Will Americans Finally See Actual Sex on TV?

JESUSLAND—We remember being pleasantly surprised back in 2008 when we read that the Rev. Ed Young, pastor of the Fellowship (Mega)Church in Grapevine, TX, challenged the couples in his flock of 20,000 parishioners to "strengthen their unions through Seven Days of Sex." "Today we’re beginning this sexperiment, seven days of sex," Young said on November 16, 2008, as reported in The New York Times. "How to move from whining about the economy to whoopee!" Of course, it didn't hurt when Mrs. Pastor Young joined her husband on stage, dressed in knee-high black boots and jeans, and affirmed that after practicing the seven-day formula, "some of us are smiling." Apparently the idea was, since western religion spends so much time condemning sex and branding its most ardent practitioners as "sinners" even as it encourages its adherents to "be fruitful and multiply," that people who've been so traumatized by their preachers need to learn to be more intimate with each other, not just physically but mentally as well—and that such newly-minted closeness will act as a guard against the debilitating effects of the daily routines of "careers, exhaustion, outside commitments and kids." Even reactionary pundit Tucker Carlson was moved to support the concept, writing in an article on The Daily Beast that, "Once you factor out venereal diseases, there's almost nothing better for you than regular sex. Judging from the many studies on the subject, a daily romp is healthier than yoga, a five-mile run and a handful of multivitamins combined. Sex has been shown to ameliorate memory, posture, depression, anxiety, insomnia, menstrual cramps, digestion, bladder control, dental health and the sense of smell." He even lambasted the "tens of thousands of federal bureaucrats" in the Bush administration for failing to have "caught on and launched an ad campaign on billboards and city buses" with slogans like "Sex: It's the Right Thing to Do" or "Take a Minute for Couchball." ("Couchball"?) And now, three-and-a-half years later, the Lifetime Networks is apparently going to go that distance. "The network will launch a new reality series, '7 Days of Sex,' on April 26," thewrap.com reported on Tuesday. "The show will challenge couples 'to have sex for one week straight with the hope of saving their marriage,' the network said." "Lifetime is about tapping into the lives of women as they are today… bolder, unapologetic and authentic,"  said Nancy Dubuc, President and General Manager of Lifetime Networks. "'7 Days of Sex' is a reflection of the challenges in our relationships—balancing time, family, work and trying to achieve real intimacy while being honest and true to ourselves." According to TheWrap, "Each episode of the show, which is being produced by Shed Media US ... will feature two couples who 'attempt to make radical fixes to their troubled relationships by asking the frank question: can a diet of daily sex help them recharge their marriage?'" Viewers probably shouldn't hold out too much hope that that will be the case, since Shed Media US has already been responsible for the series "Basketball Wives" and "The Real Housewives of New York City"... but if AVN readers are up to giving it a shot—and seeing how far Lifetime is willing to go to actually show the sex that forms the basis for the series—they can tune in at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific on April 26 on The Lifetime Networks.