The show was launched to phenomenally high ratings (a 32 share), largely on the lure of its presenter Sophie Lee's own reputation for sexiness. But the early episodes succeeded in mixing straightforward advice about common problems with some noteworthy firsts for prime-time television, especially by showing human reproductive organs, both male and female, on screen. Most notably, even though its own format comprised traditional magazine-style journalistic and "ex­ pert" segments, linked by a studio anchor in glamorous evening wear, Sex crossed one of television's most po­liced generic boundaries: characters (fiction) can have sex, while people (fact) can only talk about it. The presentation of ordinary people being sexual on screen and the screening of sexualized bodies (even if only in bizarre slow-motion "reconstruction" mode) was enough to give the show an unsettling, innovative feel and to ensure that Sex provoked widespread discussion in the press and popular magazines as well as rating highly. Not all reactions were positive; for instance, the president of General Motors Holden announced that the car company would not advertise during Sex because it wanted its products to be associated with "wholesome" topics.

     Sophie Lee became progressively disenchanted with the lack of control she had over the items she was contracted to introduce, segments that began to interpret "sex" in terms of ratings potential rather than public utility. She left the show at the end of its first season, to be replaced by Pamela Stephenson, the Australian­ born comedian best known for the 1970s British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) series Not the Nine O'clock News. Stevenson recorded her links for Sex in a studio in Los Angeles, clearly regarding it as her brief to supply the "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" element. After the departure of Lee, without anyone on or behind the screen to argue for the show's  importance in changing public attitudes to sex, the series slid from interesting experiment to unstylish exploitation and was canceled by the Nine Network after two seasons, to be replaced by safer lifestyle shows about money, home improvement, tourism, and gardening.