Hunt for TV sperm racers

The producers behind Big Brother are planning the most controversial reality show in the history of TV, it emerged today.

Make Me A Mum will feature men competing to father a child and to take part in a "sperm race".

Fertility groups have condemned the show before it has even reached TV screens.

The series is being developed by part of the Endemol TV empire, the company that makes controversial reality show Big Brother.

Channel 4 has seen ratings soar following outrageous behaviour of contestants - including nudity, swearing and brawling - after Endemol promised the show would "get evil".

Over six episodes of Make Me A Mum, 1,000 male contestants would be whittled down to a final pair by using two criteria. For the first, the childless woman will choose the man she considers the most suitable father based on sex appeal, intelligence, personality, wealth and fitness. The second man would be chosen according to genetic compatibility and the quality of his sperm.

The sperm race finale will be filmed with new German technology to see which of the finalists' sperm reaches the female's egg first. Endemol's global creative team has fast-tracked the show and it is set to be offered to broadcasters in the UK and US.

It will cause concern at a time when the issue of designer babies is on the agenda. It follows reports that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority plans to relax rules on parents' screening of embryos to have babies whose matching tissue could save seriously ill siblings.

Josephine Quintavalle, director of Comment On Reproductive Ethics, said: "The whole thing is beyond belief. Every time you think we've reached the ultimate level of degradation of human production it goes a step further.

"Broadcasters have a responsibility not to go so far beyond the realms of good taste and decency that they're prepared to abuse the rights of children. The end result of this titillation is a child. For it to receive all of that invasion of privacy from the very beginning is unbelievable."

Make Me A Mum is being developed by Endemol UK subsidiary Brighter Pictures which was behind Sky One series There's Something About Miriam, in which men unwittingly tried to seduce a male transexual they thought was a woman, and US sister company True Entertainment.

Rumy Blumenfeld, creative director of Brighter Pictures, said: "It's much more about the rules of science than the rules of attraction. It's about what we don't know, what we can't see." Make Me A Mum came out of a meeting between Endemol's creative network from 21 countries.

An Endemol spokesman said: "This programme idea does not have any broadcaster involved. It was an idea put forward in an international meeting. I would not have thought it would be made this year. It may never reach the screen."

It is not clear whether the programme would feature artificial fertilisation or whether the participants would have sex. It was stressed that men taking part would be screened for sexually transmitted diseases.

A Channel 4 spokeswoman said: "There are currently no plans to make this for Channel 4."