Examples of Hotter and Sexier in live-action television.
- Some Game Shows are pretty guilty of this. Examples:
- Family Feud: Progressively, starting (to an extent) the Ray Combs version, but never more so than when Steve Harvey became host in 2010. Euphemisms for "penis" and "masturbate" are seen almost every day.
- Match Game: Starting with the 1973 daytime version, where "boobs" was the most frequently uttered no-no, although double-entendre — many of them euphemisms for various sex terms — were uttered nearly every day. The original NBC run was rather sedate, although it had its share of humor.
- Lingo, starting with the Bill Engvall-hosted reboot, has used almost nothing but double-entendre answers. In fact, the show is now rated TV-14 because of the dirty clues.
- The crossover show 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown features more ribald humour and uncensored profanity than the teatime staple.
- The Bee Woman from the Kamen Rider series. In her original appearance, she's just a random Monsters of the Week who is rather plain and unattractive. In Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010, she was portrayed by Nao Oikawa and given much more seductive outfit.
- Doctor Who:
- While relatively subtle, the Pertwee era as opposed to the Hartnell and Troughton eras (although the companions had been used quite frequently for fanservice right from the start). UST with mini-skirted female sidekicks is virtually omnipresent and the Doctor himself goes from being relatively asexual and eccentrically-dressed to a charming Sharp-Dressed Man with a Cool Car and a bit of a Tuxedo and Martini vibe. In the Third Doctor's first story he not only has a Shower Scene as an Establishing Character Moment but gets Liz to stab the Brigadier in the back on his behalf by flirting with her, something that's virtually impossible to imagine the First or Second Doctor doing. He also has a little Implied Love Interest plotline with his companions, subtle as it is compared to what the show would do in the 21st Century. The Tom Baker years remove the suaveness, but carry on with the UST, and add in a lot more dirty jokes than ever before. Baker, at the time, was a very prolifically sexual person, and as the Meta Casting elements of his tenure increased, the Doctor developed more of a sexuality to the point where it was normal for him to sniff Sarah Jane's hair, stroke Leela's thighs or furious masturbate a ship console as a Funny Background Event. By the 80s this was mostly gone, due to producer John Nathan-Turner's famous rule of "No hanky panky in the tardis".
- Executive Meddling enforced this on Liz's run as companion. She starts in "Spearhead from Space" in stylish but fairly prim clothes. In "Doctor Who and the Silurians" she was told she had to let her hair down and wear a miniskirt, and they'd wanted her to stay in the miniskirt even though the script involves her going potholing (Jon Pertwee thought it was as stupid as she did and intervened). By "Inferno" there's a sexy Nazi Mirror Universe Liz as well. Caroline John has implied in interviews that much of this was because the showrunners were intimidated by her real-life intelligence (however John also admits she got the audition by posting a picture of her in a bikini to the BBC).
- The Silurians. Original series Silurians? Bulky, latexy, chinless and masculine with expressionless buggish eyes and permanently open mouths. New series Silurians? Sexy Matriarchy reptilians played by beautiful women in green makeup, with the recurring Silurian character of the new series being a mysterious lesbian detective-ninja in a corset.
- Leela was promoted to a certain extent as being "for the dads" and the sexiest companion yet. She comes from a culture with mild Fetish Fuel Future elements and wears Stripperiffic leather clothing. Justified somewhat as she comes from a culture that was specifically bred to reflect the opposite of a sexually-repressed cult. At the time, it was heavily criticised as inappropriate in a children's show, but in hindsight she comes across as fairly tame.
- The original series had a few scantily clad but wholesome companions, but double entendres and sex references were still kept under a tight rein. The revival is a bit more realistic, acknowledging that people might actually find an exotic time-traveling alien sexy. Nonetheless, double entendres have been kept to a minimum, as has implications of jiggery pokey in the TARDIS (and even then, the only direct reference to the Doctor in such a scenario is made by his wife). Plus the female companions tend to wear much more clothing than their original-series counterparts (Amy's occasional kissogram costume notwithstanding). The series has also become a bit more open regarding LGBT characters, with Jack Harkness providing the revival series' only true nude scene and first man-on-man snog. This is even lampshaded in the 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor", where a past incarnation of the Doctor (who chronologically existed before the revived series) expresses shock at seeing his future self (Ten) snogging Elizabeth I.
War Doctor: Is there a lot of this in the future?
Eleventh Doctor: It does start to happen, yeah.- The Tenth Doctor and Eleventh Doctors subverted the archetype of the Doctor being an older paternal figure as only two of the eight pre-rival Doctors could be considered conventionally-attractive (the Fifth and Eighth). Not only were Ten and Eleven young and sexy, they got their fair share of female attention In-Universe, particularly the Tenth. The current fanbase had gotten so used to this type of Doctor that it caused some disappointment among the fangirls when the 55 year old Peter Capaldi was cast as the Twelfth Doctor, particularly this one
.
- Not only is Torchwood Darker and Edgier than Doctor Who, but it's also Hotter and Sexier. It was specifically created to be so in order to allow writers to tell stories set within the Whoniverse that the parent series would never be allowed to tell. As a result, while he can be referenced and characters from Torchwood and Doctor Who can and have crossed over into the parent show, the Doctor himself is banned from ever physically appearing on Torchwood.
- The second season of SeaQuest DSV replaced several of the members of the cast with characters played by younger, sexier actors. The first season starred Roy Scheider as an older, fatherly captain, with Stephanie Beacham as the "mother" to Scheider's "father" in her role as the ship's physician. Royce Applegate portrayed the ship's master-at-arms, Chief Crocker, as an old sea dog and longtime friend of the captain. Having three mature actors in the major roles was deemed part of the reason for the show's low ratings, with only Don Franklin, Stacy Haiduk and Marco Sanchez providing conventional attractiveness. Haiduk refused to go along with the producers' wish for more skin from the female cast and left the series, while John D'Aquino, at 35, was also deemed "too old". While Scheider was kept as the authority figure, the others were replaced by Rosalind Allen (who was one year older than D'Aquino but a full decade younger than Beacham), and twentysomethings Edward Kerr, Kathy Evison and Michael DeLuise. In addition, Sanchez was given more screentime and allowed to grow his hair into luxurious curls, while Jonathan Brandis, playing teenage computer whiz Lucas, went from kid sidekick to practically series lead.
- The Battlestar Galactica remake had a lot of this, but it was routinely buried by the massive piles of Darkness and Edge.
- The presiding higher-ups tried to pull out all the stops when they did this to the Knight Rider remake in 2008. It backfired badly in terms of generating a long-term fanbase.
- Trinity is basically a Hotter and Sexier version of traditional "OxBridge" set dramas.
- The TNT series Rizzoli & Isles, based on a series of books by author Tess Gerritsen, has cast the gorgeous Angie Harmon in the title role, despite the fact that in the books, Rizzoli is frequently described as either plain or average looking and with an irrational dislike for beautiful women.
- The Zorro Colombian-American telenovela, named Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa ("Zorro: The Sword and The Rose"). It's apparently based on the Isabel Allende book on the character, and sexual allusions and metaphors are NO strangers to Mrs. Allende's books.
- Also, the Chilean telenovelas based on the book Martín Rivas and the Real Life of Chilean independence hero Manuel Rodríguez Erdoíza.
- The Canadian version of So You Think You Can Dance notably pushes the envelope of how sexual dance routines can get.
- CSI: Miami to the original CSI, as the innumerable shots of bikini girls per episode will remind you.
- Star Trek: Enterprise was often promoted as a Hotter and Sexier version of Star Trek. Unfortunately the decontamination scenes, male pregnancies and endless shirtless men came off as more childish than mature.
- This reached its apex with an Archer-to-T'Pol boob-faceplant that didn't even work in context. In the second season, T'Pol goes through Pon Farr, which when Spock underwent it had him fight Kirk, but with T'Pol, naturally, she began chasing men in her underwear. As the series progressed, it toned this down somewhat but by then it was too late, and never went away entirely seeing as an episode near the very end dealt with Orion slave women.
- This is the case with many of the adapted works that air on The CW, which has a reputation for using fanservice to draw in female and gay viewers who might not otherwise be interested in sci-fi or superhero shows:
- Smallville, especially in comparison to the Silver Age Superboy comics it was loosely inspired by.
- Arrow is steamier than many of the original Green Arrow comics. Critics and fans are quick to cite Ollie's fondness for walking around without a shirt.
- Same goes for the reboot of The Tomorrow People.
- Although not an adaptation per se, you can guarantee no previous retelling of the life of Mary Queen of Scots ever generated controversy like Reign did due to a female character masturbating in the first episode (a scene even the CW ended up cutting down from the original pilot version).
- Riverdale is certainly Hotter And Sexier than the normally PG Archie Comics. In the comics everyone is either canonically celibate or it is never mentioned. The show has Archie sleeping with his teacher, Kevin having a very active gay sex life, and a ton of fanservice for both female and male characters. On top of it all, these characters are supposed to be younger than their comic versions (16 instead of 17).
- The 1991 French TV film La Vénus à Lulu takes the old urban legend about a naked man who sleep walks out of his trailer and is then abandoned in the middle of nowhere when his family drives off without realizing he's gone and reworks it to have Venus (played by the lovely Caroline Laurence), a beautiful shapely blonde woman, sleepwalk completely naked out of her car en route to a vacation spot with her husband and then falls asleep completely naked in the middle of a field in Southern France while her husband drives off without her, unaware that she's gone, and when she wakes up she spends the rest of the feature enduring the Naked People Are Funny and Naked People Trapped Outside tropes as she desperately searches for clothes while also trying to avoid the complete (yet humorous) sexual humiliation of being caught naked by others, even as she is forced to rely on a young boy for help in protecting her nudity and dignity.
- Once Upon a Time does this with some Disney characters.
- The Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs becomes rather infamous for her Navel-Deep Neckline outfits in the Enchanted Forest.
- Maleficent goes from a green-skinned fairy to a stunning blonde woman - who again shows plenty of cleavage.
- Ursula the sea witch goes from plump monster octopus woman to a slim, corseted dark-skinned blond. Even when Regina impersonates Ursula, she has a corset on to emphasise her bust line.
- Cruella de Ville in the Disney film was a skeletal thin harridan with a corpse-like face. She's portrayed more as a sexy Femme Fatale, who is also The Vamp. Interestingly enough this is closer to the original book.
- The Casablanca TV series is a mild case — it is certainly more sexually frank than The Hays Code-era original, with bedroom scenes, overt references to prostitution, and revealingly-costumed belly dancers.
- Game of Thrones: The show has more sex scenes than A Song of Ice and Fire, which has plenty of sexual content on its own. Some were only alluded to in the books, while others were created for the show. This is HBO after all.
- The term "sexposition" was given to the show's frequent habit of adding sex or nudity to existing scenes of exposition, sometimes not even the main focus of the scene, but background noise.
- Prince Viserys and Dorea's sex scene is only mentioned by Daenerys in the book. In the series, it is the first example of sexposition.
- Margaery Tyrell and Tyene Sand are specifically noted for looking pure, innocent, and virginal, whereas the show makes them prime sources of Fanservice. Margaery goes from a dubious virgin to an overt man-eater with a very Fanservice-y fashion sense..
- As a consequence of Age Lift, Sansa and Missandei get this as well. Sansa starts wearing a black dress with a plunging neckline (and before that, she was given a number of cleavage scenes or scenes of her getting dressed), and Missandei gets a nude scene. In the books they're both still just kids.
- Melisandre is considered sexy in the books, but in an off-putting way and we don't actually get much fanservice from her. In the show she's conventionally attractive and quicker to take her clothes off.
- Robb Stark's romance and marriage (to a different character, but still not a Frey girl) is not explicitly described in the books. We hear from his mother that he returns married, that they are trying to produce an heir, but we aren't privy to their relationship. The TV adaptation provided us the impulsive, steamy sex and nudity from the young couple.
- In the books, Oberyn is said to be an enthusiastic, bisexual lover, but the show makes his bisexual libido into a defining character trait, and the bulk of his scenes are in a bordello.
- Renly and Loras's homosexuality is only alluded to in the books. Its here in all its explicit glory in the series.
- Subverted weirdly enough with Catelyn and Ned. They have one sex scene in the book but again this is alluded to only in the series.
- Of all the characters who get zero sex or nude scenes in the book, Arya Stark would be chief among them, seeing as she's not really interested in romance and during the span of published books goes from nine to eleven years old. In the series, Maisie Williams as Arya goes from a cute fourteen (playing eleven) to a striking twenty-two, and had been playing Arya as a teenager for the last several seasons. So naturally the final season gives her a sex scene with Gendry (himself a young boy in the books, but a twentysomething in the series) with a flash of her rear end and sideboob, which by the standards of the series is practically chaste.
- Westworld has significantly more sex and nudity than the PG-rated movie it's based on.
- Isabelle's outfit in Pandemonium was rather conservative in City of Bones. In Shadowhunters it's much skimpier, and she even does a sexy dance to distract the demons.
- Emerald City compared to the Land of Oz books:
- Dorothy is a beautiful adult woman here. She also has sex with Lucas (a very handsome man), while he's shown shirtless and her wearing her bra while getting dressed afterward.
- The Witches in general are no longer old hags, but attractive and young-looking women. The Witch of the West specifically runs a brothel, she's introduced having sex with a man and shows attraction to women as well, mentioning she was once involved with Anna's mother.
- The Scarecrow has been replaced by Lucas, a Troubled, but Cute hunk who is introduced shirtless and has obvious sexual tension with Dorothy.
- Tip, once turned back to female, is shown as quite good-looking. Unfamiliar with female clothes as a result of being turned male as a child and brought up that way, Tip inadvertently shows deep cleavage that get him stares at first before getting advised to cover up unless he's advertising by a nearby woman.
- Victoria was promoted as a "hotter and sexier" biography of Queen Victoria, looking at her passionate nature in contrast to the usual staid and chaste biographies of the past. Ironically, although the final series does contain some somewhat frank references to sex, and there is no doubt as to what Victoria and Albert get up to in the bedroom, the series never actually takes things beyond PG. Instead, it broadsides viewers by spending the first half of its first season unexpectedly cranking the UST up to eleven between Victoria and her much-older prime minister, Lord Melbourne. (Leading to history buffs going to war over how much of this was actually Truth in Television.) There's even a scene in Season 1 where Victoria takes a bath fully clothed; while this too was truth in television, if ever a modern-day production airing post-watershed in the UK had licence to show a bit of skin, a bathing scene would have been appropriate. As of the end of Series 2 the only nudity in the series has been a quick flash of some male backsides during a skinny dipping scene.
- Charmed around the third season (due to Executive Meddling demanding "more skin"). The sisters' outfits gradually became more fashionable and figure-flattering, Piper's club allowed plenty of scenes where they were dolled up, and more sex scenes came into the plot. The fifth season took it up to eleven, featuring many a Cute Monster Girl, and many plots where the sisters would be turned into them (and thus requiring a sexy outfit). The actresses eventually protested against this, and it was toned down for the eighth season.
- The White Queen: The Starz telecast of this miniseries contains more nudity and more sex scenes than in The BBC edition.
- Inverted for Ghost Whisperer. Melinda's infamously sexy wardrobe for Season 1 had to be toned down afterwards because the clothes were too expensive.
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand is this to the Spartacus (though that was quite explicit for its time). Nudity features in nearly every episode, there are plenty of scenes featuring sexual gatherings at Roman parties, and the gladiators are notably lacking many clothes.
- Blade: The Series has more instances of female nudity than the film series it's based on, especially in the uncut version released on DVD.
- The Austin City Limits episode featuring Janelle Monáe is rated TV-MA for this reason, whereas most episodes of the program had been rated TV-PG. Perhaps Monae's sexy backup dancers had something to do with it, though the sexual nature of the songs she chose for her setlist are more obviously culpable, even if F-bombs are muted.
- This was invoked by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. The first season of the show had several episodes that were filmed in "censored" and "uncensored" versions, with the latter only showing up in international pay-per-view airings. Among the differences were scenes that were filmed to show nudity, such as Ned glimpsing Veronica bathing nude and the later Dress Hits Floor scene in "More Than Human". This was changed from the latter half of the first season once the uncensored episodes failed to gain any traction.
- Adora's relationship with men in Sharp Objects. In the book, she seems to have no interest in sex, and she and her husband Alan are not even physically affectionate with each other. In the series, they have aggressive sex after an argument (a level of passion that Adora never even bothered with), and Adora is heavily implied to be having an affair with Chief Vickery, which was also not present in the book.
- Brave New World: The series adds lots of sex scenes which weren't in the book (those were largely left vague, of course, since it was in 1932, and even so the novel received frequent bans), although it's justified in showing New London's libertinism.
- The iCarly revival is written with fans of the original in mind, and takes advantage of the fact that they're now adults to put the now-adult cast in adult situations.
- Nine Perfect Strangers: Yao and Masha have a quasi-romantic relationship in the book but it specifically doesn't involve sex. In the series, they have a sexual relationship and Yao has a polyamorous relationship with Delilah, too.
- The Wheel of Time: The first book was sex-free.
- Here, Rand and Egwene sleep together early on (albeit offscreen).
- Lan also gets into a bath naked with Moiraine, although it's not sexual (quite the opposite).
- Alanna Mosvani and her two Warders are lovers in a polyamorous relationship. This is a change from the book, where is it implied that Alanna, like most in the Green Ajah, sleeps with both her Warders, but her Warders are not even implied to be sexually interested in each other, while in the series they seem more interested in each other than in her.
- Moiraine is seen in a bathhouse with topless women around (albeit not that focused on though).
- Moiraine and Siuan have a passionate reunion confirming their relationship which has them kiss while scantily clad and then have sex offscreen. While there were various hints in the story that Moiraine and Siuan's relationship while they were in the Tower together was sexual, here it's a romantic relationship that has continued into adulthood.
- Nynaeve and Lan act on their mutual passion by kissing then have sex offscreen.
- In Season 2, Selene and Rand have a sexual relationship before he learns she is Lanfear. In The Great Hunt, she flirted with him and he was very attracted to her, but she never actually managed to seduce him.
- Andor in regards to the rest of Star Wars visual media. Though there's nothing explicit, the show has implied sex both before and after the act, whereas Star Wars has rarely shown anything beyond kissing or other light affection. Bix is implied to have sex with Timm, Vel's established as lovers with Cinta (they "share a blanket"), and Cassian's shown in a hotel room with a woman who's under the covers. There's also an establishment explicitly identified as a brothel, but given the circumstances (tense-looking hostesses having to navigate the attentions of Imperial-aligned goons, while Cassian searches for his lost sister) it's pretty grim.
- Interview with the Vampire (2022): In the source material, vampires have metaphorical sex. On the show, they have literal sex. Part of this is probably a Pragmatic Adaptation, because while metaphorical sex works in a book, it's much harder to convey on-screen. Another likely reason for the change is Sex Sells.
- Reboot (2022): In-Universe. The original Step Right Up was on network TV while the revival is on a streaming service. Reed and Bree are surprised that they get something so racy as a scene in bed now, since the network back in the day would never have allowed it.
- Taskmaster: Not that the original is shy by any means, but differing social mores between the UK and NZ mean that Taskmaster (NZ) is more overt in its humor, with incidents like Angella, Leigh, and Madeleine riffing and making explicit jokes about Angella's genitals, or Guy, David and Laura doing an educational puppet show about puberty complete with large quantities of prop spoodge and menstrual blood.
