From Obsession to Fellow Travelers, are these the raciest shows of the year? We take a look at the steamy bingeable series’ which left viewers hot under the collar in 2023

Nothing gets people talking quite like a steamy sex scene – and 2023 was full of raunchy content which left British viewers hot under the collar.

Channel 4 sparked controversy when it aired a sex experiment show which resulted in a 15-person orgy.

Elsewhere, viewers branded Fellow Travelers – which saw intense chemistry between two male politicians – the ‘hottest TV series ever’.  While in Obsession, Richard Armitage left little to the imagination as he bared all for a nude scene in the Netflix series. 

Audiences were also sent into meltdown over the steamy scenes in romantic comedy Red, White & Royal Blue – which tells the enemies-to-lovers story about a British prince who falls for the US President’s son. 

But which viewing had people’s pulses racing the quickest? Here, FEMAIL reveals the raunchiest bingeable series of 2023… 

Open House: The Great Sex Experiment 

Channel 4’s controversial show, currently in its second series, sees committed couples come to a luxury retreat to test whether opening up their relationships and having sex with other people can ‘strengthen their bond’. 

However, viewers watching in May were left squirming after witnessing a no holds barred 15-person orgy – which was dubbed an ‘after party’.

House guests were seen filing into one bedroom and, before long, the situation turned steamy with participants undressing and performing sex acts with each other. 

Couples at the sex ‘retreat’, under the guidance of a psychologist, are assessed to establish how ‘ready’ they are to try an open relationship as they’re introduced to a group of singletons. 

Participants are then given a series of escalating tasks, each pushing them slightly further than the last – towards actually having sex with someone other than their partner. 

Fellow Travelers  

Fellow Travelers was branded the ‘hottest’ TV series by viewers this summer, who’ve claimed Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey’s explicit sex scenes are ‘too much to handle’.

Within the first 10 minutes of the programme, viewers witness graphic sex scenes – which eventually include Jonathan’s character Tim Laughlin sucking the foot of his secret lover, State Department worker Hawkins ‘Hawk’ Fuller (played by the White Collar’s Matt).

The series is based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon, and spans over the course of four decades. It begins in the 1950s, when Senator McCarthy and Roy Cohn declare war on ‘subversives and sexual deviants’.

In one steamy scene, the two lead characters showed off their intense chemistry as they talked politics involving Joseph McCarthy and President Roosevelt, while Tim sits in Hawk’s lap and Hawk slowly unbuttons Tim’s shirt.

Tim (played by Bridgerton’s Jonathan) then asked if he can accompany his partner to go to a party, but Hawk refused, implying that they need to keep the relationship under wraps.

‘You’re not dressed for it, you don’t have a date. This is the real world, Skippy,’ he explained in the scene. Tim responded by asking: ‘I’m your boy, right?’ before declaring: ‘And your boy wants to go to the party.’

He then moved to the floor between Hawk’s legs, who teased: ‘How much does he want to go?’

Red, White & Royal Blue 

Fans were sent into meltdown over the steamy trailer for romantic comedy Red, White & Royal Blue – which tells the enemies-to-lovers story about a British prince who falls for the US President’s son – when it came out this summer.

In the Amazon movie, fictional Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) and the First Son, Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), cause an ‘international incident’ after a public spat and are forced to pretend they’re friends to the world’s press.

But as they are drawn closer together, they soon learn they might not be so different from each other after all.

After setting the scene with tense banter before culminating into a New Year’s Eve kiss, Alex and Henry engage in some intimate bedroom scenes following some flirty texts and emails exchanges across the pond.

The shirtless prince is seen pushing the budding politician into the bedroom as he undresses him before a suggestive series of clips flashes on screen showing a racy snog and their hands entangled on bedsheets.

Obsession  

Richard Armitage left little to the imagination as he bared all for a nude scene in Netflix series Obsession this April.

The actor, 51, stars as William in the show, a surgeon who begins an affair with his son’s fiancée Anna (Charlie Murphy).

Richard goes full frontal in the erotic thriller which sees his character Will and Anna engage in an illicit affair behind his son Jay’s back.

Will gradually becomes obsessed with Anna over the course of the show, with the pair partaking in a BDSM-fueled relationship.

In one racy scene, Anna tells Will she is in full control when they are around family or in public but he can take the lead when they are alone. In another kinky scene, Will checks himself into the same hotel room Anna and his son Jay stayed in the night before and humps a pillow that smells of her. 

The Netflix thriller is a new adaptation of the erotic novel Damage, which was made into a hit 1992 film with Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche, with critics calling it the ‘sexiest thing on TV this year’.

The Idol

The Idol – made by the same creators behind Euphoria – caused quite a stir with its outrageous storylines when it came out this summer.

After a very graphic sex scene, branded ‘the worst in history’ by GQ, cast member and singer Abel Makkonen Tesfaye – known as The Weeknd – was forced to speak out on the backlash.

The show provoked an explosive controversy over its racy depiction of Lily Rose Depp’s pop star character Jocelyn, who becomes ensnared by The Weeknd’s character, a cult-leading nightclub owner called Tedros.

The Weeknd addressed the reaction, telling GQ: ‘There’s nothing sexy about it. When we use Basic Instinct as a reference, we’re using [filmmaker Paul] Verhoeven. 

‘Verhoeven is the king of ’90s satire thriller — yes, there’s moments of ‘sexy’ in his films but there are other moments that are very cheesy and hilarious.’

He continued: ‘However you’re feeling watching that scene, whether it’s discomfort, or you feel gross, or you feel embarrassed for the characters. 

‘It’s all those emotions adding up to: This guy is in way over his head, this situation is one where he is not supposed to be here.’

Sex/Life 

Despite being trashed by critics and getting cancelled just weeks after the release of season two, Netflix’s Sex/Life sure did have some steamy scenes.

Based on the novel 44 Chapters About 4 Men by BB Easton, the series revolves around a mother in the suburbs who gets caught in a love triangle with an old flame and her husband.

One highlight from the first season was a full-frontal moment that saw Adam Demos, 36, bare himself in a shower, turning him into a sensation overnight. 

In another scene, various snippets of sexual tension ensue, with characters Billie (Sarah Shahi) and Brad (Demos) giving each other sultry looks before grazing hands, kissing passionately and flinging themselves into bed.

Wet hair and shower scenes come next, with wanton hands stroking muscular pecks and multiple characters gasping up at the sky with euphoria.