Who’s Your Daddy?

Who’s Your Daddy? is a Fox reality television program hosted by soap opera actress Finola Hughes. The first of six planned episodes aired in January 2005 to low ratings and a torrent of hostile press attention, prompting Fox to shelve the remaining shows indefinitely. They have since appeared on Fox Reality.

For the show’s premise, an adult who had been put up for adoption as an infant was placed in a room with 25 men, one of whom was their biological father. If the contestant could correctly pick out who was their father, the contestant would win $100,000. If they chose incorrectly, the person that they incorrectly selected would get the $100,000, although the contestant would still be reunited with his or her father.

This show drew controversy from adoption rights organizations, leading to one Fox affiliate declining to air the series pilot, a 90-minute special. The first adoption contestant was actress T. J. Myers. After the pilot finished fourth in the Nielsen ratings for its time slot, Fox decided not to broadcast the other five episodes that had been produced. However, the pilot aired as a ‘special’ and not as a ‘series premiere’ so technically the series was canceled before airing an episode. United Press International reported that Myers “guessed which of eight men was her father. She guessed correctly and won $100,000.”