16 and Pregnant

16 and Pregnant
Genre Reality
Created by Lauren Dolgen
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 5
No. of episodes 61 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
  • Morgan J Freeman
  • Dia Sokol Savage
  • Lauren Dolgen
  • Jessica Zalkind
  • Andrew Portnoy
  • Sara Cohen
  • Janay Dutton
Camera setup Multiple
Running time 43 to 50 minutes
Production company(s) 11th Street Productions
Distributor Viacom Media Networks
Release
Original network MTV
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
1080i (HDTV)
Original release June 11, 2009 (2009-06-11) – present
Chronology
Related shows
External links
Website

16 and Pregnant is an American reality television series that debuted June 11, 2009, on MTV.[1] It follows the stories of pregnant teenage girls in high school dealing with the hardships of teenage pregnancy. Each episode features a different teenage girl, with the episode typically beginning when she is 4 12 – 8 months into her pregnancy. The episode typically ends when the baby is a few months old. The series is produced in a documentary format, with an animation on notebook paper showing highlights during each episode preceding the commercial breaks. 16 and Pregnant has spawned three spin-off series: Teen Mom, Teen Mom 2 and Teen Mom 3. Each series follows the lives of four girls from their respective season of 16 and Pregnant as they navigate their first years of motherhood.[2]

The fifth season premiered on April 14, 2014.[3] The show was renewed for a sixth season on January 12, 2015.[4]

Episodes

Season Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 6 June 11, 2009 (2009-06-11) July 16, 2009 (2009-07-16)
2 19 February 16, 2010 (2010-02-16) December 21, 2010 (2010-12-21)
3 10 April 19, 2011 (2011-04-19) June 21, 2011 (2011-06-21)
4 12 March 27, 2012 (2012-03-27) May 29, 2012 (2012-05-29)
5 14 April 14, 2014 (2014-04-14) July 1, 2014 (2014-07-01)

Reception and impact

Based on a preview of the show's first three episodes, The New York Times called the series a "documentary-style series about real-life Junos who are not scoring in the 99th percentile on the verbal portion of their SATs... despite its showcasing of the grim, hard work of single mothering."[5]

In 2011, the Social Security Administration reported that the names of one of the featured mothers and her son ("Maci" and "Bentley") were the names that saw the greatest increase in frequency over the past year.[6]

While there is still debate on whether or not the show "glamorizes teen pregnancy," the intended goal of the show was to bring attention to what teen pregnancy is really like and promote the practice of safe sex. A study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests a correlation between the premiere of the show in 2009 and a 5.7% decrease in teen births in the 18 months following the premiere. It is still unknown whether this is due to the premiere of 16 and Pregnant or the recent economic decline, however the correlation between the date of the premiere and the decline in teen births cannot be ignored. [7]

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, May 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.