Channel 4 gets cold feet over sex show broadcast

Channel 4 has shelved plans to show a live interactive television event revealing the state of Britons' sex lives.

Executives pulled the transmission of Britain in Bed, which was due to be broadcast later this month as part of the channel's 20th anniversary celebrations, amid concerns over a potential glut of sexually explicit television this autumn.

The programme was billed as "the most complete audit of the nation's sexuality, relationships and sexual habits" based on a sex poll by Peter Kellner, the respected pollster and chairman of YouGov.

Mr Kellner described it as a "ground-breaking project" in the way it questioned participants on every aspect of their sex lives in an attempt to track changing bedroom habits. The show discusses "the morality, wisdom and emotional and health implications of different lifestyles".

But it appears that Channel 4 executives changed their minds about the show when ITV revealed that it had been developing a two-part sex quiz, Am I Good in Bed? which would be broadcast a week before Britain in Bed.

A Channel 4 spokesman said that Tim Gardam, director of programmes, did not believe there was too much sex on television in general. However, with the ITV programmes scheduled for 19 and 20 November, Channel 4 felt there would be too much sex on TV this autumn. "The two programmes will be very different, but they are broadly covering the same ground. So let's not have them over two consecutive weekends. Our show is good, it's comprehensive and intelligent. So we decided to save it and do it in the new year," a spokesman said.

However, industry sources speculated that Mr Gardam did not want to be a poor second and was now contemplating changes to its show.

ITV's Am I Good in Bed? is based on a women's magazine-style question and answer poll where viewers will be asked to record their answers and send them in for the second programme the following evening.

Channel 5 is also set to join the sex show melee. The channel is said to have lined up a sex tips show for early next year based on a survey byCosmopolitan magazine.