By Peter Berton

NEW YORK – Sex Box, a reality TV show featuring real couples having real sex on-set inside an opaque box, flopped in the UK despite much hype and morally outraged backlash. Nevertheless, WE tv plans to import the concept to the U.S. market. The cable network has ordered a one-hour pilot from Relativity Television, which owns the U.S. rights.

Britain’s Channel 4, known for its preference for “naughty” programming, aired the original Sex Box in October 2013 as a one-hour one-off, potentially a series pilot. Promoted as a sort of update on the sex-education theme, the show sent couples into a private, in-studio chamber to conduct their explicit trysts. Afterward, participants sat down with a panel of experts to discuss the experience before a live studio audience.

“Sex Box is an intriguing and original concept from a top production partner, and we’re very excited about its potential, which has already been clearly demonstrated overseas — where it’s a hit,” WE tv President Marc Juris said.

Really? TV critics in the UK were underwhelmed by what they called “sex TV without any sex,” especially coming from a mainstream channel that has worked hard for its bawdy reputation. The program showed no skin on-camera — not even a random nipple slip.

“I liked the idea of Sex Box,” The Guardian’s Sam Wollaston wrote, “until I realized there were no cameras inside” the box.

The Telegraph’s Ed Cumming was even harsher: “Sex Box was one of the worst TV programmes I have seen in a long time. From concept to execution, it was a combination of gimmick, prurience, exploitation and dullness. I wished that halfway through their time in the Box, one half of a couple would burst out wearing rubber dungarees and carrying half of a broken electric whisk. ‘Come quickly, Mariella [one of the ‘experts’ waiting for the après coitus discussion], there’s been an accident.’”

In a review entitled “Sex Box proves a massive turn off for viewers, as the controversial new show falls flat,” Mirror critic Claire Hodgson wrote, “Sex is everywhere nowadays, and if a programme claims to teach audiences something new, it has to work a lot harder than the limp and unsatisfying Sex Box.”

Whether WE tv will add spice to its version remains to be seen, as does how American audiences may react. One thing seems certain, however: Religious and social conservatives are likely to drag out the O word (obscenity) before the pilot even leaves the … well, box.

[SIZE=1]Image: From left, hosts Phillip Hodson, Tracey Cox, Dan Savage and Mariella Frostrup on the set of the UK’s Sex Box.[/SIZE]