“I don't know why we are not picketing out MTV. These are the kind of shows that are so disgusting with what they are promoting and they are pretending that they are showing how horrible teen pregnancy is? I call bullshit on that! You are not doing anything but making girls want to be pregnant. Now they are big celebrities. They get endorsement deals. They are on television. They have no right to be on television. They have done nothing to be on television.”
- LEAH REMINI, Actress
Amber Portwood was drifting in and out of consciousness. She lay face up on the living room sofa - a rope around her neck, according to some reports - when police and paramedics arrived at her Anderson, Indiana home on June 14, 2011. The high school dropout was still reeling after losing custody of her two year-old daughter, Leah. Now convinced that her baby daddy, Gary Shirley, was cheating, she consumed what friends believed to be a potentially lethal combination of pills. Amber, who had privately been under a psychiatrist's care for almost two years, was “distraught,” police reports say, “and threatening to end her life.”
Amber's desperate cry for help came just one week after she pled guilty to domestic violence charges for beating the bejesus out of her on-again-off-again boyfriend during a blowup at their apartment. The jaw-dropping attack had been captured by MTV cameras and eventually turned over to Child Protective Services. Now with mounting legal problems, a crumbling home life, and her most intimate struggles playing out in front of four million viewers each week on TV, the girl who once dreamed of opening her own beauty salon had finally hit rock bottom.
At a time in their lives when most girls are consumed with Facebook, school work and finding a prom date, Amber and the 46 other mostly lower income girls featured on 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom were doing their best to navigate the perilous waters of parenthood - while still growing up themselves.
Like Amber, many of the girls quickly became overnight tabloid celebrities - their faces and personal stories splashed on magazine covers and entertainment news shows around the world. “MTV can be as objective as they want about it, but once these young women are being followed by tabloids and on TMZ and on the cover of Us Weekly, it's hard to view them as documentary subjects,” Jessica Coen, editor of Jezebel.com, told ABC News. “They're reality stars.”
The night that Leah's episode of 16 and Pregnant aired, her producer phoned with an ominous warning: “Your life is about to change forever.” “Leah had no idea what she was getting herself into,” her former best friend Amy LaDawn Nichols tells us. “She never thought she'd ever be on a magazine cover or involved with paparazzi or anything.”
MTV, a network unafraid to push the boundaries of taste and exploitation, billed its most controversial series yet as “cautionary tales” about the perils of young motherhood. “What people connect to in these stories and on this show is family,” former executive producer Liz Gateley told the New York Post. “Everyone can relate to family and what buttons get pushed in a stressful situation. That is why, I feel, people are tuning in to these shows.”
16 and Pregnant, the brainchild of MTV development executive Lauren Dolgen, was filmed in a no-frills, documentary style. Each episode took viewers inside the homes, schools and workplaces of its struggling, young subjects as they coped with money problems, cheating boyfriends and unsupportive parents.
“Awkwardly crunching pregnancy, childbirth and the first few months of parenting into an hour, the documentary-style program eschews tough questions and works too hard at entertaining, turning a potential public service into a bit of a muddle,” Variety television critic Brian Lowry wrote of the premiere episode, which featured fresh-faced high school cheerleader, Maci Bookout. “Even her 30 hours of labor is dispatched in a few seconds of pencil animation, making the act of childbirth look about as difficult as an a-ha video.”
Still, the girls' lives and journeys, in no small way, became symbolic of middle class life in the era of Obama. Scratch the surface of these emotional sagas and everything you need to know about America comes flowing out. “In my experience, freshman and sophomore girls want babies,” says cast member Jamie McKay, who was featured on 16 and Pregnant during season three. “They watch the show out of envy, when really it's showing them what they don't want.”
When it comes to creating dramatic and polarizing TV, you won't find much better material than a young girl who clearly doesn't have her own life together suddenly ending up responsible for a tiny, hungry, pooping, screaming human being. Or, says Robert Thompson, a pop culture expert at Syracuse University: “Pregnancy itself is about as dramatic as it gets. Placing that onto a teenage girl - especially the ones that they choose - how could you not be compelled to watch this?”
Naturally, MTV has tried extra hard to convince people the shows are essentially public service announcements - kind of like the movies about car crashes they show you in high school to discourage drinking and driving. But critics - and there are lots of them - say paparazzi shots of girls shopping, partying and spending their Teen Mom paychecks on boob jobs send the opposite message and are actually encouraging some impressionable teens to get knocked up.
“There are...kids now who think it is cool now to be a teen mom,” notes actress and reality star Tamara Mowry. “[They think] 'They are on covers of magazines. They're famous... so why don't I have a baby? If they can do it, I can do it.'”
At one point in 2011, Chelsea Houska's housemate Megan Nelson was pregnant - at the same time as three of Jenelle's best friends. Though Keely Sanders, Amber Painter and Lauren Pruitt all supposedly lectured Jenelle about becoming a teen mom at first, their loyal and trusted pal Kristina Collins told In Touch magazine: “I think all the girls idolized Jenelle. Lauren has even mentioned how cool it would be if she got her own spin-off show.”
Megan, who became an unwed mother herself in July 2011, claimed that her pregnancy was a complete surprise. But her friends were quick to call bullshit on that. “[Megan] purposely got pregnant in order to become a regular on the show,” one squealed to the tabloid. An MTV spokesperson later told the New York Post “none of the friends of the girls on the show have reached out to producers to get their own shows or get on [TV].”
Whitney Purvis - one of the teens featured on season one of 16 and Pregnant - may need some extra convincing of that. In fact, she's stated that she, too, sometimes meets people who “are wanting to get pregnant just to be on the show.” Whitney hasn't given any interviews since getting arrested in March 2012 for stealing a pregnancy test from Walmart (and using it in the store's bathroom!) but she did talk to ABC News not long after her episode aired. “I meet people who are changing their life just for what I did,” she said. Then the big bombshell: “There's actually two girls who got pregnant just for that and they went to the same school and MTV had to wind up picking either one of them...so they picked one of them and then the other one, you know, is just sitting there!”
Whitney - like other girls featured on 16 and Pregnant - was compensated $5,000 for her appearance, which MTV reserves the right to show an unlimited number of times anywhere in the world.
Details about financial compensation have been shrouded in mystery for years. Confidentiality agreements forbid most participants from discussing how much they get paid. While there have been many reports that Teen Mom cast members earn a cool $65,000 per season, our sources - including several of the girls themselves - say it is actually much less.
Here's what else we know:
Who gets paid and who doesn't?
For 16 and Pregnant, only the female stars and their baby's father are compensated. (As part of her deal, each girl is also required to appear on the “Life After Labor” finale special. MTV pays for travel.) For the Teen Mom shows, only recurring cast members - boyfriends, mothers, husbands, etc. that appear for multiple episodes - take home a check. According to one show insider, the baby-daddies (along with Jenelle's mother, Barbara) make the same amount for each episode they are in. If they do not appear, they do not
get paid.
Our sources say most secondary cast members (which includes friends, family members and boyfriends) get paid about $2,000 a season. And everyone appearing on camera is required to sign non-disclosure agreements. Compensation for secondary personalities is completely negotiable. Some friends and family members have stopped filming, or refused to participate altogether, in order to secure better deals. Jeremy Calvert, the man that eventually married Teen Mom 2 star Leah Messer, hated dealing with the camera crew and didn't want to be on the show. So producers had to offer him a lot more money than usual to appear.
It's simple economics, really. The more intricate someone is to the storyline, the more they will get paid. Gary Head, who was Jenelle's boyfriend during the fourth season of Teen Mom 2 was paid only $1,500 for appearing on several episodes, while Kieffer Delp negotiated for significantly more. Another perk: the network will pick up the bill whenever the main subject and her friends or family are filmed dining out - (“But only up to $20 per person,” one cast member says) - or if they are participating in an outing set up by the show for filming purposes.
“Most of our friends hate filming,” one insider says. “MTV sets all of those scenes up with our friends so in turn they have to pay them to film, almost like a bribe.”
Do all the Teen Mom girls make the same amount?
Sources say the girls from all three Teen Mom franchises each earned a base salary of $10,000 in their first season. They were guaranteed pay bumps to at least $25,000 in season two. During a court proceeding in December 2010, Amber revealed that she took home $140,000 for six months of work, but it does not appear that came exclusively in the form of a paycheck. “We definitely don't make nearly as much as most websites and magazines say we do,” one of the girls insists. “It isn't even enough to pay one month of my bills.”
Do the girls get paid when stories about them appear in magazines?
Sometimes. Recurring cast members (friends and family) are forbidden to talk to the press without approval from MTV. Many of the articles that appear in supermarket tabloids are actually placed by the network for promotional purposes, and thus, there is no exchange of money. To supplement their income, some girls have sold stories or photos to the media through a friend or relative. Leah and Jeremy reportedly picked up around $10,000 for selling her wedding photos (without the consent on MTV) to Us Weekly in 2012.
Do the girls get bonuses?
Yes. Cash bonuses are sometimes awarded for high ratings - but most girls say they are rare. More often they receive items such as restaurant gift cards.
Does MTV buy the girls houses and cars to keep them on the show?
No. All of our sources tell us that these rumors are completely false, and that MTV has never made any big-ticket purchases. But several of the Teen Mom girls have used their TV money to splurge. Other things that are never covered by producers: any sort of grooming services, such as manicures, hair styling, plastic surgery or tanning. The girls pay for those things on their own.
Do the babies make any money from appearing on the show?
Yes. The babies on all of the Teen Mom shows (except 16 and Pregnant) each have trust funds set up by MTV, which they can access when they turn 18.
What does MTV pay for when the show's stars have to travel for show-related work?
Insiders say the show will reimburse its stars up to $75 a day for food and expenses when they are required to travel for show-related work. Their hotel expenses and airfare are also covered, as are the travel costs for some family members or friends that will appear on the reunion shows, or come to help babysit the star's child while they are working.
Does the show provide medical insurance and benefits to the cast?
No. The girls are not considered employees, and therefore are not given the benefits you would get at a regular job, such as medical insurance or a 401(k) plan. Each cast member receives a 1099 form and is responsible for paying her own taxes at the end of the year, as no money is withheld from their checks. On occasion, this has caused the stars of the show to run into trouble with the IRS. In March 2013, Kail Lowry revealed on Twitter that she had to cancel her upcoming wedding reception because she owed thousands of dollars in taxes.
Gary Shirley sensed something wasn't quite right after a frightening conversation with Amber Portwood on the morning of June 14, 2011. At 11:34 AM, he called 9-1-1 in Anderson, Indiana looking for help.
Operator: Anderson 9-1-1, what is your emergency?
Gary: Hi. I just spoke with my, uh, girlfriend and she had said something to me... She is Amber Portwood...Um, she said something to me...said she's having a hard time in her life. (She said) 'Call the police, they will find my body in the garage.' I don't know what to do. So I am calling you guys because I don't want her to kill herself... This is about 5 minutes ago. I called my mom...she was like “She has made several, she has said this several times” and I said “She is not answering my phone calls. She said 'call the police so they can find my body in the garage.' I called her back several times and she didn't answer, so... You don't tell somebody to call the police if you don't want them to call the police.
Operator: Is she home by herself?
Gary: Yes, she is. I called my mom. She is on her way over there right now.
Operator: What kind of car is she going to be in?
Gary: She's not in a car. She'll be in the garage, and in the garage she has Dodge Magnum in her...she has a Dodge Magnum in her driveway.
Operator: Wait a minute. You said your mother's going over to check on her?
Gary: Yeah, but I don't…
Operator: And she'll be on foot?
Gary: She's going to hang herself!
Sharon Bookout was combing through Craigslist ads in the spring of 2008, hoping to find a modeling job for her pregnant teenage daughter, Maci. What she stumbled onto instead was a casting notice for a new cable docu-series that planned to follow teens like hers on their scary and unpredictable journeys into unplanned parenthood:
MTV is currently casting an upcoming series focusing on young women during their pregnancy. As we realize that this is a sensitive subject that many of our young women are experiencing, our goal is to show what pregnant women, from varying backgrounds, are experiencing in their everyday lives.
From morning sickness to mood swings, and to even the day of the baby's arrival, we would like you to let us document this exciting, life changing event. Similar to the MTV series True Life or Engaged & Underage, our show will allow these young women to share their story in their own voice.
As time is of the essence, please email me ASAP at [redacted]. Please include what state you are in, your contact details, a picture and why you would want to take part in the series.
Maci, a popular, athletic cheerleader at Ooltewah High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was immediately interested. But Sharon remained skeptical. “[She] thought that it was a fake,” the young mom revealed during a speaking engagement at the University of Central Florida in 2011. “So she had my dad come with me to make sure I wouldn't be kidnapped!” The ad, of course, was legit. And 16 and Pregnant soon became the first show to shine a bright light on a topic that had long been too taboo for television.
For creator Lauren Dolgen a key part of the show's success was the decision to keep the producers' opinions out of the final product. “It's completely from the point of view of the girls who are going through it,” she told Slate.com. But before any stories could be told, producers had to find the right girls, so casting notices were plastered all over pregnancy message boards, MySpace, and anywhere else teen girls might gather online. The search was on for a compelling group of real-life “Junos.”
“The goal was to try to find a typical, middle-class teenager who should have known better,” executive producer Morgan J. Freeman told the Los Angeles Times in 2010. “The mandate was 'get the truth. Let's see the real challenges, what pressures it puts on high schoolers, what the sacrifices are.'”
; One of the first girls cast was Ebony Jackson of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Just 17 and already engaged, she came to the attention of producers through The Pregnancy Center, a local Christian organization that helps pregnant teens once they decide to keep, and parent, their babies. Ebony was in the first semester of her senior year at Mitchell High School and, though she was pregnant, was determined to remain in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. Her hope was to join the military after the baby was born.
Ebony was completely unaware of the nationwide casting call. So was Cleondra Carter - one of 12 girls featured in season three. “I never watched the show after the first season because it just annoyed me to be honest,” she says. “They only showed the downfall of being a teen mom and stuff that a baby can 'take away,' when none of that is true.” Cleondra, just 17 and uninsured when she became pregnant, was actually contacted directly by casting scouts after being referred by a local health center near her home in rural Mississippi.
“This woman named Claudia told them about me because she thought I had a good head on my shoulders,” she remembers. “The next thing I know I have voicemails on my phone from MTV asking if I would be interested. After I found out that I was pregnant, it probably took them like two to three weeks to contact me.”
Amber came to the attention of casting scouts almost by accident. They were hoping to recruit her brother Shawn (and his now ex-wife, Samantha Hall) for a show called Engaged & Underage, which followed young couples as they prepared to say, “I do.” “I told them that we were already married and they said, 'that's fine,'” Shawn revealed on his personal blog. “They wanted to do a special with us. [MTV wanted us to] get married and then turn around and tell our families that we had been married for over four months at the time. I told them that they were not going to make a mockery out of my life.”
Teen Mom Confidential: Secrets & Scandals From MTV's Most Controversial Shows Page 2