Cuddling up to the controversies, the NBC network has decided that a reunion show would be fit for their summer reality series, The Baby Borrowers.  The special will air at 9pm tonight, a week after the show's season finale. 

The network has announced that the special episode will be conducted in an interactive town hall format.  Other than the cast and crew, a number of notable guests will also make appearances to facilitate the discussion.  They will also be talking about their experiences on the show, as well as the topics that it has tackled. 

While reality TV has turned to more outrageous social experiments to bring something new to the table and subsequently raise TV ratings, some may find reality programs to be crying out loud desperate.  Social experiments such as Ashton Kutcher’s Beauty and the Geek brought audiences a good number of laughs, while CBS’ Kid Nation received a lot of negative comments from viewers and concerned parents alike.  Most recently, another reality series was seen in the negative light, and this time, NBC has yet to comment on the issue.

The Baby Borrowers, which focuses on teaching young adults the lessons of raising and taking care of a child, is a social experiment which takes children and keeps them in the care of teenagers, technically strangers, for three days.  Earlier this month, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) expressed their concerns for the welfare of the children in this reality series.  More recently, the American Psychiatric Association is asking NBC to reevaluate this social experiment and see its effects on the toddlers.

Despite the criticisms hurled against The Baby Borrowers by child advocacy groups, the houses and furniture used and seen in the NBC reality show are apparently hot commodities.  The completely furnished homes in Eagle, Idaho, housed the five teenage couples who ‘borrowed' babies to see what it's like to take care of children.  They all went up for sale Saturday.

Many people, most of whom are fans of the show, gathered before the 8 a.m. opening to get a head start.  Soon, however, most of the items were gone.  And understandably so, as this suburban neighborhood in southwestern Idaho has been seen nationwide for weeks.

The Baby Borrowers, the NBC reality series that gives teens a round-the-clock taste of parenthood, has caught the attention of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, a medical professional membership association representing the majority of child and adolescent psychiatrists in the United States.  Believing that it has no place on television, the advocacy group now calls for the network to cancel the show.

On The Baby Borrowers, five couples aged between 16 and 19 start off attempting to look after a baby for three days, before moving onto toddlers, pre-teens, teenagers and finally an elderly person.  This premise, according to child health experts, is an unsafe social experiment.

The Baby Borrowers, NBC's newest social experiment, will now move to its new timeslot at 9pm Wednesdays beginning tonight.  The series that puts five teenage couples directly into “parenthood” will now serve as lead-in to new episodes of Celebrity Circus, which airs at 10pm.

Based on the hit British program, The Baby Borrowers premiered on June 25 at 8pm and averaged 7.9 million viewers overall with a 2.9 rating and 8 share in adults 18-49.  The pilot episode also built on its 18-49 lead-in from Deal or No Deal by 81 percent and increased its 18-49 rating by 15 percent from its first half-hour to its second.  Compared to NBC's 18-49 average in the time period last summer, The Baby Borrowers was up by 16 percent.  Overall, the show ranked number 2 in the competitive time period in all key ratings categories, including adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, as well as total viewers.

OK, let me say that from the moment this show was first talked about in 2007, I was not on board.  Just from watching the first 2-3 minutes of The Baby Borrowers, I knew that my first instinct was right.  Each teen couple seemed to think that they could handle having babies for all different kinds of ridiculous reasons from being "good with kids" to thinking that "babies are cute." 

Newsflash: Being good with kids is so not the same thing as raising babies, toddlers or teens.  The Baby Borrowers found a group of teens who seemed to think that they knew everything about becoming parents.  Despite my annoyance and reservations about the show, I tried to go into tonight's premiere with an open mind.