Awkward truth behind sex scenes on wild new reality show Aussie Shore

Aussie Shore premiered with a bang last week, and while it’s certainly racy viewing, the reality of having sex on the show is anything but.

It’s about as sexy as a reality TV show can get, but a necessary admin evil all but thwarts the Aussie Shore cast from getting it on with people they pick up on nights out.

After the double episode premiere last week, Paramount+ has just released the third episode of the sordid new series, which sees one of the housemates bring a stranger home for the first time.

In the latest episode, viewers see Kyle hit it off with a gent named Elliot at Gilligan’s nightclub in Cairns during a cast night out, before bringing him back to the luxe oceanfront property where he and the 11 Australian housemates live during five weeks of filming.

The pair don’t actually hook up, with Kyle sending Elliot home before things heat up.

But as it turns out, any strangers entering the house must go through robust (read: mood-killing) security checks before they even set foot in the property.

Most surprisingly, for a show that’s all wild drunken antics, outsiders entering the compound have to be stone cold sober.

“It’s a long detailed process,” Aussie Shore’s executive producer Dan Sheldon tells news.com.au.

“There has to be consent checks, background checks, criminal checks, police checks, court checks and medical checks of the person coming back, because we have a duty of care, first and foremost, to the cast.

“They have to have written right consent as well, and there’s a 20 minute cooling off period. It’s very strict. Brutal.”

Kyle (right) meets Elliot out in Cairns, and the latter would’ve had to go through extreme checks to return to the Aussie Shore house. Picture: Paramount+

Sarah Thornton, Head of Popular Factual at Network 10 for Paramount ANZ, said some Shore shows (of which there are more than 15 around the world, including the UK’s Geordie Shore) don’t even allow the cast to bring outside people in, largely due to the logistical nightmare it entails.

“So what we’ve done with Aussie Shore is go, actually, there’s a way to do this where we’re all comfortable, which is to add all of these layers [of security checks],” she said.

“And we have followed what is the kind of protocol for Shores elsewhere, but we have added our own levels just to get to a point where we feel comfortable. We were told if people came back, they needed to be sober, show their passport and consent on camera, and we’ve added more on top of that, including additional security background checks.

“I guess I’d say there’s this sense of real freedom and a bubble of freedom around the cast, and then there’s a lot of people working incredibly hard on very serious things to make sure that they’re in that bubble in a way that’s really safe.”

The cast went full BDSM with their attire on Thursday’s episode. Picture: Paramount+

It’s understandable why the cast usually just end up getting with one another rather than outsourcing, with the housemates having already undergone all the necessary checks, as well as consent training.

In episode three, we see Lily and Tom enjoy a night of passion in the shag pad, and Kyle gives Manaaki a treat on the bottom bunk bed while their fellow housemate Cooper awkwardly listens from the top bunk.

Kyle and Manaaki get it on. Picture: Paramount+

Coops looks like he’s having fun. Picture: Paramount+

And while all that fun unfolded without the need for hours of on-the-spot background checks, crew working behind the scenes said they still intervene with the cast “all the time” to keep relations as respectful as possible.

“Dan will go into the green screen interviews and let them know anything that’s happened that we deem unacceptable,” Thornton said.

“So I think what we believe is that by intervening all the time on many instances, I would say there hasn’t been anything that’s hugely worrying so far on this show, but by intervening constantly and reminding people of consent, respectful language … What you do is you just keep them constantly low level aware, which I hope means that we don’t end up in a place where there’s major intervention required.

“If there is though, we will intervene and if they break house rules, then we will intervene.”

New episodes of Aussie Shore hit Paramount+ on Thursdays

Originally published as Awkward truth behind sex scenes on wild new reality show Aussie Shore