“Obviously we knew exactly what sort of man would be attracted to participate such a show, with its implicit promise of virtually instant sexual gratification for them. I mean that’s the whole point of the show, isn’t it? To gratify the voyeuristic appetites of viewers hoping to see some real life sex on TV,” explains Gordon Tetchwell, producer of the controversial realty TV show Shagged at first Sight, which has found itself at the centre of controversy amid allegations from female participants of sexual assault. “What else would you expect from a format based around the idea of putting together complete strangers in the hope, not of love at first sight, but overpowering physical sexual attraction? But it’s what the punters want – it’s one of the channel’s highest rated shows.” Hard on the heels of similar claims about Channel Four’s similarly themed Married at First Sight, the scandal surrounding the show, broadcast by the UK’s notorious Channel Six (or ‘Channel Sex’ as it is known to its critics), has placed a spotlight on the UK’s many sex-themed reality shows. “These sorts of format practically invite sexual abuse,” says Dr Jimmy Culch, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at the Clerkenwell Institute of Fabric Technology. “They are entirely based around the idea that the audience are a bunch of slaving, voyeuristic perverts who are only watching because they want to participate in the vicarious pleasure of imagining the contestants having sex with each other – the whole, implicit, question of who is going to shag who and when, is the mainspring of the format.  It’s all hugely irresponsible!”

Tetchwell, whose production company has been behind many of the shows currently under scrutiny, has no sympathy with critics of this sort of reality TV. “I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw that various people involved with the show said that there had been too much emphasis on sex.  You don’t say?” he snorts derisively. “I know that a lot of producers of such shows will try to claim that these formats represent some sort of sociological experiment.  Utter bullshit!  It’s titillation, pure and simple!” Indeed, Tetchwell admits that Shagged at First Sight was devised as a response to Married at First Sight, which he and his team considered to be too tame. “They were too focused on trying to sell it as some kind of bold sociological experiment, almost as if they were ashamed to admit that it was really about sex,” he declares. “We just wanted to be honest and up front as to what we were giving the punters. That’s the trouble, there’s too much hypocrisy in British TV production and commissioning – too much middle class hand wringing. They want their cake and eat it – serving up titillation while justifying it as somehow being of cultural significance.”

On this issue, at least, Tetchwell finds common ground with Culch. “It’s quite true, they like to dress these shows up as serious investigations into social attitudes toward sex and relationships, but they are really just smut – misogynistic smut, at that,” muses the academic. “Just look at another Channel Four format – Naked Attraction – which is like Blind Date, but with the hopefuls having to select their potential mate on the basis of viewing various bits of their naked anatomies.  Titillation and sexual objectification, all in one package!  It’s quite clear that the audience at home are being invited to look at the naked bodies – particularly the female ones – and say ‘Yeah, I’d shag that’.  Talk about depersonalisation.” But Channel Four aren’t the only offenders here, he points out, singling out, in particular, ITV’s Love Island .  Once again, he argues, it’s an exercise in crude voyeurism, with the audience invited to ogle all those near naked beautiful bodies while speculating on who is going to ‘do’  who and, no doubt, asking themselves who they’d ‘do’.” “It wouldn’t be so bad if the makers of these shows were just honest about what they are really about: sex, voyeurism and the objectification of, primarily, women, reducing them simply to bodies to be lusted over and judged, rather than as people,” sighs Culch.  “Perhaps they should just come up with a new format where all the guys are sex offenders and have semi-naked women paraded in front of them in order to see who breaks first and tries to rape one of the girls.  You can guarantee that there’d be guys at home urging some of them on – ‘Go on, get in there, mate.  She’s just gagging for it!’”

Coincidentally, Tetchwell has announced that his production company has another new reality show in development for Channel Six. “It’s a format along the lines of Love Island, except that one of the girls is actually underage and see if the guys can work it out before they sleep with her,” he says. “Obviously, we’d make out sure that we’d stop it all before anyone actually had sex with a minor. But just to make out sure that we aren’t at risk of any kind of legal action, we’re currently looking for an overseas location where the age of consent is lower than in the UK and child protection laws are a bit looser.” Clearly, the ‘attraction’ behind all of these sex-based ‘reality’ TV shows, for both networks and audiences, is that they are dealing with ‘taboo’ subjects surrounding sex  – in much the same way that hardcore pornography’s big draw is the promise of seeing real sexual intercourse take place, so it is with these shows, the promise of contestants ‘doing it’ for real.  It’s pushing boundaries, the producers will say.  But what will they do when the novelty of ‘ordinary people’ shagging wears off

“It wouldn’t surprise me if they had reality shows following serial killers around, perhaps with the public voting on who their next victim should be. Or it could be like that show where people have to avoid being tracked down by those ‘hunters’ – except the ‘hunters’ are psychopathic serial killers,” opines Culch. “I suppose the ultimate format would be A version of The Traitors where one contestant is an actual psychopath and murders their rivals for real?  Or maybe live torture shows from the dungeons of some horrible dictatorship far from UK laws?  Viewers could take bets on which victim will last longest.  Quite frankly, nothing would surprise me these days.” Culch’s ideas have certainly impressed Tetchwell, who has offered him a contract to further develop them into full-fledged formats that could be sold to UK networks and streaming service. “There’s real potential in some of those ideas,” he says. “That guy could make an absolute fortune in royalties if any of them were to be commissioned.”