Parents TV Council Rejects WE TV’s ‘Sex Box’ Offer

Parents Television Council this morning responded to WE tv’s offer to anyone who will watch its new reality series Sex Box with what it thinks is a better offer.

In a tongue-in-cheek If You Can’t Beat ‘Em Join ‘Em ad campaign launched this week, WE tv encouraged people to watch the February 27th premiere, and offered to put a link to PTC’s petition, demanding the show be scrubbed, on its own website for viewers to sign if they hate the show.

Un-moved by this effort at detente, PTC responds this morning:

“WE tv has made us an offer in an attempt to deflect any responsibility for the content of this show. So here’s [our] counter-offer: WE tv should reimburse every PTC member for the monthly cable subscription fees it receives from our members who don’t want WE. They should make the same offer for all cable and satellite subscribers.”

In August, WE tv announced it had picked up the project to series with nine episodes. It’s based on the British reality series of same name, about couples whose relationships are on the rocks. Participants are selected based on their belief that the best way to heal a broken relationship is to have sex on a stage in a box, while millions of viewers (WE tv hopes) mull what they’re missing because, we’re sorry to report, the box is opaque and, unlike your apartment building, soundproof. Each week, a new troubled couple has sex in a box, which only sounds like an SNL skit. When finished, the two emerge, in an ecstasy of post-shag, hormone rage-y intimacy, to talk about their feelings, with celebrity experts. WE insists  Sex Box revolutionizes couples therapy by “repairing relationships and restoring communication.” To that end, it has hired comedian Danielle Stewart to provide backstage commentary in each episode.

PTC this morning continues to hold firm on its anti-sex-in-a-box policy, saying it “demonstrates just how broken the cable programming marketplace has become” and reminds viewers its petition is already up on its website, demanding the removal of WE tv from the cable network bundle.