Stan's reality show Turned On: Dirty Sexy Money (TODSM) follows a group of Gold Coast-based adult content creators represented by one agency, each earning enough to rank among the top 1% of users on the platform. The series launched earlier this year and, despite what one critic calls "the most intriguing reality premise in years," has not made a big splash.
A cast of top earners and their conflicts
The cast includes Mia Bailey, who made A$25,000 (£13,200, US$17,500) in her first three days on OnlyFans, quit her corporate job the Monday after posting her debut video on a Friday afternoon, and now pulls in $800,000 a year. She has numberplates reading YOU WI5H and a no-expense-spared wedding to plan, but also a growing rift with her family and friendships that keep blowing up.
There are identical twins April and Amelia Maddison, who must keep their appearance as matching as possible because their income (around $3m a year for two days of work a week) dips if one gets a haircut. Ruby Drew and Chloe Mira worked in strip clubs before making the jump online. At the helm is agency founder Quinn Everly, whose doctor husband quit his job to work for her, and her sister Hayley Summers, who is frustrated she can't earn as much because she prefers solo content to having sex on camera.
Drama and a battle between creators
A blow-up at the end of the first episode changes the show's course: Mia dramatically exits the agency and starts hanging out with Annie Knight and Lily Phillips, "stunt girls" known for feats like sleeping with hundreds of men in a day on camera. The show picks up six months later, following the schism between Mia and her former agency friends, plus a season-long battle between the agency girls and the stunt girls.
The agency girls feel the stunt girls brought an avalanche of bad press to adult content creators, forcing them to face hate they didn't before. For the stunt girls, these gimmicks are purely business, attracting attention that equates to new subscribers, and it's disappointing for colleagues to say one type of sex work is OK but not another.
A non-moralising look at sex work
There is plenty of drama – drinks are thrown and friendships ended – but the show also offers an engrossing peek behind the curtain at modern sex work, from the nuts and bolts of OnlyFans success to bigger-picture ramifications. We see Mia's estrangement from her family, Annie's potential stalker and neighbours who want her off their street, and Hayley, who dreams of becoming a mother, looking for love among men who see her as a novelty first date. Hayley also describes the job as something that changed her life for the better in many ways.
TODSM doesn't moralise, and it feels revolutionary to have a reality show that so honestly allows sex workers to tell their own story. The critic would love future seasons to explore the other 99% of OnlyFans creators, who earn an average of USD$180 a month on an oversaturated platform, according to Blue Rose Talent, but the show is not yet renewed for a second season.
In just nine episodes, the cast have left the critic craving their real lives. Turned On: Dirty Sexy Money is available on Stan and Apple TV in Australia, and is not currently available to stream in the UK or US.
