'BE MY BABY'

The Cincinnati Post

A giant-sized controversy is brewing over a baby adoption special on "20/20" -- and sending ABC execs into a tailspin. Millions of viewers across the country watched in surprise over the weekend as the network aired a sensational promo for Friday's segment, which pits five desperate couples against each other for the privilege of adopting a 16-year-old's baby.

The personal, intimate process was made to look like a reality-show contest, with prospective parents dubbed "winners" and "losers."

On Tuesday, complaints flooded into radio stations, Web sites and even the FCC -- many of them noting that host Barbara Walters is not only a respected journalist, but also an adoptive mother.

The program, titled "Be My Baby," set to air Friday during May sweeps, follows five couples through open adoption, which means the adoptive parents and birth mother are in contact, identities are disclosed and there is the potential for contact in the future.

The birth mom, 16-year-old Jessica, is shown in interviews with prospective parents and in childbirth.

Jennifer Marando, co-director of A Child's Waiting adoption agency in Akron, Ohio, which participated in the show, says she and her sister and co-director, Crissy Kolarik, were completely disheartened by the teasers: "We didn't go into this to outrage anyone."

Amid the fury, ABC has since yanked the promo and replaced it with a toned-down version that presents the program less as a reality show and more as a documentary.