Ashley Madison to develop TV series based on the reality of infidelity

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Ashley Madison, the online adultery service dogged by suggestions that it uses fake profiles to lure new members, wants to make a TV show about the reality of infidelity. On Tuesday, the company announced it had signed a deal with Marblemedia, a Toronto-based production company mainly known for its children's programming, and L.A.-based OutEast Entertainment to develop a scripted TV drama series based on the service and its users.

"It's an intriguing brand," said Matt Hornburg, the co-CEO and executive producer of Marblemedia. "It immediately makes you sit up in what is a very noisy TV space. You want to be attached to brands that have a huge following already, that are considered almost a household name. You want to have it be a universe of intriguing characters that are conflicted, that are complex, that have to choose between right and wrong."

The show, which does not yet have a writer attached to it, will likely revolve around a figure based on Noel Biderman, the controversial CEO and founder of Toronto-based Ashley Madison, which now claims 29-million members across 41 countries.

Biderman is an executive producer of the series.

"From a television perspective (infidelity) has gained a lot of traction," said Biderman, pointing to the success of primetime shows such as Scandal, as well as frequent revelations about politicians and celebrities caught in affairs.

"It used to be, 'If it bleeds it leads.' Now 'If it cheats it leads,'" he said. "Any story about infidelity is going to trend number one and people are going to tune into it."

Biderman said the show will use the intelligence Ashley Madison has gathered from observing the online actions of its members.

Last month, after a professor identified as the service's chief science officer appeared at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association to present information gleaned from those interactions, a writer for Time magazine charged that Ashley Madison "spied on its users."

Biderman, a frequent presence on U.S. talk shows, said the show will shatter a number of myths about monogamy and infidelity.

"This is the 50 Shades of Grey era, we're starting to have an appetite to learn more, to evolve past the Masters and Johnson era, right?" he said. "I do think this is something that will be watched by a global audience."

At the moment, the companies do not yet have a clear notion of what the show will be – its running time, length of series or where it might air.

But it has plenty of material. Biderman suggested the news reports of an ex-employee alleging she was paid to create hundreds of false profiles – allegations he denies – might even make for a good plot. "Every single day, I live another television episode," he said. "I really have been sued by the Queen of Spain. I got an 800-page document, she didn't like my statements about the King being unfaithful. It's surreal."

Marblemedia's other shows include the preschool TV series This is Daniel Cook, which aired in Canada on Treehouse, as well as the YTV series Splatalot and Japanizi: Going, Going, Gong!