Controversial local ‘cheating’ service is now coming to reality television

A controversial Internet dating service that some say promotes infidelity in marriage could become a reality television series in the new year.

The website AshleyMadison.com, based in North Toronto, was launched in 2002 to help people in stable relationships find extra-marital partners. California-based production company Magical Elves Inc., creators of last summer’s NBC hit Last Comic Standing, is currently shopping the idea of a television show based on the service and its members to various networks. The website’s founder Darren Morgenstern said the idea is meeting with positive response, and TV viewers could be seeing his face not only on the company’s late-night infomercials but on the show as well by fall of 2005.

The idea has been out there for about a year now, and Morgenstern said it’s taking so long because they wanted to see if the reality TV fad was here to say. They also wanted to be sure there were enough subjects that could be used in filming. The show will be based on members who want to go on the show and talk about their relationship experiences and the reasons they look for love (or sex) outside their supposed permanent relationships.

Morgenstern said there will be certain criteria that must be met for members to get on the show. Parents will not be permitted because the show doesn’t want to be perceived as breaking up families. Background checks must be performed on everyone involved and both partners must be informed that one of them will be on the air. He promised it won’t be like the show Cheaters, where people are confronted unknowingly by their partners and a smarmy show host, microphone in hand, demanding on-camera why the lover would cheat.

"No one will be sandbagged here," said Morgenstern. "This will be like a documentary where the chronology of someone’s affair will be played out, it will be real."

Since the news of the series broke, hundreds of members have been volunteering to have their stories told, with no fear of reprisals from their significant others even though policy will state that no one’s face will be shadowed or obstructed.

"They would most likely be people who knew their relationship would end and that by the time this thing aired, their relationship would have ended and they’d have found someone else," he said. "It’s a gamble for them but people know when the writing is on the wall. Divorces happen long before they hit the courts. Sometimes they use our services to help get them out of a previous relationship. People are in some ways like monkeys, they won’t let go of one branch until they grab onto another."

AshleyMadison.com has met with criticism since its debut, but Morgenstern, who chooses to be monogamous in his current relationship, said his company is doing nothing wrong. He said being unfaithful is the one societal taboo toward which most people can be swayed.

"My personal feeling is that monogamy is a big, fat, failed experiment that will never work. So everybody is susceptible and everybody can be implicated," he said. "We don’t want you to have an affair, but if you’re going to, don’t hit on a co-worker or your wife’s best friend. We say come here where it’s safe and you can explore your feelings."

Ben Becal, co-executive producer of Magical Elves, said producing the show makes sense given that fact that the agency continues to raise eyebrows because of their controversial services. AshleyMadison has been profiled on American television news reports such as Dateline NBC and ABC’s 20/20.

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