Ratings for Reality Are Down -- Love and Sex Storm Back on TV

By Vanessa Richmond, The Tyee. Posted February 23, 2009.

Is it me, or is there more love in the air than usual? Rose-colored glasses are everywhere, and not just from a V-day hangover or annual spring fever. The reality malaise is in full bloom, both on TV's small screen and life's big screen. Down with reality! We want escape!

Reality TV? You're fired

Yes, reality TV's ratings are down consistently enough that we can safely call the genre "old school." Ha ha, remember the days we watched that stuff, kids? It's fading into the stuff of nostalgia along with embarrassing memories of the last U.S. president -- what was his name again?

If you're not sufficiently love-crazed yourself that you still crave facts, here they are. Generally speaking, reality is no longer drawing the eyeballs. The harder things get, the less viewers want it. Just look at Australia, which has arguably seen more tough times than other developed countries lately with the combination of recession and catastrophic fires. Down under, they've seen the sharpest drop in viewership.

It appears viewers don't really want to know Howie Do It, and have fired shows based on firings (Trump); instead, they want to skip into the stuff dreams are made of. Me included. Escapism dances through new and old TV shows, through comedies and some new fantasy-rich dramas. And while sex and TV have always gone together like a horse and carriage, there's more fantasy sex than usual on the small screen right now.

A return to Fantasy Island?

The highly anticipated (and highly disappointing) new Joss Whedon show, Dollhouse, follows an organization that employs mind-wiped, DNA-altered humans known as dolls, who are implanted with false memories and skills for various missions and tasks. It opens with an urban motorcycle race between a man and a long-haired woman (complete with clichéd, helmet-removal-hair-swinging moment), followed by a scene on the dance floor where the main character, Echo, is clad in a dress (or is it a top?) that, let's just say, my mother would not have let me out of the house in. The tagline of the show: "They can be anyone you want."

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Sadly, this is no Buffy, Whedon's most famous, subtly smart, feminist, sexy and fantastical series. And I think one of the reasons it will bomb is not just that it pales in comparison to sexy vampire slayers or that it's on during the Friday night viewing graveyard, but because the idea that anyone would pay a small fortune for one date is a stretch right now. It seems so decadent, so Paris Hilton, so... 2007. Love and sex should be free, now, right?

Comedies in heat, too

Others are tuned into other comedies rich with sexytime twists. United States of Tara, a new-ish show produced by Steven Spielberg, is out to capitalize on Showtime's strength at creating quirky, character-driven comedies (Weeds, Californication). Toni Colette's character, Tara, who has multiple personality disorder, has lost her libido for her husband, but many of her alters haven't. She and her hubby have a rule that he can't have sex with the alters, especially the teenage personality, T, but that doesn't stop the alters from trying to seduce him. Different enough from your own life?

Or even in 30 Rock last week, Tina Fey's character concocted elaborate lies to get a date with Mad Men's Jon Hamm, who played a sexy, recently divorced pediatrician. And Alec Baldwin wanted to get into Salma Hayek's pants so much that he was willing to go to Catholic Church to get there. The Secret Diary of a Call Girl launched its second season this week, with Billy Piper's character more blissed out than ever about her chosen profession. And even on Gossip Girl, things are steamier than usual -- the new English teacher who previously praised 17-year-old Dan's writing, now praising rather more intimate skills.

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Tyee contributing editor Vanessa Richmond writes the Schlock and Awe column about popular culture and the media.