NEWS: 'Talk Sex' Guru Sue Johanson Retires Sex Toys on Sunday

From GayWired

By Tracy E. Gilchrist | 5/07/2008

After six seasons of late-night sex toy instruction, septuagenarian Talk Sex guru Sue Johanson takes her final bow Sunday with a countdown of the year’s top-10 sex toys.

“I'm going to miss playing with sex toys,” Johanson told The Associated Press about ending her run with Oxygen network’s late-night, call-in talk show.

"I'm going to miss it terribly," said Johanson, a 77-year-old sex educator.

"It's been part of my life and I just love it. I'm going to miss writing scripts. I'm going to miss having to read books.”

Talk Sex derived from a Canadian radio show that began in 1984 and offered practical advice on sex and sexually transmitted diseases.

But the twist with the Toronto-based nurse Johanson offering down and dirty sex advice, had always been her grandmotherly look.

Now in her late seventies, Johanson said she thought it was time to hang up the late-night, on-air sex toys for good, especially since 1 a.m., when the shows ended, was not her finest hour.

"I have been on television for 32 years," she said. "I think it's time. I figured if we haven't got it by now, we're not going to get it. We've got to make room for somebody else."

Oxygen's most-popular late-night show, Talk Sex’s ratings among young viewers broke records this season, the network said.

Oxygen has been good to Johanson, she said, adding that nobody pushed her to leave the show.

Throughout the show’s six seasons the network censored her just once, Johanson said, and that was for using a particular slang for penis.

But Johanson’s not retiring altogether. She’ll continue to give sex-related lectures, she said. "I'm a ham," she said. "I love a large audience."