Can Oxygen Sell Viewers Hooked On ?Talk Sex??

BY JON LAFAYETTE

Sex always attracts a crowd, but it might not always sell, at least not on commercial cable.

You might be surprised to learn that the most-watched original show on Oxygen didn't feature Oprah Winfrey talking about spirituality or shopping. Nope. It was grandmotherly Sue Johanson talking frankly about premature ejaculation and nipple rings at midnight on Talk Sex.

Oxygen began airing the Canadian version of the show (which appears on the women's-oriented W network there) in 2001, then in November launched a live Sunday night version that allows Americans to pose questions.

The network doesn't fully subscribe to Nielsen Media Research and does not release ratings numbers, but a spokesperson said Talk Sex's Nov. 3 debut was its top-rated original telecast. That would eclipse episodes of Oprah After the Show, which launched with great ballyhoo in the fall.

Another way of measuring the attention the show is getting is the 2 million hits on the show's website, according to Johanson, a new and improved model of Dr. Ruth, without the absurd accent.

Johanson knows one reason she can broach taboo subjects on the air is because of her appearance. ?I look like somebody's grandmother and I am not cute and I'm not coy and I don't have big white teeth and I haven't got big boobs, so I'm seen as safe and mature and knowledgeable,? she said.

A sex educator for 25 years who's been on radio and TV since 1984, Johanson is likely to become even more well known in America this year, with an appearance on Late Night With Conan O'Brien and a TV Guide profile expected to appear later this month.

While viewers are practically salivating, advertisers aren't aroused. That's hardly surprising. As Shari Anne Brill, director, communications and programming services, at media buyer Carat U.S.A., said, sex will attract viewers, but advertisers stay away from such programs.

Indeed, watching a few episodes of Talk Sex reveals much of the commercial time is taken up by direct response ads for a product that stimulates female sexual responsiveness and promos for other Oxygen shows. Liquor seller Diageo also has bought spots for its Bailey's cream liqueur.

Johanson said she didn't know who sponsors her show. When asked about the product advertised on her U.S. show, Climatique, she said she got a carton and handed it out to her staff to try. ?One of my crew had a nasty allergic reaction to it, and one or two said, ?Well, it tingles, but I sure wasn't horny,? and the others just said it didn't do anything.? Despite that dismaying field research, she doesn't mind if the product buys time on her show. ?But don't ask me to promote it and say it's the greatest thing since sliced bread,? she added.

Debby Beece, president of programming for Oxygen, said the network is seeking more traditional advertisers for the show. ?I think there are more natural fits, like movie companies, things like that, that would be open to this,? she said.

Bob Berkowitz, a sex-on-cable pioneer with his CNBC show Real Personal, which ran from 1992 to 1996, thinks sponsors may be a bit looser today. While advertisers may have been shocked by sex a decade ago, ?I think [in 2003] that is dramatically less true,? said Berkowitz, whose new show, Naked New York, launched on Rainbow Media's regional Metro network in October. ?I've been talking to the people in our sales department, and they're saying they're getting a fantastic reaction to the show. Major, major mainstream advertisers are ready to jump on board.?

Greg Moyer, president of regional programming for Rainbow Media, is a bit more restrained in his enthusiasm. He said the show hasn't landed major sponsors yet because its debut missed the fourth-quarter ad buying window, and at this point, advertisers are more interested in making national buys, rather than regional ones. ?The real test is going to be the first quarter,? Moyer said. ?We're encouraged, believe me.?

Metro doesn't release ratings numbers, but Moyer said Naked New York is ?consistently our highest-rated program in prime time, with the exception of live sports.? Metro is considering syndicating the show to TV stations in markets outside New York.

If sex shows are so popular with viewers, one might ask why there aren't more of them.

?America's got this grand ambivalence about sex,? answered Berkowitz. ?On one hand we're turned on and excited about it. On the other hand we're very nervous and anxious. So I think sometimes those conflicting emotions get in the way of smart television programming. I also think a lot of times television programmers vastly underestimate the sophistication and lack of judgment in terms of sexuality of the audience.?

Unlike Real Personal or Talk Sex ? both programs mainly answer questions about sex ? ?we define sex broadly? on Naked New York. ?We really range far beyond just the bedroom, though we spend some time there, too.?

Johanson and Talk Sex stick more to the nuts and bolts of the subject.

Beece found Johanson through a friend who programs the Canadian network. Beece looked at the tape, and ?it was love at first sight,? she said.

She thinks Johanson is a ?very empathetic woman who deals with a lot of problems in a very poignant and real emotional way.?

The call-in format makes Talk Sex fairly inexpensive, Beece said. Oxygen made very few changes from the Canadian show. ?I think we changed the set a little bit,? Beece said. But Oxygen hasn't placed any constraints on what Johanson talks about.

On the first night, the switchboard lit up with American viewers who'd been watching the Canadian version on Oxygen, and, according to Beece, the network has gotten only positive response about the program.

Johanson got her first radio show in 1984 after being interviewed on TV and radio about the high school birth control clinic she started in Toronto in 1980. She started a show on Rogers Cable that ran for 13 years. Then along came the W network in Canada, where she's now in her eighth year.

At first, sex didn't sell for Johanson. Radio paid little, and her first cable gig didn't pay at all. Now it does, she said, declining to be specific, but noting that being seen in the U.S. is much more lucrative than up north. ?I'm not complaining,? she said.

Johanson said she's hardly a night person. But she gets excited for her midnight show.

?I do come to life for that and love it. As soon as the music comes up and I hear it in my IFB, it's like, wow, we're on, let's play television.?