In brief: The Guardian’s Katie Cunningham reviewed Stan’s Turned On: Dirty Sexy Money (Oct. 13), a nine-episode Australian reality series about Gold Coast OnlyFans creators, calling it “completely engrossing” though “not high art.”
Contains adult themes: this story covers the adult-content industry.
Reality TV has covered housewives, bachelors and people stuck on islands. An Australian series now follows top-earning OnlyFans creators, and at least one critic is hooked.
“Welcome to the world of top-earning OnlyFans creators – and my new favourite reality TV show,” wrote Katie Cunningham in the Guardian on Oct. 13, reviewing Stan’s Turned On: Dirty Sexy Money, which launched earlier this year.
The cast
The show follows Gold Coast creators represented by one agency, each earning enough to rank in the platform’s top 1%, per the review. Mia Bailey made A$25,000 in her first three days, quit her corporate job the next Monday and now pulls in about $800,000 a year (with numberplates reading “YOU WI5H”). Twins April and Amelia Maddison have to keep their looks identical because, by the review’s account, their income dips if one gets a haircut. Agency founder Quinn Everly earns so much that her doctor husband quit to work for her, “much to the chagrin of his mother.”
After a first-episode blow-up, Mia leaves the agency and starts spending time with Annie Knight and Lily Phillips, whom agency creator Hayley Summers calls “stunt girls.” The resulting feud, over whether publicity stunts have brought a wave of bad press and hate onto every creator, runs through the season.
The verdict
Cunningham calls it unmoralizing and “revolutionary” in letting sex workers tell their own story, while conceding:
I won’t claim TODSM is high art – just look at those hilariously bad opening credits
The show streams on Stan and Apple TV in Australia and isn’t currently available in the UK or US, and hasn’t been renewed, per the Guardian. Cunningham notes the other 99% of creators earn an average of US$180 a month, citing Blue Rose Talent. Lily Phillips also appeared in the BBC’s investigation into OnlyFans managers. The earnings figures are as reported in the review.
Nine episodes, matching twins, a wedding budget and a feud between agency creators and stunt creators: the formula is new, the reality-TV drama is familiar.