Sue Johanson, the much loved host of Talk Sex with Sue Johanson which aired for six seasons on Oxygen, signed off the air tonight for her final television show. All told she has been doing a call-in TV show for 32 years, first on a local cable station in Toronto, and then nationally across Canada before airing in the U.S.

Like most Canadians I grew up listening to Sue Johanson on the radio on Sunday nights. But I had a personal Sue connection as well. My father was a sex therapist and we lived in the same city, which was small enough, but even smaller when it came to sexuality professionals. Sue, always someone who wanted to promote the good work of others, would regularly recommend a small book my father had written on premature ejaculation.

I remember the first time I went for a walk with Sue, while I was working as a researcher on her Canadian show, the Sunday Night Sex Show. Knowing what an icon she was in Canada I expected the people that were stopping her on the street to say hi and tell her how much they loved her show and how thankful they were for her work. But I didn’t expect the intensity of affection. People shouted “I love you Sue” from down the street, from moving cars, and in one case from a balcony two stories up. Once her show started airing in the U.S. American audiences quickly came to treat her with the same love and affection (they also took to calling her “SueJo”, which Canadians found endlessly amusing).

For the past nine years I’ve worked for Talk Sex as their sex toy wrangler and occasional on air sex toy expert. Going to the studio to watch the show being taped live and being behind the desk with Sue was always so much fun and watching what happens behind the scenes during a live call in show was endlessly fascinating to me. It always felt like the hour passed within a few minutes. Sue, the producers and crew of the show were incredibly warm and funny and caring, and even though I would be there once or twice a year (my regular duties involved the much less glamorous task of coordinating the delivery of boxes of sex toys and books to the production offices) they always made you feel welcome.

Since Sue isn’t retiring, I’m glad to say I don’t have to miss her just yet. But I will miss seeing her on TV and knowing that for at least one hour a week people were getting honest answers to their sexual questions without embarrassment or titillation. However much we love Sue in Canada, I think the show was much more important, and much more needed in the U.S.

As she signed off Sue said there would be a hole for her every Sunday night, and I think that hole will be felt by all of us looking for a little sexual sanity in the sea of madness we find ourselves in these days.

Learn more – Talk Sex with Sue Johnson Official Website