How Did I Manage To Miss “16 And Pregnant?”

First off, let me start by saying, I am not exactly a fan of the concept of this MTV television show, at least not its earliest incarnations of it. With that being said, I have been a faithful viewer since the first season and have also followed “Teen Mom.”

Now that I have my DVR set to record a repeat of the latest season premiere, I did a little search on what the previous mothers featured in this series have been up to since their seasons of “16 and Pregnant” and a couple of follow-up years on “Teen Mom,” hit the airways.

The first two seasons of “16 and Pregnant” followed the lives of several girls as they dealt with the issues that come along with teen pregnancy. While it seems true that teen mothers tend to breed more teen mothers, seeing the perks offered by MTV to those unfortunate enough to be in that situation seemed to spawn a few of their own as well. Several of the young women featured had friends and family members that magically turned up pregnant, in hopes that MTV would find their stories as compelling and offer them the chance at fame and a nice paycheck.

For the girls whose lives were further showcased on “Teen Mom,” that meant the biggest payday of all because the mothers were given a hefty salary for that show themselves, without the majority having to be put in trust for their children.

Amber Portwood, one of the hottest messes of all the mothers featured, had to report her salary to a judge in court back in 2010 (not sure if this was for the domestic violence charges against her, fraud or those pesky drug charges) and the grand total for this “poor teen mom” was $280,000.

I do believe, however, that MTV may have seen the error of their ways. After the first couple of seasons of “16 and Pregnant,” they seemed to stop offering the “Teen Mom” gig to the girls, replacing that series instead with a simple follow-up show to check-in on the girls and their children.

Or maybe MTV realized that besides giving great incentive for young teens to get knocked up, it was also incredibly difficult for the general public to muster up much sympathy for a gang of teen girls that were consistently shown enjoying days at the spa, new cars, new apartments, designer bags, vacation trips and breast enhancement surgery.