The Baby Borrowers

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• According to ComingSoon, there is a modern remake of Red Dawn in the works.
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• E! reports that Jeffrey Tambor is coming to Entourage as another fifth-season guest star.
• Lil Wayne is once again topping the Billboard 200 list, Billboard reports.
• NBC News is going to produce a big Baby Borrowers reunion special, writes Variety.
• ComingSoon reports that the comic Elfquest will head to the big screen.
• Katherine Heigl's husband, musician Josh Kelley, might be the latest star to start producing TV shows, Entertainment Weekly reports.

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Would you let a teen borrow your baby to teach them a lesson in life? We talked to one mom who did. Natalie, a 31-year-old mother of four, offered up her youngest child, 6-month-old, Etta to be cared for by teenage couple, Sean (18) and Kelsey (18) on last night's episode of the The Baby Borrowers.

NBC's new show takes five young couples and thrusts them into the real world by giving them a house to live in, followed by babies, tots, school aged children, preteens, teens, pets and elderly people as charges. The series couldn't be more timely with magazine covers dedicated to Jamie Lynn Spears's transition from Nickelodeon star to new mama. And, it's the glamorization of teen pregnancy that is why Natalie, who had her first son at the tender age of 17, decided to volunteer (no one on the show was paid) her offspring. With a professional nanny following the couple, and the ability to watch them on monitors and intervene at any time, the mother helped Kelsey experience the realities — the sleepless nights and frustration — of motherhood.

Did you have any apprehension about handing your baby over to teenagers? Not really — I thought it was important to do the show and everything was in place as far as safety measures. So I wasn't in fear at all as far as their (Natalie's son, Benjamin appears in the second episode) physical well being and I think that I was on hand to ensure emotional well being for them. I went over and interjected at one point.

What was the breaking point that made you decide to interfere? Well, Sean got frustrated and then he cursed, and said, "Put it in the other room it's just gonna cry anyway". The fact that he cursed and was referring to my daughter as "it" was my last straw.

To hear about Natalie's own experience as a teen mom and how she believes teenage pregnancy is portrayed in the media, read more

Ever since I proclaimed it a Bad Idea of the Week way back in March of '07, I've been utterly fascinated with NBC's show The Baby Borrowers, which is finally set to premiere next Wednesday, June 25. The show takes teenage couples and essentially asks them to become parents overnight, as they care for babies, toddlers, preteens, teenagers, and, eventually, senior citizens. (Why not toss in a 47-year-old in the throes of a midlife crisis, while they're at it?)

The show is based on a British series of the same name, and I'm told that over there, it was a pretty educational and informative show. But from watching the previews for the NBC version, I can't tell what kind of tone the U.S. version of the show is going to have. Am I meant to laugh at these crazy kids and their predicament? Feel sorry for them? Be angry on behalf of the actual families of the kids and adults they're caring for? Take it as a poignant appreciation of the life cycle? The moral still seems to be "hey, kids, life sucks" — and watching even a single episode of that seems like it would be more harrowing than entertaining.

The show was originally supposed to air back in February, when our own LilSugar got freaked out by the concept. But the premiere got changed to the Summer, and so I'm wondering: If you've seen the previews, how do you feel about the show? To watch a trailer and a couple of shorter clips, just read more

ABC, CBS, and Fox have joined NBC in releasing their Summer schedules in recent days, and while we're still waiting on The CW, this already gives us a pretty good sense of how the season will look. There's a lot of reality, of course, but at least one cool scripted series is also on the schedule. Here are some of the goodies:

• Swingtown, the CBS series about '70s swinger couples, will finally see the light of day! It's scheduled to air Thursday nights at 10 starting June 5.
• So You Think You Can Dance will be the centerpiece of Fox's Summer schedule again (yay!), following last year's pattern of performance shows on Wednesdays and results shows on Thursdays. The show will also have a two-night premiere starting Thursday, May 22, and continuing the following Wednesday.
• NBC is touting this as its All-American Summer, thanks to the August broadcast of the Summer Olympics. Apparently, a big part of that is American Gladiators, which returns May 12.
• The High School Musical reality show, now called High School Musical: Summer Session, will begin airing July 20, taking over both Sundays and Mondays for three weeks and ultimately airing on Mondays until the grand-prize winner is chosen.
• ABC's two big reality franchises, The Bachelorette and The Mole, both kick off in May: The Bachelorette starts May 19, while the new edition of The Mole starts May 26.
• Last Comic Standing, meanwhile, returns to NBC May 22.

As for other reality shows, there's a ridiculous-sounding crop in the works — many of which were in my spot the fake pilot quiz. To check out a list, just read more

There's not a chance I'd hand my babe over to teenagers so they could play house with him in front of television cameras. Call me crazy, but I'd also never sign a consent form for my kids to go to Bonanza City and start a "kids only" pioneer town, though I admit the concept made for some pretty incredible episodes of Kid Nation and I was awed at a couple of those children.

So, I'm hoping tonight's episode of The Baby Borrowers also proves me wrong. To learn more about this new reality show, read more

Some ideas are so jaw-droppingly bad, they make fun of themselves, and this new reality show from NBC is one of them. Called "The Baby Borrowers" and based on a BBC series of the same name, the premise involves five teenage couples being made to take care of babies, toddlers, pre-teens, and aging grandparents over the course of a month. I can't possibly be funnier than NBC's own press release, so here are excerpts:

As the five young participating couples are asked to literally grow up overnight, their journey begins when they are given a quiet suburban home and attend pre-natal classes as the "mother" wears a simulated "empathy" belly to prepare them for the arrival of their "baby."

When a real one appears at their door — courtesy of five real mothers who each entrusts her infant to one of the five couples — the fumbling new teen parents are in for three long, arduous days that make chilling out a distant memory. They must stick to rigid routines (under supervision), handle the feeding chores, diaper duty and crying jags that might be shared by both baby and teens.

Five real mothers are going to give their babies to some teenage fools surrounded by video cameras for three days? That sounds like a surefire way to irrevocably screw up your child. Could you imagine showing your son or daughter that video later? "Look, honey! That's when your fake mommy put Sprite in your bottle!"

There's a lot more, so read more