American reality show Teen Mom (a
spin-off of the TV series 16 and Pregnant which followed pregnant
teenagers) first began in late 2009. I'm a long-time fan who also
watched 16 and Pregnant, and has watched Teen Mom and its sister show Teen Mom 2 over the years. Both programmes featured 4 girls from 16 and Pregnant.
Now both Teen Mom (later renamed Teen Mom OG aka Original Girls) and Teen Mom 2 have been combined into one show called Teen Mom: The Next Chapter (Teen Mom Legacy was a working title at one point). News of the "mega-show" began circulating earlier this year and then the new series premiered in the US on 6th September. It starts in the UK next week, so today I'm taking a look at the show.
The Next Chapter features girls (or women now!) from both programmes- Maci Bookout (now also known as Maci Bookout McKinney), Amber Portwood, Catelyn Lowell (Baltierra) and Ashley Jones from TM OG, and Leah Messer, Briana DeJesus, Cheyenne Floyd and Jade Cline from TM 2. Briana was originally on the short-lived Teen Mom 3 and later joined the Teen Mom 2 cast, while both Ashley and Jade starred on the newer show Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant and were moved to TM OG and TM 2 respectively.
Cheyenne was not originally from the Teen Mom franchise but appeared on MTV shows Are You The One? and The Challenge. In fact, The Challenge was where she met Cory Wharton, the father of her daughter Ryder (now 5). (Cory still regularly takes part in The Challenge.) Cheyenne joined Teen Mom OG in 2018, along with Bristol Palin (daughter of politician Sarah Palin). However, Bristol left after one season.
Mums who aren't appearing in The Next Chapter are Teen Mom OG star Farrah Abraham who left the show (or was basically forced to quit) in 2018 after falling out with the other girls and pursuing a career in the adult entertainment industry, which producers weren't happy with; TM 2 stars Chelsea Houska (now Chelsea DeBoer) who left in 2020 and Kailyn Lowry who announced she was leaving earlier this year. Jenelle Evans was fired from Teen Mom 2 in 2019, after controversy with her husband David Eason, but a trailer for the show sees her make a shock return! Just for one episode, as far as I'm aware.
Here's the official trailer:
As someone who's watched from the beginning, I'm interested to see what this new format will be like. However, it doesn't seem that much different to the other shows. I think the only difference is that they "rotate" the mums, not everyone is shown in every episode. I suppose that gives it more variety.
I do think that both Teen Mom OG and Teen Mom 2 were getting a bit stale recently. None of them are teen mothers now and most of the "originals" have very different lifestyles to when they started out. I don't know how much longer MTV will keep the franchise going, but there are newer programmes such as Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant (currently in its 3rd season) and the international shows like Teen Mom UK (we just had Series 8 this summer).
Visit the MTV site to read more about The Next Chapter: https://www.mtv.com/news/vnwhl3/the-teen-moms-are-about-to-begin-their-next-chapter
Teen Mom: The Next Chapter starts on Wednesday 21st September at 8pm, on MTV UK.
Hope you liked the post! :) If you're a Teen Mom fan, what do you think of the new series or will be you be watching (if it's not started yet in your country)?
Want more Teen Mom? Check out these posts:
10 Years of Teen Mom (2019): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/06/10-years-of-teen-mom.html
Teen Mom + Unexpected Round-up (also features TLC teen pregnancy show Unexpected): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/02/teen-mom-unexpected-round-up.html
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