Buy, Buy Baby

Jack (Sean Hayes) learns that OutTV, the gay television network where he is employed, has been bought by a "large corporation" and that his talk show Jack Talk will have a co-host "to widen the audience." Not in favor of the idea, Jack agrees and meets his co-host, Amber-Louise (Britney Spears). During an episode of Jack Talk, Jack is stunned to realize that OutTV, which has been bought by right-wing conservatives, have made changes to the show, including it being renamed Talk Time USA. Not thrilled at the idea, Jack is told to compromise; Amber-Louise admits to Jack that she is a lesbian, and is merely pretending to be an ultra-conservative Christian to get by in the TV world. She asks him to go along with it, so that he can keep his job. Jack gets on board and informs his guest, actor George Takei, that the network asked that he not reveal he is gay on the show. Will tells Jack not to be let himself be pushed around, and to stand up for who he is. Jack takes Will's advice and does not compromise, which ultimately costs him his job.

Grace's (Debra Messing) pregnancy prompts Karen (Megan Mullally) to have a baby of her own. She pays a surrogate, Cricket (Wanda Sykes), to carry her child. Grace, who is bewildered at the idea of Karen having a baby, suspects that the only reason is that she is having one. Karen, however, dismisses the idea. Meanwhile, Cricket begins to have second thoughts on becoming Karen's surrogate, following Karen's strange behavior towards her and Karen's admission on how she and her husband, Stanley, will raise the child. This prompts Cricket to quit and Karen revealing to Grace that the only reason she wanted a baby was to help her marriage. She also admits that she has thought about leaving her husband.

"Buy, Buy Baby" was written by Kirk J. Rudell and directed by series producer James Burrows.^[1] In February 2006, it was confirmed that singer Britney Spears would guest star on the show.^[2][3][4] She rehearsed with the cast on February 11, 2006,^[5] and recorded her lines in front of a live audience on February 13^[6] and February 15, 2006.^[7][8][9] Spears' appearance on Will & Grace was her first acting performance on prime-time television,^[10][11] and her first television appearance since giving birth to a child in September 2005.^[12][13] The show's creators, David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, thought she did a "surprisingly good job".^[14] On March 28, 2006, the Human Rights Campaign announced that actor George Takei would also appear in the episode,^[15] in support of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) issues since coming out as gay.^[16] In addition, actress Wanda Sykes appears as Cricket.^[17]

The episode first aired on NBC in the United States on March 30, 2006. According to a press release for "Buy, Buy Baby" released by NBC in February 2006, the episode was to air on April 13, 2006 (Maundy Thursday), the day before Good Friday and the crucifixion of Jesus.^[18] In the press release, NBC said the episode would include a scene in which Spears hosted a Christian cooking segment called "Cruci-fixins".^[19][20] The name of the segment was met with controversy from Christian groups, who called it a "mockery" of Jesus' crucifixion. According to the American Family Association (AFA), pressure from themselves and NBC's affiliates, caused NBC to cancel the segment and move the episode's air date.^[21] NBC, however, stated that the "Cruci-fixins" segment was "erroneous information" mistakenly included in the press release and that it was an idea for another episode that had yet to be written.^[18] An NBC spokesperson stated: "The reference to 'Cruci-fixins' will not be in the show and the storyline will not contain a Christian characterization at all. We value our viewers and sincerely regret if this misinformation has offended them."^[22] AFA responded by claiming that the network was "lying" in its claim that the segment had never been a part of the episode.^[21] A statement on AFA's website read:

In an attempt to confuse the public, the network issued an intentionally misleading statement that left the impression that AFA had lied to our supporters. When NBC said that the script 'has yet to be written,' what they didn't tell you is that the 'story board' had been completed and the offensive material was scheduled to be a part of the episode. The story board contains the outline of the program. That is the reason for the detailed description of the episode issued by NBC in their initial press release. The bottom line is that the actions taken by AFA online supporters like you caused them to rewrite the episode and remove the offensive segment.