By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Monday, June 8, 2015
OWN announced it has scrapped an OWN reality show featuring 45-year-old Atlanta music producer Jay Williams, who has had a whopping 34 children with 17 different women. OWN did not explain why it killed the series, which was originally announced in March.
"Production has ended and the series will not air," the statement said. The original concept was to continue what OWN's Iyanla VanZant focused on during her last season of "Iyanla: Fix My Life."
V-103's Ryan Cameron reported last week that Williams was having issues with OWN that led to the show's demise. StraightFromtheA, a local gossip site, first wrote about problems behind the scenes, none of which I have been able to confirm. Williams, when reached for comment, said he was still under contract and could not explain what happened.
The show was supposed to chronicle his continuing efforts to patch up relationships with his children and the baby mamas. He had begun this journey on the "Iyanla: Fix My Life" program in multiple episodes. He was treated with relative dignity by OWN and VanZant worked hard on air to dig into his mental state and his background to understand what compelled him to spread his seed so far and wide. The mothers and kids willing to be on screen revealed plenty of resentment toward him and his inability to provide enough emotional and financial support for them.
I didn't see any real backlash from this show compared to one that was considered in early 2013 by TLC called "All My Babies' Mamas" featuring Atlanta's Carlos "Shawty-Lo" Walker, a rapper who had 11 children from 9 women. That show was eventually scrapped before it even aired. (Read my original story about that show.)
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