiere in 2000, ‘Survivor’ has fundamentally altered television forever.
The success of that show has not only altered what shows are made but also the fate of certain networks entirely. Channels such as A&E, Spike, and most significantly TLC have ridden the wave of reality television and become the format those channels have been built on. Of course some of the challenges with reality television is that very reality and its tendency to interfere with the show portion of the program. TLC learned that the hard way earlier this year, ending their smash hit ‘Jon and Kate plus Eight’ following the divorce of the two leads. Now a new threat is endangering the livelihood of those stations as the United States Congress considers a measure to prevent reality stars from ever having children again.
“It’s a controversial bill and everyone behind it realizes it’s going to be a tough sell but
it’s really surprising how many people are behind it. Normally something like forced sterilization wouldn’t even get a reading but because of the group they are targeting here it’s gaining a lot of credence,” said a congressional insider who preferred not to be named. “It’s being pitched not so much as an issue of population control but of the well being of families. A lot of these reality families have multiple children and many get the shows in the first place because of that. But putting these measures in place the theory is you won’t have people like the octo-mom who have lots of children in order to be famous. That kind of behaviour isn’t good for anyone, particularly the kids.”
Recently Michelle Duggar, co-star of TLC’s ‘18 kids and counting’ prematurely gave birth to her 19th child after an emergency C-section. Duggar is 43 years old.
“The fear for many is that not only are these children potentially being put at risk, but future generations might also be. Some people will go to extremes to become famous and get on TV. Look at the balloon boy thing, people will do just about anything to get a show and now with Jon and Kate gone, there’s a huge void to be filled,” said Scrape TV Entertainment analyst Tracey Temple. “There is a serious and totally valid concern that will exploit their children to become famous so maybe the threat of forced sterilization is just the thing they need to dissuade such behaviour.”
Forced sterilization is considered a crime against humanity according to the International Criminal Court. It’s believed that lawmakers may skirt that law by simply forcing production companies to make it voluntary, bound by contract.
“The real advantage of this is that these kind of people will have limited offspring which means that new generations of fame seekers might be limited. I stress might, but it at least gives us a good chance of cutting down on reality programming and bringing drama and comedies back to the small screen,” continued Temple. “Yes, they will have to skirt international law and risk running into trouble with human rights organizations but reality television has really put a dent in the quality of television and that might make it worth doing.”
TLC has reportedly already begun work on a reality show revolving around sterilization just in case the law comes into effect.
Samantha Dryden, Entertainment Correspondent
NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > CONGRESS CONSIDERING BILL TO STERILIZE REALITY SHOW STARS
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