Lifetime lays down a sex challenge

7 DAYS OF SEX. 10 p.m. Thursday, Lifetime.

Turns out those guys on "The Client List" aren't the only ones looking to get busy on Lifetime.

Starting Thursday, couples in need of a marital tune-up will be seen challenging themselves to have sex for seven days (or nights) in a row in the aptly titled "7 Days of Sex."

As we all know by now, "reality" television is all about the challenges. Also the journeys (though the journeys here don't extend much farther than from the kitchen to the bedroom).

Eating worms on the beach? So yesterday.

Getting naked with one's own spouse? Harder, perhaps, than it sounds at first.

These seven-day challenges — some have extended them to 30 days, or even to 365 — have become popular in recent years in some churches looking to stress the joys of lifetime commitment. And there are at least a couple of how-to books out for people who need help grasping the concept.

But according to a Lifetime spokeswoman," 7 Days of Sex" is separate from all that.

Produced by Shed Media, whose roster includes "Supernanny," "Basketball Wives" and "The Real Housewives of New York City," it's pretty much a straightforward makeover show: Two dissatisfied couples a week, trying to paper over their other problems by jazzing things up in the bedroom.

One couple's dealing with the wife's exhaustion after a day with their rambunctious offspring (and her resentment that the father of those children has never gotten around to buying her a wedding ring). The other, on their second time around, find themselves with very different expectations in the bedroom, and probably just about everywhere else.

Sadly, there is no hidden-camera footage to be perused by some veddy British sex-expert with a laptop who'll then offer tips (and scoldings), à la "Supernanny" Jo Frost.

And if anyone gets voted off the island, it'll probably be the kitchen island.

So could watching "7 Days of Sex" improve your sex life?

Anything's possible. Though, honestly, it's the title that titillates, not the show itself.

Shutting off the TV might work even better.

Contact Ellen Gray at 215-854-5950 or graye@phillynews.comor follow on Twitter @elgray.Read her blog at EllenGray.tv.