Reality TV search for sperm donor

A Dutch television station may begin a series of reality TV programmes called 'I want your child... and nothing else!' in which a woman searches for a man to donate sperm so that she can have a child. The pilot programme needs to 'win' a viewers' vote after five different competing pilot reality TV shows are shown this week, in order to be made into a series. One of the programmes it is competing with features five ex-prostitutes setting up a cafe, while another features a couple who have never met before getting engaged.

The first 'I want your child' programme was aired this week in the Netherlands on new channel Talpa, which was launched earlier this month. Talpa is the brainchild of TV producer John de Mol, who was part of the Endemol team that created 'Big Brother', before selling the Endemol name for £3.7 billion. Last year, Endemol hit the headlines when it devised 'Make Me a Mum', a reality TV show broadcast in Germany in which men competed in a 'sperm race' to get a childless woman pregnant. A 30-year old woman who features in the new programme, identified only as Yessica, told a Dutch newspaper that 'the plan is that we visit potential donors and - of course on camera - decide which man is most suitable'. The pilot episode of the show featured Yessica explaining her desire for a child and appealing for potential sperm donors to come forward by sending her an email.

If the programme is made into a series, the final show will see Yessica choosing her donor and being artificially inseminated with his sperm.