US TV network Nickelodeon may broadcast a special about teen sex after news that its 16-year-old Zoey 101 star Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. Filming for Zoey's fourth and final series has already finished and episodes are due to start airing in February.
But it is not clear if the hit programme - aimed at children aged between nine and 14-years-old - will return now that Spears is to be a mother.
Now Nickelodeon is in talks with veteran news anchor Linda Ellerbee, who has previously hosted television events about same-sex parents, AIDS, the Columbine shooting and President Clinton's impeachment scandal.
She said: "I think it's important that something be done. "But I think it's important that it be done in a measured way, and not just to feed the beast of news stories."
She told a US newspaper: "This is a great opportunity for parents at this moment to talk to their kids about this - more important [sic], to listen to their kids about this."
A Nickelodeon spokesman, Dan Martinsen, confirmed they were in talks with Ellerbee. Spears, the younger sister of pop star Britney Spears, told a US magazine this week that she was pregnant.
The father is 19-year-old boyfriend, Casey Aldridge. She has said she plans to raise the baby in her home state of Louisiana. At the time of the news Nickelodeon released a statement supporting Spears.
A spokesman said: "We respect Jamie Lynn's decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn's well being."
But the network has faced criticism over its support for the teenager. One television critic, David Hinckley of the New York Daily News, said that to end "this sordid moment" with a lesson, Nickelodeon should pull the plug on Zoey 101.
He wrote: "If Nickelodeon keeps Jamie Lynn Spears because her product sells, it runs the risk that a valuable message it has spent years crafting could shift from `trust us' to `whatever'."
The third season of Zoey 101, which is still being shown now, ends with a cliffhanger episode about whether Spears' character continues to attend a boarding school in California or move to London with her parents. It comes amid reports that Aldridge is planning to marry his young girlfriend in a shotgun wedding.
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