Between the wildcats on Tiger King and the fail-tastic baking abominations on Nailed It!, the start of the COVID pandemic left reality TV viewers with many guilty pleasures to choose from. So many, in fact, that you may have missed the one show from that time that dared to go where no reality TV show had gone before, by including a masturbation competition in its very first episode.
Labor of Love made us wonder if the straights were okay all over again by featuring Kristy Katzmann, a 41-year-old bachelorette who got to choose which of 15 men would win her heart and the honor of impregnating her.
Accompanied by And Just Like That…‘s Kristin Davis, Katzmann greeted the men in the show’s May 2020 premiere episode. Waiters then handed each man a cup, and Katzmann announced that she wanted a sperm sample from each one to prove that they could actually be fathers.
“I did not see this coming, no pun intended,” said one of the competitors, Matt Kaye.
It may seem a bit premature to ask a guy to fill a cuppy on the first date, but Katzmann’s biological clock is ticking and she wants a bun in the oven — hey, no judgments, gurl! You do you.
The men — a hunky stable of guys in their late 30s or early 40s, all dressed in the kind of casual suits you’d wear to an Easter brunch — each stepped into an individual private booth to perform. A gay version of the show would’ve ditched the booths altogether.
“The fact that all of these guys were willing to do this test in front of me? I’m pretty convinced they’re here for the right reasons,” Katzmann said, which is… certainly one way to look at it.
Once each man “finished,” they emerged slightly flustered to their fellow competitors’ cheers and applause. One guy jokingly told a recent finisher, “I hope you used hand sanitizer.”
As if this wasn’t enough, one of the men, Alan Santini, actually got awarded a trophy by Katzmann’s fertility specialist, Dr. Kaplan, for having the highest sperm count.
Cut to Marcus Lehman, an anesthesiologist and masturbation contest loser, who bitterly commented, “As a doctor, it takes a lot to have a kid. More than your sperm count.”
As the show goes on, Katzmann eliminates between two and three “dad-chelors” per episode. Hilariously, the show’s challenges seemed to reveal very little about whether the men would actually make good fathers, the feminist cultural website Jezebel noted. One episode tested how the men reacted when a guy in a bear suit walked behind Katzmann during a campfire chat in the woods.
After filming ended, Katzmann dated the winner, Kyle Klinger, for a few months. But the couple broke up and Katzmann chose to pursue in vitro fertilization on her own.
Labor of Love was officially canceled on September 8, 2021.
Tad
Just when you think reality TV can’t get any more absurd, tacky and inappropriate. This is really grotesque.
JOEY NYC
shes disgusting for making them do that. cum crazed whore.she was probably drinking the spooge back stage. shes a pig no wonder they all hated her
Henreid
I pity any child who will endure the misfortune of having Kristy Katzmann as a mother.
missvamp
agreed- someone call cps right now. yikes.
nm4047
clutching at my pearls that this rubbish didn’t get a 2nd season, if only that was the case with ALL of them, fly on the wall scripted crap.
johncp56
did she do it? for? damn to be a pig i would have gotten samples from them all, and swallow
SDR94103
what if they made women do this. there would be an uproar, from women.
Caelestius
These idiotic shows are all variations on The Apprentice–life, work, money, sports, danger, love, sex, muscles, marriage all becomes spectacle fodder for commercial backing, producer profit and consumer dumb-down. And it groomed the Trump voter, who learned to crave victimhood as entertainment to-go, with a side of stupidity pride.